Back in March 2024 I got my uSDR+ and I made this mod after seeing this video, I used jumpers to make it work because I didn't have any tape on hand but it really made the little thing better even on receiving signals I couldn't transmit until last week when I finally got my license and the thing works perfectly. I have made a couple of great contacts so far the latest one being to Slovenia from Nova Scotia Canada almost 6000km away. Thanks for this video!
Hi, glad you are having some good results with the uSDX. They have their limitations but great value for money and good fun. Thanks for the comment. 73
@@shanehogarth6373 it's definitely a value for sure, I never dreamed I'd be getting the contacts I'm getting. I got another good two nights ago to Serbia, 6500km away with 1.8 watts
Interesting to see you spotted the same lack of grounding between the case parts and used HVAC tape to provide grounding. This was one of the first issues I spotted before even turning the uSDX+ V2 on. I used copper tape on the inside face of the back panel and also removed the paint coating from the back and front panels where the crew heads mate with the panel surface. This greatly improved the conductivity between all four elements of the casing. This also vastly reduced RFI in close proximity to the uSDX+ V2 when transmitting. Note: You can get rolls of self adhesive copper tape at most garden centers and hardware shops where it is sold as protective barrier to stop slugs getting into your plant pots! Very handy stuff that I have used for years on many projects. I'm sure You will have even more fun when You get Your new Tru-SDX the performance difference between these cheap-o knock offs and the new Tru-SDX is very noticeable. :-) Have Fun. 73 de MM7WAB 'Hairy' Paul IO75sj, Scotland.
Hi Hairy Paul, well actually...I've completely changed direction and used the board from the the uSDX as a basis for a homebrew transceiver. I used the various guides on here to work out how to update the firmware using an Arduino and now am pretty happy with it. I got the tr-usdx a couple of months ago and tbh I've hardly used it and am looking to sell it. One of the next videos I need to make is a pros and cons video as both units have pros and cons. I love the vswr, power, efficiency feature on the Tr-usdx but hate the display, even more than the Chinese knock off display. I've managed to get a much larger blue LCD display to work perfectly on the Chinese radio now and it makes life so much easier. Stay tuned and in the coming days I will do a couple of updates. Thanks for watching and for the comments, good info regarding the copper tape, cheers. 73s
@@shanehogarth6373 If you're looking to sell your (tr)uSDX, I suspect you ran into the same problems I did, with DL2MAN Manuel locking down the source code so you're stuck with whatever firmware updates they offer. It's sad, because it WAS a good idea for them to evaluate radios and recommend only vendors whose radios they have approved, but they took the giant step of trying to lock down the source code, which I believe is illegal due to the amount of open source code from others is used, and which I believe will kill this radio. Sell it while you still can. I regretted my purchase the first day I had it.
Hi Jim, thanks for the comment. Not sure what's not true? Anyhow, since making this video, I've done loads more with these radios. I've since bought the trusdx and was pretty disappointed to be honest. I soon sold it on. Look at Rob Gw8rdi's code, and also in the meantime I have seen there's another version out there, can't recall his call sorry F5NPV maybe but that's from memory. I've heard really good things about. Great little radios for what they are, but just keep in mind their shortfalls. Have fun.
Thanks I have one and use it mostly for listening about. It sits on top of my Yaesu 891... If I want to go further, I turn on my FT891.... I view it as a kind of "Boy scout" transceiver. What convinced me to buy one was an American in Florida doing POTA and making 40 odd QSOs in ONE hour across the states, including.... ALASKA! Yes, it must have been a great day, but he was sitting there on a log, "wire up a tree", having a great QRP time using a wee battery and munching a sandwich! Me happy bunny !
They are a great little radio. With a little bit of imagination they can be used also as a basis for a nice base radio. I used the main board from mine as a basis for a much larger radio, larger lcd, more power, large encoder knob with bearing, spectrum scope. Everything a full bells and whistles radio offers for a fraction of the price. Take a look at my logs on qrz for proof of how well it has worked for me. Mines still work in progress but to get an idea, take a look at my other video where I document the early stage of its evolution. Thanks for the comment and good DX. Shane
I've got exactly the same model (just received it yesterday!), and I was saying to myself, "wait, the front and back panels are actually PCBs, so won't it ground through the plated through holes?" But I didn't want to spout off without being sure, so I removed the four screws, and saw that they had through-plated holes. "You see? Grounded." But then I removed the nut from the BNC jack, and saw that THAT hole wasn't through-plated. To which I said, "why would anybody plate the corner screw holes, but not the BNC jack hole?" But then I realized that whoever designed this had no idea about RF electronics, so on a hunch, I measured continuity between the holes for the corner screws. Nope. They bothered to use plated holes, but didn't put a ground plane on the board! So yeah, I think I'll be copper-taping the whole inside of the rear panel PCB.
