2.6.9

[W1JA]

If QSK is turned on Tx power goes to whichever RX antenna is selected 1,2, or 3 even with Ant 1 checked as TX and check boxes
under ANT 2 and 3 for do not transmit on those antennas.

Tom, I confirm this behavior on my 200D (rev 24 RF board). It occurs, as you say, only with QSK on. Full transmit power goes to the receive antenna selected (Setup > General > Ant/Filters > Antenna), This occurs even though
- the DO Not TX checkboxes are checked for Ant 2 or Ant 3.
- The Transmit antenna is selected to be Ant 1

I'm using Thetis b5_1, but I suspect this issue is not related to the beta experiments we're working on in this thread, but is related to the QSK function that was added to Thetis a while ago. The TX and RX antenna functionality appears to work correctly with QSK off.

I do not yet use a separate receive antenna. For anyone who does, this is a very serious issue.

73, John

[w-u-2-o]

Chris, W2PA, was the developer of the QSK improvements for the Orion and Orion MKII boards (which work fabulously well, BTW).

Perhaps he will chime in on this issue.

[W2PA]

I haven't looked at the code yet but here is some conjecture.

QSK works so well because when you key the radio in QSK mode, Thetis' involvement is minimized and round-tripping is eliminated. That's not to say Thetis can't be involved. CWX works just as well.

And since these antenna connection choices seem to make direct changes in the configuration of the radio (you can hear relays click when you make changes), I don't immediately see why this should be a problem stemming from the keying arrangement between SW and FW.

So apologies - I don't yet have the answer. Will have to carve out some time to look at it and discuss with Rick. Perhaps Richie will see something as he examines the Thetis code, too. Hopefully it's an easy fix not involving firmware.

[w-u-2-o]

Thank you Chris!!!

[ramdor]

Cheers Chris. I haven't found the time to look today, and radio is currently not booting so will need to head up remote shack tomorrow to sort it out. I ran some tests on pre7 today, and the pre4 to pre7 update worked ok, but not pre7 down to back to pre4. Will probably have to get laptop directly connected and put on P2pre4.

As a stab in the dark without looking in the code I am wondering if the antenna/alex/filter select code is being run at all. I do see antenna debug info being shown when mox is pressed, but as I am not a cw'er I don't have much to go on. Also, my radio is remote so I don't get to hear what is going on either.

Richie.

[n1gp]

Hi Guys,

I've gotta head out very shortly but I wanted to help out with this QSK xmitting on
non-selected antenna outputs.

With just a few short tests I have not been able to replicate the issue pn my 200D. WIll test more later.

But I put together a test FW image for the 200D P2 that puts the Alex control signals:
ANT1, ANT2,ANT3,PTT on debug leds LED1,LED2,LED3,LED4

You can find those in thetis on the setup FW tab. For me I could seee that if I select ANT1, LED1 is lit
ANT2, LED1 OFF and LED2 ON, ...

While XMITTING LED4 will light. You should not see ANT2 or ANT3 light while sending QSK CW if
you have only ANT1 selected.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h5l0r12x5b32ih5/Orion_NP_v1.8_qskdbg1.rbf?dl=0

-Rick / N1GP

[W1JA]

Hello Rick!

I have tested the v1.8_qskdbg1.rbf firmware. The problem persists, same as before.

Also, the LEDs indicate the problem. For example, if I select RX antenna 3 with Do Not Transmit checked for ant 3 and TX set to ant 1, transmit RF comes out the ant 3 port and LED 3 lights and stays lit during transmit (and LED 4 lights too, of course.)

QSK must be on for the issue to be present.

73, John

P.S. With this test firmware I have rx spurs across all bands. Spaced about 1.6 kHz apart, everywhere. Dummy load connected so they are internally generated. I will return to 1.8 pre2 and hope they go away.

[W1JA]

I returned to 1.8 pre2 firmware and the RX spurs are gone. (There's no smiley for "whew!")

[W1AEX]

John and Rick,

I noted the same RX spurs with my 200D using the test firmware. Unfortunately, I got the dinner call at that point so I went back to the original 1.8 firmware when I saw the RX issue and did not do any of the ANT port testing.

73, Rob W1AEX

[n1gp]

Hey Guys,

Back from getting in some Christmas cheer, (best to all of you folks BTW)!

