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HobbyPCB IQ32 Operation Manual

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IQ32 SDR Transceiver
Operations Manual
Operations Manual

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  • Page 1 IQ32 SDR Transceiver IQ32 SDR Transceiver Operations Manual Operations Manual...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Basic Navigation ............................4 Mode Selection ............................5 Settings Screens ............................8 Main Settings ............................9 Advanced Settings ..........................10 Keyboard Fn Settings ........................12 Screen Fn Settings..........................22 <Tags> (PSK Macro) Settings ......................30 Bandpass Filter Settings ........................35 Frequency Manager Screen ........................
  • Page 3 Radio Setup ............................... 60 Appendix – Tags, Functions, Buttons, and Keyboard................61 Tags ............................... 61 Functions ............................... 62 Default On-Screen Button Functions ....................62 SSB Operational Screens Buttons ..................... 62 CW Operational Screens Buttons ..................... 63 PSK Operational Screens Buttons ** ....................63 Keyboard Function Keys ........................

  • Page 4: Basic Navigation

    Basic Navigation Thank you for purchasing a HobbyPCB IQ32 transceiver, connect a suitable antenna or dum- my load and a power supply. Remember, you are responsible for the radio, and you must en- sure that any emissions are on a proper frequency (one for which you are properly licensed and allowed to transmit).

  • Page 5: Mode Selection

    After a few seconds, you should see the screen shown below (Figure 4). It’s the home screen. Figure 4: Home Screen (PSK Operation) From here you can start your journey, and at each subsequent power-up, you will be returned here after the “splash screen” is briefly displayed. The software has multiple screens that are accessed by pressing the appropriate place on the touchscreen.
  • Page 6 One new button on this screen is the “Tune” button which sends out a 1 Khz carrier so you can set the power level or tune your transmitter to your antenna, when the IQ32 is connected to the HobbyPCB Hardrock-50 power amplifier Press the USB icon (Figure 7) and go to the USB Screen (Figure 8).
  • Page 7 Figure 8: USB Operation Screen For now, let's explore the Setting icon, which is visible on any of the operations screens, and also on the Setting screens themselves. Like the Mode icon, it is both a status indicator and a touch region.

  • Page 8: Settings Screens

    Settings Screens Figure 9: Setting Widget Above the Left Rotary From any operational screen, touching the Setting widget (as in Figure 9 above), will bring you into the setup and adjustments screens. The first such screen is shown in Figure 10, below. There are six buttons on the left side which go directly to settings whose values you can set with the left rotary encoder.

  • Page 9: Main Settings

    Filter: Set up bandpass filters that are automatically switched into place as you change • frequency. (The bandpass filters are not a part of the IQ32; they must be obtained separately and integrated by you into the product. This menu simply assists you in configuring the radio to the external bandpass filter system of your choice so that it can operate as automatically as possible.

  • Page 10: Advanced Settings

    Figure 11: Advanced Settings Screen Advanced Settings On the main Settings screen (top half of Figure 11, below), if you tap on the Advanced button, you will be brought to the Advanced Settings screen (bottom half of Figure 11, below). Like before, the most often-used Advanced settings each have a button, which you tap, and then you adjust its value with the left rotary encoder.
  • Page 11 In that case, power down the IQ32, power it back up again, and promptly (and simultaneously) press both of the rotary encoders inwards. This selects the same calibration screens.

