QRP Labs QCX+ firmware
QRP Labs · QCX+ · QCX+ · HF transceiver
Latest firmware for the QRP Labs QCX+ is v1.09a (April 28, 2022).
Changelog
QCX+ firmware changelog
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v1.08v1.09a160m now uses phase-shift implementation with 25/27MHz crystal instead of 12MHz; CAT command fixed -
v1.06av1.07Added FSKCW beacon mode and startup backlight, fixed manual transmit frequency bug -
v1.05v1.06Experimental 160m band support, new Morse prosigns, backlight control, and CAT improvements with fixes. -
v1.04v1.05Adds 6m band and CAT enhancements, restores frequency counter and fixes multiple bugs. -
v1.03v1.04Improves CW display, adds CAT commands, and enhances message control -
v1.02bv1.03Adds CAT control, real-time clock, GPS Practice mode automation, and fixes spurious startup TX.
Firmware history
All versions below were published by QRP Labs on qrp-labs.com. Third-party and modified firmware is never listed.
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160m now uses phase-shift implementation with 25/27MHz crystal instead of 12MHz; CAT command fixed — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Support 160m operation on the MS5351M by a time-delay 90-degree phase shift implementation, rather than relying on use of a 12MHz crystal which does not seem to work properly on MS5351M. With firmware 1.09 and up, a 25MHz TCXO or 27MHz crystal must be used for 160m operation. Not 12MHz crystal.
- Bug fix: 1.09a implements a bug fix, CAT did not work properly (FA command) on 160m.
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- New menu item in Other menu: AGC On/Off (for use with QCX AGC module )
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- Moved backlight control to triple-click of left button (increase dbl click delay to use this)
- CAT FA; command now returns beacon frequency if beacon is active
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Added FSKCW beacon mode and startup backlight, fixed manual transmit frequency bug — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Added FSKCW beacon mode
- Removed menu 6.1 Beacon On/Off enable; instead, beacon mode menu contain one of OFF, CW, WSPR or FSKCW
- Backlight enabled at power-up including Splash screen
- Bug fix: after cancelling beacon operation, manual transmit was on the beacon not VFO frequency
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Source:
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- Bug fix: Semi-QSK mode, non-IAMBIC keying, no power output until entered and exited menu system
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Experimental 160m band support, new Morse prosigns, backlight control, and CAT improvements with fixes. — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- CAT: OM command response shortened to OMQC;
- CAT: KY command set text is now a circular buffer; if full, it returns ?;
- CAT: KY command get is KYn; where n = 0 if buffer < 75% full, 1 if buffer > 75% full, 2 if buffer empty and previous sending is complete
- CAT: Sent message via KY is immediately decoded on screen at message completion, without delay or corruption by receive signals
- CAT: TB command get, the 3rd response character is now number of remaining characters to be sent;
- CAT: QU command set now clears the unsoliticted update event flags
- Experimental modification for better output signal on 6m band
- Enable sidetone during CW beacon operation
- Removed GPS Data menu, and now Cal menus show "Waiting" while waiting for GPS lock, protect against from missed 1pps
- Sidetone volume now beeps every time it is changed while in the menu
- New menu item 7.11 controls Backlight (QCX-mini only)
- Double-click rotary encoder toggles backlight temporarily (not saved to EEPROM)
- Experimental support for 160m operation; this requires a 12MHz reference crystal for the Si5351A
- Eliminate low power "backwave" during key-up in Semi-QSK mode
- Added Morse prosigns AR, KN and SK/VA. New menu "5.7 VA" if set to ON selects VA, otherwise SK
- Bug fix: When beacon enabled, started on ref freq at power up, until you went into a sub-menu and exited
- Bug fix: CAT: Corrected bug command circular buffer that corrupted commands sometimes
- Bug fix: CAT: Increased reliability of comms by increasing wait timeout for incoming characters
- Bug fix: CAT: If the command buffer overflows, truncate the current CAT command to prevent the overflow
- Bug fix: CAT: Updating keyer speed can no longer cause occasional display corruption
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Adds 6m band and CAT enhancements, restores frequency counter and fixes multiple bugs. — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- CAT: New QM command: allows complete menu items API
- CAT: New TB command: lets you read the decoded CW via CAT (and configurable event in the QU update)
- CAT: New KY command: initiates sending CW text
- CAT: New OM command: returns radio model, always returns OM0000000000QC
- CAT: New RX command: immediately forces the radio into Receive mode
- CAT: Baud rate is now 38400 (was previously 9600)
- Message menu order of items has been changed - interval and repeats are now first, before the messages
- Menu 7.10 CAT Notify is removed. Now set only via CAT QU1; and it is not persisted in EEPROM