Sorry, when I said, "whoever designed this had no idea about RF electronics", I was referring to the Chinese knock-off designer, not to Manuel and Guido, who do seem to know what they're doing.
Thank you Shane for a very good video. I fixed the grounding issue with a piece of copper wire from the bnc to the screws, and it made a big difference - no more static instability and also better (clearer) on receive. Did you install the missing R23 100 kOhm resistor yet?
Hi Erik, thanks for the comment. I tried hooking in a resistor but to be honest it didn't appear to make a lot of difference. Enjoy your radio, great for what they are and what they cost.
You could go even further, and use a piece of sandpaper to remove the powdercoat from the interior walls of the case. Great idea though with the tape! I am just getting into Ham, and would love to try HF. Im considering getting one of these as well.
Thanks for viewing and for the comment. I mainly use my mobile for these videos and that is an unfortunate consequence when using the front facing camera.
Well I've re-cased mine now, there's a video on that. But yes it made a difference, before you could hear receiver noise vary when you put your hand around the back,.and it seemed to help that. I had feedback from another amateur in the US who covered the whole of the back panel, but on the insidez and he says it helped his also.
I didn't know about them being clones of Manuels work until yesterday. I just happened to see a video of him talking about them. I'll most likely get one of these in tuis video first. I'm not a fan of the tr usdx orange 3d printed case and I can't seem to find any in a different color. I'm also curious about the bands this one is tuned to. They claim 8 band which is obviously a lie. From what I understand the tr usdx has three separate boards for different bands so I'm not sure what is going on with the clones.
Hi and thanks for the comment. Well actually I have to say they are 8 band and there's a different filter for each band. They struggle to produce much power above 15m and only make about a watt on 10 from the box, however there are ways around this. I've learnt a lot about them since this video and if you take a look at one of my later videos I demonstrate how you can up the power to the final and maintain the same spectrum purity the radio already has (which isn't groundbreaking, but adequate) just by increasing the DC supply to the final. I did buy an original Tr-usdx and it worked fine, but I wanted something I could hack and bash and these Chinese one foot the bill. For so little money they offer a great basis for a decent radio. Most people seem to prefer the "red corners", but having owned a red corner, white button and a Tr-usdx, I definitely prefer the white button model. I've worked out that you can upgrade the display easily and cheaply, the receive audio on the WB is far superior and there's a bit more room for mods. Also, you need to work out how to update the firmware, really simple and the best mod you can do imo. Check out GW8RDI on GitHub Good luck and have fun. Thanks again. 73 Shane YO2EWL - G7EWL
@@shanehogarth6373 awesome thanks for the info. That's exactly what I plan on doing. I want the tr usdx but I will also get a Chinese version to play with. I will get the WB model based on what you said. The display will definitely be upgraded first lol
@@shanehogarth6373 This is not true. The original uSDC radios have 8 bands, but the (tr)uSDX has five bands, which allowed them to make the RF board much smaller. The bands are 80, 60, 40, 30, and 20m. In his documentation, Manuel gives the component values that need to be changed in order to change this to a different combination of bands, but you still can't have more than five, and it's not clear to me how you tell the software which bands it is actually configured for.
@@BamaChad-W4CHD It's unlikely that you can find a non-approved Chinese version of the (tr)uSDR, because Manuel has been working overtime to keep from losing control of the project, so he's locked down the source code for the firmware, and you can't even get updates for it unless you have a serial number that DL2MAN (Manuel) has provided only to his approved vendors. The code that runs on the original uSDX radios (and their several Chinese variants) will not work on it. What you should be aware of, is that while he is marketing his new version as the "true" uSDX, it's actually a significantly different radio, and in my own opinion, at least some of the Chinese uSDX radios are superior to this "true" model.
Back in March 2024 I got my uSDR+ and I made this mod after seeing this video, I used jumpers to make it work because I didn't have any tape on hand but it really made the little thing better even on receiving signals I couldn't transmit until last week when I finally got my license and the thing works perfectly. I have made a couple of great contacts so far the latest one being to Slovenia from Nova Scotia Canada almost 6000km away. Thanks for this video!