  • Page 12: Keyboard Fn Settings

    Figure 12.. Figure 12: Setting → KeyboardFn Screen The standard keyboard attached to your IQ32 system has 12 “function” keys across the top row. Typically, application programs can interpret these 12 keys any way that they choose to.
  • Page 13 The IQ32 firmware is no exception to this, and like many (but certainly not all) PC application programs, you can adjust how these function keys do what they do within the program. From the Setting screen, touch the on-screen KeyboardFn button to get to the second screen shown in the lower half of Figure 12, above.
  • Page 14 <Tags> section below), then send out the abbreviation for “please” (“pse”) and three copies of the abbreviation for “OK” (“k k k”). The IQ32 is then switched to receive mode (with the <Rx> operator, see Appendix 1). Note that there is room for up to two lines of text/commands/tags on the screen, and the cursor (the ^ character) is shown below the second line of the editing buffer.
  • Page 15 Note that you can also tap on the Tags button to switch to editing of the values of the internal- ly-stored tags. This is a shortcut, so that you don't have to tap on Settings then Advanced Settings and then <Tags>. The <Tags> will be described in more detail shortly. In a similar manner, you can fine-tune the actions performed by the through keyboard...
  • Page 16 Figure 15: Function Key F3 Setting Screen As you can see in Figure 15 above, the default action of this key is to send the string “My rig is an” followed by the string programmed into the <Tag> which is named <Rig>. Keyboard function key is set up to send information about your antenna when you are in PSK31 mode.
  • Page 17 BTU” (Back To You) followed by the callsign of the station with whom you are conversing, (from the <StnCS> tag) followed by “de” (from) followed by your callsign (stored in the <MyCall> tag) followed by “kn”, after which the radio is switched to receive mode with the <Rx>...
  • Page 18 Figure 19: Function Key F7 Setting Screen Keyboard function key is programmed by default to change the IQ32 to LSB (Lower Side Band) mode, as can be seen in Figure 20 , below. Similar to the prior example, this is accom- plished by issuing the <LSB>...
  • Page 19 Function key is used to toggle between Receive Mode and Transmit Mode. This simply means that if the IQ32 is currently in Receive Mode, pressing the key on the keyboard will switch over to Transmit Mode. The next subsequent press of the key will switch back from Transmit Mode to Receive Mode.
  • Page 20 Figure 22: Function Key F10 Setting Screen Note the new command macro, <Tx/Rx>. As described in the Appendix, this macro toggles the state of the IQ32 transmitter – to ON if it is currently OFF, and to OFF if it is currently ON. Keyboard Function Key is used in PSK-31 mode to empty out the transmit buffer in prepa- ration for the user to type in a new string of text to be sent.
  • Page 21 This is OK as a placeholder while you are becoming familiar with the IQ32 settings, but you may want to delete this string, so if you accidentally bump the key during the middle of a PSK-31 QSO, that message will not be sent out to the station you are working. Anyway,...

  • Page 22: Screen Fn Settings

    Screen Fn Settings The next sub-menu of the Settings Menu screen is the Screen Fn sub-menu, which is illus- trated in Figure 25, below. Figure 25: Settings → Screen Fn (Button) Setting Screen The idea here is that on the operation screens (SSB, CW, and PSK screens), there are ten programmable on-screen buttons.
  • Page 23 Figure 26, below, shows the programming of the AGC button when in SSB mode (either USB or LSB). As seen there, the default programming of this on-screen button causes the IQ32 to cycle to the next possible AGC setting. Recall from earlier discussion (on the Settings menu) that there are four possible AGC settings: Peak AGC (mode 0), Digital AGC (mode 1), SSB AGC (mode 2), or AGC Off (mode 3).
  • Page 24 Figure 26: SSB AGC Screen Button Programming Screen Figure 27, below, shows the programming of the on-screen Tx/Rx button in SSB mode. Nor- mally, you would only use such a button on the SSB screens, and even then, it is not absolute- ly essential if you have either a keyboard or a CW key attached, because the keyboard key or the CW key could be used instead of an on-screen button.
  • Page 25 invocation by the keyboard function key. It switches the transmitter into transmit mode if currently receiving, or into receive mode if currently transmitting Figure 28, below, shows the programming of the on-screen button labeled Filter on the SSB operational screens. Figure 28: SSB Filter Screen Button Programming Screen As can be seen from Figure 28 above, the default setting of the on-screen Filter button when in one of the SSB modes is to select one of the audio filter settings that are appropriate for...
  • Page 26 Figure 29: SSB Mode Screen Button Programming Screen This screen button, by default, cycles through the available operational modes, i.e., USBLSBCWPSK-UPSK-LUSB and also clears the audio filter (in case the current audio filter is too narrow for proper operation of the next mode). Note the use of two new mac- ros (defined in the Appendix) called <NxMode>...
  • Page 27 In CW modes, the second on-screen button is programmed quite differently than in SSB modes, because it is assumed that the IQ32 will stay in receive mode most of the time and will automatically switch to transmit mode when the CW key is activated. Therefore, there is no need for an on-screen Tx/Rx button.
  • Page 28 Figure 32: CW Filter Screen Button Programming Screen Note the subtle difference from the same-named button on the SSB screens, namely that the Filter button is able to select among any of the 5 available filters, or no filter at all, instead of only the two widest filters.
  • Page 29 Figure 33: CW Mode Screen Button Programming Screen As seen in Figure 33 above, the default programming for this button is to pick the next opera- tional mode with <NxMode> and disable the audio filter with <NoFilt>. The two other screen buttons, which appear on the PSK screens, are not programmed here. Instead, they are programmed right on the PSK screen, because their values would be changed more often, with every new PSK contact.