- When LCD interrupts CAT, it now cancels any partially received CAT command
- Add 6m band, strictly for experimental purposes
- Bug fix: CAT: numbers did not have thousands delimiter stripped if the delimiter was not configured to comma
- Bug fix: Two CAT commands issued together did not work properly e.g. FA;FB;
- Bug fix: CAT did not work properly when S-meter enabled (corrupted display and CAT text)
- Bug fix: CAT "AG" command did not work
- Bug fix: CAT commands when editing menus, corrupted the menu contents
- Bug fix: Occasional corruption of least significant frequency digits when S-meter or clock was enabled
- Bug fix: DVM and RF Power readings incorrect and never went to zero, since version 1.03
- Bug fix: When GPS lock aquired, screen blanked and top line of GPS Info screen showed VFO A
- Bug fix: Frequency counter was broken since version 1.02
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Improves CW display, adds CAT commands, and enhances message control — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Add new CAT command KS to get/set key speed
- Add new CAT command AG0 (audio gain) for compatibility with N1MM logger
- Add menu "7.10 CAT Notify", when enabled, operator change sends a CAT QU notification message
- Add menu "7.11 Delim." to let you change the thousands delimiter characters in the frequency display
- Cancel automatic message sending with a key tap, without transmitting that key tap
- Now when tuning, decoded CW display is not temporarily blanked
- Menus changed from two options, to ON/OFF, to save codespace: 3.7 CW-R, 4.6 Semi QSK, 7.5 Cursor Blink
- Display G if GPS plugged in caused the practice mode, or M if transmitting message
- Bug fix: CAT responses had a NULL character after any frequency output, which upset some software using CAT
- Bug fix: Realtime clock wasn't updated during automated message transmission
- Bug fix: On manually setting realtime clock, the display was updated showing frequency - causing confusion
- Bug fix: Connecting GPS causing automatic practice mode to be entered incorrectly refreshed screen when in menu
- Bug fix: In Split VFO mode when Clock and CW decoder enabled, left character of real time clock was deleted temporarily
- Bug fix: Decoded CW could be written to wrong parts of the display under some circumstances
- Bug fix: When editing text, "Enter Right (finished)" did not work; "Enter (finished)" did what Enter Right should do.
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Adds CAT control, real-time clock, GPS Practice mode automation, and fixes spurious startup TX. — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- CAT Control (TS-480 subset, see manual)
- Real time clock option, in bottom right of display, enabled by menu "7.8 Show clock"
- Clock will be automatically set from GPS if it is temporarily connected
- GPS plugged in, puts the radio in Practice mode AND does not key it anymore
- When GPS is plugged and removed, Practice mode is automatically switched off again
- Setting speed to 0, puts the QCX in Straight key mode
- Remove spurious short TX enable at power-up
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Source:
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- Bug fix: Sidetone problem in straight key mode (bug introduced in 1.02) 2)
- Bug fix: Sidetone volume very low when using low sidetone frequencies; sidetone volume parameter has been increased to 3 digits
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- Bug fix: did not work with all LCD modules (minor timing issue)
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Eliminates audio clicking, enables stored message sending during RIT adjustment, and supports both 25MHz and 27MHz reference crystals. — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Eliminate the faint "Woodpecker" clicking when S-meter active, tuning or CW decoder updates
- Eliminate click at start end end of sidetone audio burst (that was due to sudden change in DC bias)
- Can now operate sending stored messages while the RIT or Speed adjustment is active
- Now can handle either a 25MHz or a 27MHz reference crystal and calibrate properly in both cases
- Tune rate and RIT rate cursors can now be moved by rotary encoder push-and-turn (within 0.3s)
- Remove small click that occurred when exiting the menu system
- Bug fix: On GPS detect, which automatically sets Practice mode to protect PA. Now stops immediately
- Bug fix: S-meter was STILL disappearing, if CW decoder was switched off
- Bug fix: Battery icon was corrupted after editing any text parameter in the menu system
- Bug fix: On exit/disable beacon, can't use stored message sending features until next beacon start passed
- Bug fix: Listed tune rates in 3.4 not all available. now allows 1MHz, 100kHz, 10kHz, 1kHz, 500Hz, 100Hz or 10Hz
- Bug fix: RIT rate in menu 3.6 allows 10kHz steps which are not possible (RIT display is maximum +/- 9,999Hz)
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Source:
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- Bug fix: Decoder didn't work during menu editing and self-decoding your own transmission
