DZKIT Sienna at 70 WPM

[Chuck Broadwell, W5UXH]

A few years ago I built a Sienna for K6KX (Fred), a long story that I will not go into.

The past few days Fred has been testing it on our sked.  Tonight I did a recording that can be downloaded from this link:  Sienna @ 70 wpm  I tested the link on another computer and think it will work and allow anyone to download.  The file is about 30 MByte.

If anyone is interested in hearing some portion, if you use a program like Audacity where you can see and select any segment of interest, you will see the steady low amplitude sections that are my K3 sidetone and the stronger QSB affected sections that are Fred like this:

I think Fred was at 70 wpm throughout.  I was probably at 65 wpm initially and 70 wpm later.

The rig actually sounds quite good to my ears and the QSK is plenty fast enough.

Chuck, W5UXH

[Chuck aa0hw]

Here is an online version of this QRQcw HF QSO:

[Joe]

It sounds good to me as well. Doesn't the Senna use a separate transmitter and receiver rather than a typical transceiver design? I would guess separating the receiver from the transmitter would make for better QSK with less shared circuitry to switch back and forth.

Joe W3GW

[Chuck Broadwell, W5UXH]

Sort of....  My recollection from, what is it, 4 years ago now, is that it has a separate "vfo" (DDS I suppose) for TX and RX so the frequency does not need to be shifted back and forth.

I had very little hope for the rig when I finished construction and testing and sent it to DZ for Brian to make improvements.  He kept it for close to a year I think before Fred finally received it.  So neither of us was inclined for Fred to really give it a workout.  So after a brief qso with it a few years ago it has been on the shelf.

Recently his Omni-VII developed an intermittent problem and he finally shipped it to TN.  He tried his Omni-VI first but we had problems with keying quality so he finally bit the bullet and hooked up the Sienna.

It is a bit strange to operate, but at least he is finding it to work well for QRQ / QSK so this is a good thing (that his money and my time were not a complete waste after all).  It will be interesting when the Omni-VII returns from it's vacation in TN to see if Fred continues using the Sienna or immediately puts it back on  the shelf.

For me, after having the seamless integration of the K3-KPA500-KAT500 I am way too spoiled to use anything else :)

[Petr Ourednik]

It sounds good to me as well. No artifacts hearable. Anybody else using Sienna?

[Chuck Broadwell, W5UXH]

When Fred's Omni-VII returned from the factory, he went back to using it.  I am not aware of any CW ops using the Sienna.

[Joe]

Chuck

Do you know how many Sienna's were made? Maybe Fred would like to sell his?

Joe W3GW

[Chuck Broadwell, W5UXH]

I have no idea how many people have built one.  You could always check with Fred, but he paid an awful lot for it!  I spent a year or more building it, and it was interesting, but I would not want one.