Anyone using the Q5 Multi-Band Transverter?

Don Achelpohl

Thanks Tim (VE6SH) for the message. Been up to other projects so haven't been checking back here recently. I believe I am ready to go when my 5BVUX ships. Have 50 feet of BNC connector, high quality cable that I can use to sit on my patio with my Arrow antenna and my laptop to see if I can hear some of the satellites. Also plan to see if I can hit some of the repeaters in the area with the Arrow. Hope to order some aluminum stock to build some Yagi antennas - look like there are some excellent articles at ARRL and on the net. Should be a fun and exciting summer! Sounds like you found the SBVUX easy to set up - hope a newbie can figure it out too.

Don AC0UH

Don Achelpohl

Tim,

Haven't heard anything yet on my shipping date. Will be following your experience with the cable as you continue your project.

Don AC0UH

Tim VE6SH

Don

Still waiting on the cable to arrive. I also ordered a Leo Bodnar external GPS reference for the 6700. Hopefully will all arrive this week

73

Tim VE6SH

Tim VE6SH

Don

The 5BVUX is up and running with my 6700. Presently I am running 144 from the 6700 to an older DEML LDPA. The tranverter signal runs from the bypass port of the DEML to the 5BVUX (I switch off the LDPA when using the Q5). The USB cable works very well and I have automatic band switching for 222-1296. The only band I have not tested on is 902 as I am waiting on an antenna from Directive Systems.

I ended up purchasing a Leo Bodnar two port GPS unit and have that connected to both the 6700 and 5BVUX. That really made a big difference in correcting the frequency on 144.

73

Tim VE6SH

Bill AB7AA

The 5BVUX with the 6700 would have more return on the investment if the Flex were to offer the digital voice modes and DCS squelch codes. The DIPS diplexer accessory should offer full duplex between the 5BVUX and the 144 band.

Bill AB7AA

HB2U

I am wondering how loud are the cooling fans on the 5BVUX :
A) when in operation full power?
B) when driving low power a PA?
if installed near the TX can be a bit of disturbance no?
TKS, 73
Jack HB9EYP

Jim_K0QEI

i am also interested in hearing about the fans, this has been on my radar for a bit, i run a log periodic antenna so having 222 would be a nice treat, but im also looking at the high power one that has a full 50w output (20w on 1296) as i dont want to have to run an external amp. i was looking threw the manual for the XVTR and i did not see LO frequency listed for the bands, am i to assume the LO is the bottom edge of each band?

KD0RC

Hi Jim, the LO for each band is the low end of the band minus 28, since it uses a 28 MHz IF. So, for example, on 2 meters, the LO is 116 MHz.

Jim_K0QEI

Len thank you very much sir i appreciate the help. i am new to transverters, so with any transverter its lowest frequency in the band - the IF its using?

Neil D Friedman N3DF

If you have never used a transverter before, you might want to fool around with a $100 Ukrainian 2 meter transverter before investing in a $2K Q5 5-band model.

KD0RC

Hi Jim, generally, yes. You need to read up on the transverter that you are interested in to be sure that it does not use some other scheme. In general, they tune the same direction as the host transceiver so the low end of the tuning range is the low end of the IF. So on 2 meters, 28 MHz is where you will find 144 MHz and 32 MHz is where you will find 148 MHz. The Flex translates all of this so that when you run the radio using a transverter, the display shows the operating frequency, not the IF or LO freqs.

If you set up a transverter using the XVTR tab of the Radio Setup panel, you can experiment to see how it works. Set up one like I show below. Go to Band, select XVTR, then select 144. Now add a panadapter and set the freq to 28 MHz. Zoom out the 28 MHz panadapter to show 20 - 32 MHz. Make sure that the slice showing 144 MHz is set to TX, and click the TUNE button. You should see your sig at 144 MHz as well as at 28 MHz. Tune around on the 2 meter band, and you will see the 28 MHz IF track right along. You can do this little exercise with no transverter connected. Just have the RX and TX for both slices on the same XVTR.