Hi, glad you are having some good results with the uSDX. They have their limitations but great value for money and good fun. Thanks for the comment. 73
@@shanehogarth6373 it's definitely a value for sure, I never dreamed I'd be getting the contacts I'm getting. I got another good two nights ago to Serbia, 6500km away with 1.8 watts
Interesting to see you spotted the same lack of grounding between the case parts and used HVAC tape to provide grounding. This was one of the first issues I spotted before even turning the uSDX+ V2 on. I used copper tape on the inside face of the back panel and also removed the paint coating from the back and front panels where the crew heads mate with the panel surface. This greatly improved the conductivity between all four elements of the casing. This also vastly reduced RFI in close proximity to the uSDX+ V2 when transmitting. Note: You can get rolls of self adhesive copper tape at most garden centers and hardware shops where it is sold as protective barrier to stop slugs getting into your plant pots! Very handy stuff that I have used for years on many projects. I'm sure You will have even more fun when You get Your new Tru-SDX the performance difference between these cheap-o knock offs and the new Tru-SDX is very noticeable. :-) Have Fun. 73 de MM7WAB 'Hairy' Paul IO75sj, Scotland.
Hi Hairy Paul, well actually...I've completely changed direction and used the board from the the uSDX as a basis for a homebrew transceiver. I used the various guides on here to work out how to update the firmware using an Arduino and now am pretty happy with it. I got the tr-usdx a couple of months ago and tbh I've hardly used it and am looking to sell it. One of the next videos I need to make is a pros and cons video as both units have pros and cons. I love the vswr, power, efficiency feature on the Tr-usdx but hate the display, even more than the Chinese knock off display. I've managed to get a much larger blue LCD display to work perfectly on the Chinese radio now and it makes life so much easier. Stay tuned and in the coming days I will do a couple of updates. Thanks for watching and for the comments, good info regarding the copper tape, cheers. 73s
@@shanehogarth6373 If you're looking to sell your (tr)uSDX, I suspect you ran into the same problems I did, with DL2MAN Manuel locking down the source code so you're stuck with whatever firmware updates they offer. It's sad, because it WAS a good idea for them to evaluate radios and recommend only vendors whose radios they have approved, but they took the giant step of trying to lock down the source code, which I believe is illegal due to the amount of open source code from others is used, and which I believe will kill this radio. Sell it while you still can. I regretted my purchase the first day I had it.
Duct tape is for use where it will remain dry, duck tape is for wet locations. Chicken tape is used in scary locations.
Hi Jim, thanks for the comment. Not sure what's not true? Anyhow, since making this video, I've done loads more with these radios. I've since bought the trusdx and was pretty disappointed to be honest. I soon sold it on. Look at Rob Gw8rdi's code, and also in the meantime I have seen there's another version out there, can't recall his call sorry F5NPV maybe but that's from memory. I've heard really good things about. Great little radios for what they are, but just keep in mind their shortfalls. Have fun.
Very nice video!!! Well done good sir!!
Thanks
I have one and use it mostly for listening about.
It sits on top of my Yaesu 891...
If I want to go further, I turn on my FT891....
I view it as a kind of "Boy scout" transceiver.
What convinced me to buy one was an American in Florida doing POTA and making 40 odd QSOs in ONE hour across the states, including.... ALASKA!
Yes, it must have been a great day, but he was sitting there on a log, "wire up a tree", having a great QRP time using a wee battery and munching a sandwich!
Me happy bunny !
They are a great little radio. With a little bit of imagination they can be used also as a basis for a nice base radio. I used the main board from mine as a basis for a much larger radio, larger lcd, more power, large encoder knob with bearing, spectrum scope. Everything a full bells and whistles radio offers for a fraction of the price. Take a look at my logs on qrz for proof of how well it has worked for me. Mines still work in progress but to get an idea, take a look at my other video where I document the early stage of its evolution. Thanks for the comment and good DX. Shane
I've got exactly the same model (just received it yesterday!), and I was saying to myself, "wait, the front and back panels are actually PCBs, so won't it ground through the plated through holes?" But I didn't want to spout off without being sure, so I removed the four screws, and saw that they had through-plated holes. "You see? Grounded." But then I removed the nut from the BNC jack, and saw that THAT hole wasn't through-plated. To which I said, "why would anybody plate the corner screw holes, but not the BNC jack hole?" But then I realized that whoever designed this had no idea about RF electronics, so on a hunch, I measured continuity between the holes for the corner screws. Nope. They bothered to use plated holes, but didn't put a ground plane on the board! So yeah, I think I'll be copper-taping the whole inside of the rear panel PCB.
