[hpsdr] a busy weekend...

[George Byrkit]

So I finally got some time this weekend to play catch-up from Dayton.

First, right after Dayton, I was quite tired from staffing the TAPR booth for 2.5 days!
Then I did some KISS Konsole upgrade work, as Phil was coming out with new firmware.
That's when I realized that the Pandora box with Metis/Mercury/Penelope/Excalibur/LPU that
I took (Hercules inside, but not finished wired up) for display wasn't working any more!

I looked at it a bit last weekend and had decided that likely Mercury was causing some
problems.  This weekend, with the help of Phil VK6APH and Dave KV0S (and their incredible
patience with a frustrated Ham -- me), I was able to get quite a bit further.  First, I
realized that only D3 and not also D9 and D10 were lit on Mercury.  I remembered something
about the 122.88mhz oscillator sometimes having a cracked solder joint...

So out came the soldering iron and the trusty lead/tin solder (I don't do that fancy
non-lead stuff; I must hate the environment and children...).  A short while later and
Mercury had its lights flashing.  But neither KISS nor PowerSDR would work...  I unplugged
Penelope and things sprang to life.

It's harder to fix and trouble-shoot when you are hit with a double-whammy!  Two problems
are always harder.   But at least RX is back...  And the boards all have the latest
firmware, and I can see that KISS will work with the latest firmware.  I think it's likely
I may need a PennyLane to replace Penelope, however.  I tried re-soldering the oscillators
on Penny and that didn't improve anything, unfortunately.

Any ideas are welcome, however, and I'll try what I can in the evenings when I'm not
working!

And I hacked up the end plates on a Hammond enclosure, and now have my TAPR Hermes board
mounted in an enclosure!  I did the hole layout 'by eye', and it turned out much better
than I had hoped.  It's much easier when there's no amp in there!

Once I get a PennyLane in from TAPR (they still have a number of them), or get my Penelope
fixed, I'll be able to verify that KISS Konsole is working with the latest firmware, and
will then upload some new installers, and commit the code changes to SVN.

73,
George Byrkit, K9TRV