First Powered TouCans QSO and Other Updates

Powered TouCans made its first QSO today. The operator on the other end was K8IIJ north of San Diego, CA. Rather fittingly it was a QRP to QRP QSO!

KO6BTY had the idea to power the Raspberry Pi Pico-W from the same Imuto battery bank as well. We'd abandoned this idea early on in the prototype stages of the keyer because RFI on the battery return line from the rig would flumox things about 7 characters into a CQ call. I thought we might have better luck now that the battery line's only six inches long. We had different luck. In this incarnation, the Pico is unable to make WiFi connections when powered by the brick, so back to the 2 AAs we went.

In other news, the rig survived its first unintentional drop test this morning! The cranky antenna connector acted up again. This time, the bolt simply stripped away from the threads dropping the rig ten feet to the ground. The Bluetooth audio transmitter popped its stereo cable on both ends, but that was the extent of the damage! The rig's pretty solid still!

Steps for the rig powered Pico Test

the VSys line from the Pico and tape it.
Plug the Pico into the rigs battery using the ferrite beaded Micro-B USB cable
Turn on Bluetooth audio
Turn on wireless headphones
Plug in rig to battery
Fly the rig
Operate

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Copasetic Flow

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