Sorry, when I said, "whoever designed this had no idea about RF electronics", I was referring to the Chinese knock-off designer, not to Manuel and Guido, who do seem to know what they're doing.
Thank you Shane for a very good video. I fixed the grounding issue with a piece of copper wire from the bnc to the screws, and it made a big difference - no more static instability and also better (clearer) on receive.
Did you install the missing R23 100 kOhm resistor yet?
Hi Erik, thanks for the comment. I tried hooking in a resistor but to be honest it didn't appear to make a lot of difference. Enjoy your radio, great for what they are and what they cost.
Screws are in cup . Were you put them.
You could go even further, and use a piece of sandpaper to remove the powdercoat from the interior walls of the case. Great idea though with the tape! I am just getting into Ham, and would love to try HF. Im considering getting one of these as well.
mine doesnt even have torroids inside just SMD. i really got scammed hard. its so frustrating!!!
Would be easier if your video wasn't transposed left to right!
Thanks for viewing and for the comment. I mainly use my mobile for these videos and that is an unfortunate consequence when using the front facing camera.
Прикольный дядька...)))
is There a Difference after instaling grounding
Well I've re-cased mine now, there's a video on that. But yes it made a difference, before you could hear receiver noise vary when you put your hand around the back,.and it seemed to help that. I had feedback from another amateur in the US who covered the whole of the back panel, but on the insidez and he says it helped his also.
I didn't know about them being clones of Manuels work until yesterday. I just happened to see a video of him talking about them. I'll most likely get one of these in tuis video first. I'm not a fan of the tr usdx orange 3d printed case and I can't seem to find any in a different color. I'm also curious about the bands this one is tuned to. They claim 8 band which is obviously a lie. From what I understand the tr usdx has three separate boards for different bands so I'm not sure what is going on with the clones.
Hi and thanks for the comment. Well actually I have to say they are 8 band and there's a different filter for each band. They struggle to produce much power above 15m and only make about a watt on 10 from the box, however there are ways around this. I've learnt a lot about them since this video and if you take a look at one of my later videos I demonstrate how you can up the power to the final and maintain the same spectrum purity the radio already has (which isn't groundbreaking, but adequate) just by increasing the DC supply to the final. I did buy an original Tr-usdx and it worked fine, but I wanted something I could hack and bash and these Chinese one foot the bill. For so little money they offer a great basis for a decent radio. Most people seem to prefer the "red corners", but having owned a red corner, white button and a Tr-usdx, I definitely prefer the white button model. I've worked out that you can upgrade the display easily and cheaply, the receive audio on the WB is far superior and there's a bit more room for mods. Also, you need to work out how to update the firmware, really simple and the best mod you can do imo. Check out GW8RDI on GitHub
Good luck and have fun. Thanks again. 73 Shane YO2EWL - G7EWL
@@shanehogarth6373 awesome thanks for the info. That's exactly what I plan on doing. I want the tr usdx but I will also get a Chinese version to play with. I will get the WB model based on what you said. The display will definitely be upgraded first lol
@@shanehogarth6373 This is not true. The original uSDC radios have 8 bands, but the (tr)uSDX has five bands, which allowed them to make the RF board much smaller. The bands are 80, 60, 40, 30, and 20m. In his documentation, Manuel gives the component values that need to be changed in order to change this to a different combination of bands, but you still can't have more than five, and it's not clear to me how you tell the software which bands it is actually configured for.
@@BamaChad-W4CHD It's unlikely that you can find a non-approved Chinese version of the (tr)uSDR, because Manuel has been working overtime to keep from losing control of the project, so he's locked down the source code for the firmware, and you can't even get updates for it unless you have a serial number that DL2MAN (Manuel) has provided only to his approved vendors. The code that runs on the original uSDX radios (and their several Chinese variants) will not work on it. What you should be aware of, is that while he is marketing his new version as the "true" uSDX, it's actually a significantly different radio, and in my own opinion, at least some of the Chinese uSDX radios are superior to this "true" model.
Sorry, "The original uSDX radios have 8 bands".
A friend could not find his glasses. His wife found it a few days later in the fridge.
Excellent 😂 at least they found them eventually. Joys of getting old.
Just put that resistor in.