So John now that I actually tried it the way you guys are seeing it, RX set to ANT3
but TX is still on ANT1 (NO TX on both 2 & 3). I see that full power is sent to ANT3
when sending QSK CW. But if I instead just hit TUNE it goes out ANT1.

It seems that it is being told by Thetis to send the RF out ANT3 when sending QSK CW.
Those LEDs are being lit by the control signals recv'd from Thetis.

When I get a chance I'll try and do a Wireshark capture to see if that's the case.

As for the RF spurs, I built that FW with the last timings (.sdc) that I was playing with and
not the official v1.8 I put up on the TAPR GIT site.

It would be interesting to note if you guys are using something othe than that v1.8 from TAPR.

-Rick / N1GP

[n1gp]

BTW I just noticed you both said v1.8_pre2. Got it

[W1AEX]

Hi Rick and Merry Christmas to you!

Yeah, I am using the 1.8 release at TAPR. Not sure if that is pre2 or not but it's the best I have seen so far.

73, Rob W1AEX

[NL7F]

That fixed it. Thanks.

[nico]

Hi Richie

Thank you so much for all your hard work with making Thetis such a great experience to use now. Not sure if you take any feature requests but it would be great to have the 28band transmit EQ that is currently available in PowerSDR 2.8.0.131 - see attached screen shot. Not sure how easy it would be to port the code from that version

Many thanks

Nicholas

28Bandeq.JPG (198.64 KiB) Viewed 6200 times

[w-u-2-o]

Nicholas,

Because the pre-EQ (main EQ), CFC multiband compressor, and post-EQ are semi-parametric, i.e. allow you to set the center frequency of each of the 10 available channels, it is actually quite a bit more flexible than the 28 band EQ in what I assume is a KE9NS version of PowerSDR for the old, legacy Flex hardware. I recommend you learn to use the semi-parametric functionality, and to take advantage of the multiple stages of processing.

Check out the "how to set up your audio" topics in the PowerSDR mRX sub-forum here.

73,

Scott

[w2ner]

Richie, not sure Im looking at this wrong or not but I would think the DBM on the meter would agree with the blobs. If you look at the screen shot, I was tossing a constant carrier in AM (from my Kenwood 890s) and the meter did not read the same DBM reading as the blobs. Meter shows -48 and blob shows 62.5 . Any thoughts?

[w-u-2-o]

There is nothing wrong with the software. The panadapter shows the total energy in an FFT bin width. The S-meter shows the total energy in the selected receive passband. The two measurements are not the same.

See also:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2463

[w2ner]

There is nothing wrong with the software. The panadapter shows the total energy in an FFT bin width. The S-meter shows the total energy in the selected receive passband. The two measurements are not the same.

See also:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2463

Not crazy about that but thanks, did not know that.

[w-u-2-o]

There is nothing wrong with the software. The panadapter shows the total energy in an FFT bin width. The S-meter shows the total energy in the selected receive passband. The two measurements are not the same.

See also:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2463

Not crazy about that but thanks, did not know that.

Yeah, physics sucks

It's really funny how a lot of folks just don't intuitively get that when measuring RF energy the bandwidth matters. I've been trying to think of a good analogy but I continue to fail at that, all I can do is fall back on mathematics

Also, folks who are finding this forum and going right to the Thetis sub-forum are missing all of the good old tacked threads that answer these sort of FAQs because they are in the PowerSDR sub-forum. I guess I'll need to make an FAQ sub-forum now when I get a spare few hours!

73!

Scott

[ramdor]

Hi folks,

v2.6.9 b6 source code is winging it way off to Doug and draws a line under changes from me this year.

In the new year I am planning to :

a) migrate all button panels to their own drag-able ui elements, that will expose necessary methods/events to the rest of the system. Differences between RX1 and RX2 ui will hopefully be a thing of the past when this is completed
b) display engine will be changed so that it has no knowledge of receiver number, it will be made generic, and will eventually allow for an increased number of IF displays
c) a UI profile system added so that layouts of these drag-able ui elements can be stored. Compressed view will now just be a display UI profile

Thanks to all that have helped with bug reports and fault tracking over the last couple of months.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

73 Richie - MW0LGE.

[Samuel]

Hi Richie...I was running Thetis v2.6.8 and tried to get v2.6.9 to load and get error message...Can you help me please...Samuel
Here is error message...

thetis error.PNG (7.04 KiB) Viewed 6102 times

[ramdor]

Hi Richie...I was running Thetis v2.6.8 and tried to get v2.6.9 to load and get error message...Can you help me please...Samuel
Here is error message...

thetis error.PNG

1) make sure SharpDX.Mathematics.dll is in the thetis install folder. This will be the case if you have used Thetis v2.6.8 installer from https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-Theti ... tag/v2.6.8 as it is part of the install

2) copy all the files from 2.6.9 b6 zip file over the top of the ones in your thetis install folder

Richie.