  • Page 30: Tags> (Psk Macro) Settings

    <Tags> (PSK Macro) Settings From the Settings screen, the <Tags> setting button brings up a screen that is familiar to users of older versions of this firmware. As shown in Figure 34 below, this is where you are able to enter in strings of text (and, optionally, macro commands) that are used during PSK-31 opera- tion.
  • Page 31 your radio hardware, for example “STM-32 SDR”; and Ant = your antenna. The T6 through T12 tags are available for future uses that you can think up. There is no longer a need to tap on a Store button (and one is no longer present) to save your edited value(s) into EEPROM.
  • Page 32 Figure 36: MyCall <Tag> Programming Screen In the default firmware, your callsign is pre-programmed in as “A1BCD”, as seen above in Fig- ure 36. Once again, we presume that you will want to change this to your own callsign, particu- larly since there seems to be no one with this USA-format callsign in the United States who ac- tually holds this particular Amateur Radio callsign.
  • Page 33 In the default firmware, your rig is listed as an “STM-32 SDR”, as can be seen above in Figure 38. You can change this to IQ32. If you do make such a change, and you are a perfectionist, you will want to change the definition of the keyboard key from “My rig is an”...
  • Page 34 Figure 40, we are only bothering to show the editing of T6 above, in Figure 40. But we feel sure that you get the proper idea. After all, you were smart enough to purchase an IQ32 Software-Defined Radio, weren't you?

  • Page 35: Bandpass Filter Settings

    Bandpass Filter Settings These settings are a hold-over from the original STM-32 SDR project and have no impact on the IQ32. Figure 41: Settings | Filters Screen...
  • Page 36 Frequency Tuning The Frequency icon, like the Settings icon or Mode icon, is a touch area on the screen and a status indicator. The top line contains the title “Frequency”. The middle contains the named frequency when an operation screen (CW, SSB, PSK-31) is active (see Figure 42 below, to be explained further a bit later in this document), or a blank white bar on the Settings screen for the bandpass filters (as previously shown in Figure 41, above).

  • Page 37: Frequency Manager Screen

    Figure 44: Minimum Tuning Step of 1 Hz This tuning step adjustment allows you to tune between 2000.000 KHz (2 MHz) and 500.000000 MHz. This, of course, is limited to 3.5 to 30 MHz in the IQ32 Figure 45: Maximum Tuning Step of 100 Khz (0.1 MHz)
  • Page 38 Figure 47: Frequency Manager Screen From the Frequency Manager screen (Figure 47, above) you can tap on one of the top 15 but- tons to go directly to that mode and frequency of operation, or you can tap on the Edit button in the bottom left corner.
  • Page 39 Figure 49: Editing the 20m PSK Button Note that there is now a line of information in white text between the 15 preset buttons and the Edit button / Mode button / Frequency Widget. This line has two fields, one for the Label (what text is placed on the button, default is shown as 20m PSK) and the other for the Mode (mode of operation, default shows as LSB).
  • Page 40 Figure 50: Editing Within the Label of the 20m PSK Button Just for fun, try pressing the keyboard key. This will yield a screen like DOWN ARROW () Figure 51, below. Figure 51: Editing a Different Button What happened? Moving the cursor down picked the next on-screen button for editing. We switched to the editing of the 40m PSK button instead of the 20m PSK button.