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Transmission allowed during RIT/keyer adjustment, improved keyer responsiveness, added VFO copy shortcuts, and fixed bugs. — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Allow transmission while RIT adjustment is active
- Allow transmission while keyer speed adjustment is active
- Copy VFO A to B by Right button long press then Right button short press (within 1 second)
- Copy VFO B to A by Right button long press then Right button double press (within 1 second)
- Switch off DSP during transmit, improves responsiveness of keyer (DSP is not used during transmit)
- Break character -...- changed from | to = on display
- Dynamic calculation of Si5351A divisor rather than from a table based on band; enables changing band by preset freq
- Remove menu 3.9 (Band) - no longer relevant
- When in practice mode, 'P' is now displayed to the right of the frequency on the top row
- New menu 4.10 "Strght mode", choice of Both/Tip/Ring (so mono jacks can work)
- New menu 7.8 "Custom splsh", enables message 11 & 12 to be used as splash screen on power up (Factory reset is now 7.9)
- Automatic protection against GPS keying the transmit; when GPS detected, automatically enters practice mode
- WSPR encoding now re-encodes WSPR one transmit cycle sooner, in cases where the Maidenhead grid changed
- Bug fix: IAMBIC A mode keyer bug
- Bug fix: Disappearing S-meter after changing some unrelated parameters in the menu
- Bug fix: When CW decoder and S-meter both enabled, some digits of frequency display could get corrupted
- Bug fix: Tuning while keying resulted in loud tone in headphones. Tuning during key-down is now disabled
- Bug fix: Incorrect built-in bias caused CW decoder to track sending speed faster than it really was. Fix improves decoder
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Source:
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- Bug fix: Remove sudden start to keying RF envelope; it did not start at zero amplitude (problem is worse at very high keying speeds)
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Improved Si5351A error display; enhanced diagnostics, configuration precision and stability — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Display "Si5351A Error" rather than blank screen, in the event of Si5351A failure
- Toggle LCD D5 during "Band Select" as a diagnostic
- Increase I-Q balance and Phase Lo/High configuration frequencies by 1 digit (Allows 1500Hz offset alignment)
- Bug fix: Sometimes corruption in initialization of tuning and rit rate
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Source:
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- Bug fix: stored message sending now sends at current keyer speed (not stored default)
- Bug fix: WSPR tones in the second half of the transmission were potentially corrupted
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Source:
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- Bug fix: During CW message sending, the displayed frequency was the beacon frequency, not VFO
- Bug fix: CW-R mode did not work (receiving on the lower sideband rather than usual upper)
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Fixed WSPR transmission reliability, incorrect frequency display after GPS calibration, and auto-character spacing feature. — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Bug fix: auto-character spacing feature did not work properly after version 1.00b
- Bug fix: display showed VFO frequency not WSPR transmit frequency, after a GPS calibration
- Bug fix: WSPR did not transmit reliably in every slot, sometimes it did, sometimes not
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Mode B keyer improvements and fixes for loud noise, stored message, and CW decoder issues. — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- Several keyer improvements particularly to Mode B
- Bug fix: transmit decode did not work well in Straight mode (bug introduced in 1.00a)
- Bug fix: prevent horrible loud noise sometimes if you enter menu while key is pressed
- Bug fix: prevent right key very long press sometimes causing loud sidetone & low power out
- Bug fix: stored message sending always sent the first message, regardless of selection
- Bug fix: CW decoder did not work properly while editing menu items
- Bug fix: When sending a stored message, the first character could be corrupted
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Eliminates power-up and menu-exit audio thump, fixes sidetone volume problems — summary by updatemystuff.com
Source:
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- CW Offset configuration parameter now accepts an additional digit, e.g. 1500Hz for WSPR reception
- More frequent polling of paddle inputs (worst case interval is now 66us)
- Bug fix: Remove huge painful thump on power-up, and on exiting the configuration menu
- Bug fix: sidetone issue with random alternating high/low volume when sidetone volume was not 99
- Bug fix: sidetone volume trailing off over the course of a few seconds
- Bug fix: After factory reset, next time you entered the menu you were in item 7.1, rather than 1.
- Bug fix: "Save settings" did not work properly
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- First release version, for the launch of the QCX kit on 21-Aug-2017
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