[cLicari]

Hi Richie...

b6 w/pre4 been running solid for several days now.
Great job!
Merry Christmas to you and the group!

Carl
NX5T

[ramdor]

This might be of interest to Samuel and those that might be having some issues installing:



Richie.

[ULTIMAX]

Richie,

I want to thank you for all your efforts and all the time spend to make us happy and enjoy more the radio everyday
wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New year and to all here in the Forum.

The only thing I still wish for one day is a meter like the one in FiFi,,,lol thank you so much brother 73's.

gsdr1.jpg (106.52 KiB) Viewed 6077 times

[ramdor]

hah yeah, it would be nice The block of code is ready and waiting for someone to fill it in

Code: Select all

                case MultiMeterDisplayMode.Analog:
                    #region Analog

                    #endregion
                    break;

Richie.

[PD3LK]

Many thanks Richie for all your efforts to make Thetis such a beautifull and functional software!
Just updated to 2.6.9 without any problems, will do the b6 later today.

I have a issue with the MIDI functionality in combination with a Behringer X-Touch-One
- wheel does not want to do "VFO freq down" ("up" does work but goes anti-clockwise)
- wheel swap between VFO A and B is assigned to a button but that doesn't work

Hopefully you will find some time in the new year to have a look at this.
For now i wish you and your love ones a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

73, PD3LK, Leon

[W1JA]

The only thing I still wish for one day is a meter like the one in FiFi

The FiFi meter is beautiful. It reminds me of the better analog meters of old. But its failing is that it can display only one measurement at a time. On transmit, I would like to see several quantities simultaneously. This can be done with a multiple bar graph type meter. For example, here's the meter that can be displayed on my IC-7600 screen.

I can see 5 things simultaneously: power output, ALC, compression, SWR and drain current.

On Thetis we have 13 available transmit quantities: Fwd Pwr, Ref Pwr, SWR, Mic, EQ, Leveler, Leveler Gain, CFC, CFC Comp, COMP, ALC, ALC Comp, ALC Group. If we had, say, 6 bars available and could assign the displayed quantities via a setup dialog, I'd probably choose to show Fwd Pwr, SWR, Mic, EQ, Leveler, CFC, CFC Comp, ALC Group. Okay, that's 8 things; I guess we need 8 bars.

I really like (or maybe I've just gotten used to) the Edge meter in Thetis. Maybe we can have the edge meter for S units, and bar graphs below for these other transmit items. Just a thought - There are probably better ideas for graphic displays.

73, John

[NC3Z]

Richie, not sure Im looking at this wrong or not but I would think the DBM on the meter would agree with the blobs. If you look at the screen shot, I was tossing a constant carrier in AM (from my Kenwood 890s) and the meter did not read the same DBM reading as the blobs. Meter shows -48 and blob shows 62.5 .

Nick, as Scott noted it all depends on the Bin width (what the blobs measure) and RX passband (what the S Meter measures). The wider they are the more energy within their "window" to add to the level.

Normalized bandwidth per the ITU is 500Hz, and at the width the S Meter and pan blogs are equal. Here is a screen shot of a -73dBm carrier from my R&S sig gen into my 7000DLE using a 500Hz BW. Both are equal.

Cal.PNG (616.53 KiB) Viewed 6022 times

[vk1hx]

Richie,

I want to thank you for all your efforts and all the time spend to make us happy and enjoy more the radio everyday
wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New year and to all here in the Forum.

The only thing I still wish for one day is a meter like the one in FiFi,,,lol thank you so much brother 73's.

gsdr1.jpg

Why not just have the whole Genesis SDR Skin. Make Thetis look exactly like the Genesis UI. It looks nicer IMO.