  • Page 41: Receive Filter Settings

    SSB to CW or to PSK, or vice versa. Happily, this is no longer true! When you return to the operational screen your changes are automatically stored in the EEPROM so they will also be set the next time you turn on your IQ32. Receive Filter Settings Another recent and long-awaited feature of this firmware release is the addition of control over the received bandwidth filtering.

  • Page 42: Cw Operation

    CW Operation Figure 52: CW Operation Screen The CW operation screen contains all of the controls and indicators that are required for CW operation. The Mode icon / widget is shown in the upper left (CW), along with the State (RX). The Setting icon / widget is displayed on the lower left.
  • Page 43 DX station. You listen on the frequency where the DX station is transmitting, but they listen on a different, announced frequency, such as 1 KHz higher in the band. Let's see how this is done with the IQ32. From the basic CW operational screen (Figure 52, above), tap on the on-screen Split button.
  • Page 44 Figure 54: CW Split Operation – Transmit Frequency Screen After you tap on SetTx, the screen will change to look like Figure 56, below, with both the re- ceive frequency and the transmit frequency displayed in large bright green digits. Figure 55: CW Split Operation Screen This screen (Figure 55, above) shows the operation of CW in split-frequency mode.
  • Page 45 The large box on the upper right of the screen (Figures 52 through 55) is the FFT window. This is the most interesting part of the display and one feature that makes this product unique. The FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) analysis can be displayed in one of two different formats. The previous figures showed the FFT operating in Spectrum Mode.
  • Page 46 Hitting the WF/Sp on-screen button toggles between the two perspectives. Tune to the desired frequency using the right hand rotary encoder and the frequency manager. You will also notice on the display there is an S meter, both numerically and with a bar graph. (Figure 58) Select AGC mode 0 for an accurate S Meter reading in CW.

  • Page 47: Ssb Operation

    SSB Operation Figure 59: SSB Operation Screen The SSB operation screen contains all of the controls and indicators that are required for SSB (either Upper Sideband – USB, or Lower Sideband – LSB) operation. The Mode is shown in the upper left (USB) along with the State (RX). The Setting is displayed in the lower left corner.
  • Page 48 The Filter button allows selection of the audio bandpass filter, as previously discussed.. The Mode button allows you to quickly change to a different operational mode (CW, CWR, LSB, USB, PSK-L, PSK-U). A microphone is plugged into the pink 3.5mm jack, and a set of headphones is plugged into the green 3.5mm jack.
  • Page 49 pressing the keyboard key, or releasing the PTT after speaking returns the radio to the RX state. You will also notice on the display that there is an S meter, both numerically and with a bar graph. The display (Figure 59) shows the AGC mode selected (Peak is shown here, but a set- ting of SSB is best for LSB/USB).