Now set the 28 MHz slice to TX and click the tune button. You will see the corresponding 2 meter frequency pop up up in the other panadapter. Play with this a bit to get a feel for what is happening in the radio.

Note that you can go out of band, so when you have a real transverter connected, be careful where you transmit!

When you set up the transverter in the Flex, they make it really easy - just enter the IF Freq (28 MHz in this case) and the desired transverter frequency in the RF Freq (144 MHz in this case) and SmartSDR calculates the LO Freq (116 MHz). With this handy setup, you don't care so much about the LO freq as you do about the operating and IF freqs. When you buy a transverter, watch for these parameters. Also pay attention to the drive requirements for the transverter. Some require 1 - 10 watts so that they can be used with old-school transceivers.

The Flex 6000 radios can produce -10 to +10 dBm (.1 to 10 milliwatts), so order your transverter with these numbers in mind. The Ukrainian units mentioned by Neil have the option of an attenuator to bring the 1 to 10 watts down to the milliwatt level. With a Flex, you don't need (or want that).

Neil makes a really good point - for your first transverter, it might not be a bad idea to fool around with a cheap one so that you better understand what you want and how to set it up when you order the big expensive one.

Ted VE3TRQ

One other comment: Some 144 MHz transverters driven by 28 MHz do not natively cover the full 144 - 148 MHz 2m range. As an example, the Elecraft transverter needs to be told whether the incoming 28 MHz is in the lower (144 - 146) or the upper (146-148) half of the 2m band. The Elecraft K3 manages this by sending commands to the transverter. This is necessary for those transceivers which cover only 28 MHz - 30 MHz.

We are fortunate that the Flex transverter outputs have no out-of-band limitations. Also, watch out for transverters that just don't cover the whole band they are designed for (filtering prevents covering the whole band, cutting off either the bottom or the top).

andrewket

> @"Tim VE6SH" said:
> Don
> The 5BVUX is up and running with my 6700. Presently I am running 144 from the 6700 to an older DEML LDPA. The tranverter signal runs from the bypass port of the DEML to the 5BVUX (I switch off the LDPA when using the Q5). The USB cable works very well and I have automatic band switching for 222-1296. The only band I have not tested on is 902 as I am waiting on an antenna from Directive Systems.
> I ended up purchasing a Leo Bodnar two port GPS unit and have that connected to both the 6700 and 5BVUX. That really made a big difference in correcting the frequency on 144.
> 73
> Tim VE6SH

Did you end up needing to request a custom BCD bitmap? I'm using a 6600 and the Q5 is selecting the wrong bands.

On 2m the q5 is switching to 432
On 1.25m the q5 isn't switching
On 70cm the q5 is switching to 222

Thanks,
Andrew N9KET

Mike-VA3MW

The BCD mapping does work if you have it configured correctly.

If you share your screen shots of your configuration, we can help you diagnose the band switching.

andrewket

I figured it out. I had it set to bcd and not bcd_vbcd. It works perfectly now.

Mark Adams

I have a new Q5 5VBUX for my rover. Could someone send me a screenshot of your USB Bit Cable setup?

The first confusing thing is that there is a Pin 0 as the first entry in the table.

Also, I noticed that 3.3.29 now provides band info on the USB port. Does that help me at all?

73,

Mark K2QO

Mark Adams

Hi Gang,

I just ran a 5BVUX in my rover station last weekend during the June VHF. The Q5 USB cable was connected to my 6500. Mine is setup split IF and 1mW drive. My previous rover setups used the K3/P3, built in 2M, XV222 and XV432 units. You can check out my results with that Elecraft setup as I had ten #1 US/CAN Limited Rover wins over the past 12 years in the September VHF.

So, what will I be running going forward? Flex and Q5. The setup is so simple and ran so well, going back would not be possible. The K3 will drive 2.4, 3.4, 5.7 and 10GHz for the next contest unless I decide to sell it and do that job with an IC705.

73,

Mark K2QO/r (NF2RS/r in September)