  • Page 50: Psk Operation

    PSK Operation Figure 60: PSK Startup Screen The PSK operation screen contains all of the controls and indicators that are required for PSK operation. Of course, an external keyboard must also be plugged into the appropriate connect- or, in order to allow PSK transmit operation. The Mode is shown in the upper left (PSK-U) along with the State (RX) The Setting icon is displayed in the lower left corner.
  • Page 51 Figure 61, below, shows the entry of a callsign, VE4MA, using the on-screen CS button. Re- member, this is the callsign of the station you are working, not your own callsign. Figure 61: PSK CS (callsign) Editing Screen Pressing the NM button allows you to enter the name of the station you are working. In this ex- Figure 62: PSK NM (name) Editing Screen ample, we are working Barry, VE4MA, as shown in Figure 62, below.
  • Page 52 The next on-screen button to take note of on the PSK operational screen is the Tune button. This is a toggle, and it shows the current tuning state right on the button. Touch the button, so it changes from Tune ^ in the previous figures, to say Tune v instead. which means that the right-hand rotary encoder is set to tune the main VFO.
  • Page 53 Figure 64: PSK - NCO Tuned Down to 945 Hz When we covered the CW operational screen, we were already introduced to the WF/Sp and Mode buttons. If you tap the WF/Sp button now, the screen will change from what is shown in Figure 64, above, to something like what is shown in Figure 65, below.
  • Page 54 Figure 65: PSK – FFT Switched to Spectrum Display Since we already spent a fair bit of space talking about the keyboard functions for PSK opera- tion, let's see them in action now. Take these examples with a grain of salt, because the QSO is contrived.
  • Page 55 send out a CQ and your callsign, and then turn off the transmitter. This can be seen in Figure 66 above. The picture was snapped right after the transmitter was turned off, hence it shows the system is back in receive (Rx) mode. Let's assume that Barry replies to your call.
  • Page 56 Figure 68: PSK – Continuing a QSO You can then press the keyboard key to listen for Barry's reply to you. You might then counter his reply by pressing the keyboard key again to start transmitting, and then press- ing keyboard to send a BTU (Back To You) message in which you confirm to Barry that you copied his callsign and name correctly.
  • Page 57 Finally, when you are ready to terminate the QSO, you can press the keyboard key to turn on the transmitter, press the keyboard key to send a thank you and your good wishes, and press the keyboard key one last time to turn off the transmitter. The resultant screen will resemble Figure 70, below.

  • Page 58: Agc Modes Explained

    AGC Modes Explained For those people interested in how our AGC (Automatic Gain Control) modes work, here is an explanation from Charley W5BAA, who is the author of our AGC and many other portions of our firmware. The AGC control scheme controls two amplifiers in our CODEC (Coder/Decoder). One is the PGA (Programmable Gain Amplifier), and the second is the DAC (Digital to Analog converter).

  • Page 59: Psk Cheat Sheet

    PSK Cheat Sheet F1: Call CQ F2: Send Your Name and QTH F3: Send your Rig information F4: Send your Antenna information F5: Confirm Called Station Name and Callsign, and send Back to You (BTU) F6: Send Thank You and Best Wishes (73's) F7: (Changes to USB mode) F8: (Changes to LSB mode) F9: (Changes to CW mode)

  • Page 60: Radio Setup

    Radio Setup Perform Rx Amp and Rx Phase balancing to maximize opposite sideband suppression. The quick overview of this is as follows: Provide a strong signal to the receiver. Switch to the oppo- site sideband and adjust Rx Amp and Rx Phase to minimize the rejected sideband. The Rx Amp and Rx Phase controls do interact somewhat, so several adjustments will be required.

  • Page 61: Appendix - Tags, Functions, Buttons, And Keyboard

    • <myCall> your Amateur Radio callsign • <QTH> your operating location (city, state/province, grid square, etc.) • <Rig> description of your rig, e.g., IQ32 • <Ant> description of your antenna, e.g., Dipole • <T6> unused, empty string • <T7>...

  • Page 62: Functions

    Functions Functions are actions that occur when invoked by an on-screen button or a keyboard function key. You have no control over their names or their actions, except by changing the source code of the firmware and re-compiling it. You either use them or don't. The built-in functions that are available for you to call are as follows: <NoFilt>...

  • Page 63: Cw Operational Screens Buttons

    Keyboard Function Keys There are 12 function keys on the top row of a standard keyboard, and you can configure how the IQ32 firmware reacts when these keys are pressed. By default, keys through are devoted to simplifying PSK31 QSO's, keys...

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