Rx Ant not working from main screen

Dave30019
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Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby Dave30019 » Tue Apr 07, 2020 4:57 pm

My project today is to attach my receive antenna to my 7K DLE MKII Black Face rig. I attached the RCV ant to the EXT1 BNC on back of rig. I went to Setup/General/Ant/Filters; under the EXT1 column I selected the bands I want to use with my receive antenna. In my case; 30m, 40m, 60m & 80m. At this point the RCV antenna ACTIVATES, I am now receiving on the RCV antenna. I do not want the RCV antenna to be active now.
I apply and OK to exit setup screen.
What I want to happen is from the main screen I should be able to click the 'Rx Ant' button and the RCV antenna should work if I am on 30m, 40m, 60m or 80m, it does not. The 'Rx Ant' button never lights up.
As I said earlier as soon as I check (under EXT1) the bands I want to use, the receive antenna activates.
Am I doing something wrong, does the 'Rx Ant' even work?
I am running Thetis 2.6.9 and FW 1.9. I searched the Forum and found nothing specific about this.
Thanks,
Dave
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w-u-2-o
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:52 pm

First of all, moving this to the Thetis sub-forum since this is about how Thetis works (and doesn't work).

The intent of the "Rx Ant" button is actually to change the RX input from the RX antenna to the TX antenna. So when the "Rx Ant" button is illuminated that means you are listening on the TX antenna. When that button is not illuminated then you are listening on the RX antenna. You can legitimately argue whether or not that makes sense from a UI perspective, but that is how it works right now. The default is for that button to be off and the RX antenna as defined in the setup to be selected for receive.

Now, with that out of they way, I do not have a 7000 to try this on, but I do use separate TX and RX antennas on my 8000. However, instead of using EXT 1 (which doesn't exist on the 8000), I have assigned my TX antenna to ANT 1 and my RX antenna to ANT 2. Using this configuration everything works fine.

My guess is that the "Rx Ant" button does not work for EXT 1. Thus you are stuck with always listening on the RX antenna when using bands that are so configured. If you want the option to listen to either the TX or RX antenna by using the "Rx Ant" button then you need to use the ANT inputs for both RX and TX antennas. Just bear in mind how the button operates as described above.

73,

Scott
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby NC3Z » Tue Apr 07, 2020 9:06 pm

w-u-2-o wrote:
Now, with that out of they way, I do not have a 7000 to try this on, but I do use separate TX and RX antennas on my 8000. However, instead of using EXT 1 (which doesn't exist on the 8000), I have assigned my TX antenna to ANT 1 and my RX antenna to ANT 2. Using this configuration everything works fine.


On my 7000, like your 8000, I need to use ANT2 or 3 (I use 3) and also make sure you select "Do Not TX" if it is a receive only antenna.
Gary NC3Z
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby W1AEX » Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:19 pm

Dave, Scott, and Gary,

I'm not sure whether the Rx Ant button at the top of the GUI is hooked into anything in Thetis. I've never found a way to "engage" it with any Rx Ant configuration that I use. If I click on it, the button does not respond at all and the "Active" button state is never active. As far as I know the chkRxAnt-1.png graphic does not ever become active so the off state button chkRxAnt-0.png is always displayed no matter how you set things up. I do remember in the Flex version of PSDR that the GUI did have an RX button that behaved as Dave has indicated, but I have never seen that functionality in PSDR mRX PS or Thetis.

Currently, I run my RX only antennas through a switch that toggles between my two wire loops and then runs into the RX2 port of my 200D. I engage the "Diversity" controls when I want to use my RX ANT exclusively or with the beam forming/nulling feature. That works fine for me but I am still curious about the functionality of the Rx Ant button.

73, Rob W1AEX
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Dave30019
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby Dave30019 » Tue Apr 07, 2020 10:35 pm

Ok, thanks that did it, I have my receive antennas on ant3. It now indicates the 'Rx/Tx Ant button' changing colors for RCV & XMIT. Red for receive antennas and Blue for transmit antennas.

Thanks,
Dave
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Apr 08, 2020 1:52 pm

Rob,

The Rx Ant button does indeed work with Thetis, both 2.6.9 and 2.7.0 beta. However it would appear to work only for those who are putting their RX antenna on the ANT2 or ANT3 inputs, not with the RX2 or EXT1 inputs.

73,

Scott
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby W1AEX » Wed Apr 08, 2020 3:43 pm

Hi Scott,

Yes indeed, this morning I "discovered" that it works perfectly. It was totally user error on my part due to my assumption that it would work with the EXT ports. From the statements by Gary, Dave, and you in the thread, it took about 10 seconds to discover that it does work as intended with the ANT 1,2,3 ports.

Thanks for your patience! :)

Rob - W1AEX
"One thing I am certain of is that there is too much certainty in the world."
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby Joe-W4WT » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:21 pm

Rob,

There is another issue of using an "Ext" port on the 200D series PA board for an Rx antenna. It costs you 10db of signal strength due to those boards having a 10db pad in the signal path for the Ext ports. If you feed a signal into the radio through and Ext port and then switch to an Ant port you will see that 10db difference. I don't see that pad in the schematic for the 7000 PA boards but haven't tested yet on my new 7000 black to be sure. I'll give that a try later. I quit using the Ext ports and went to Ant3 for my Rx antennas after discovering that a couple of years ago on my 200D.

Joe W4WT
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby NC3Z » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:33 pm

W1AEX wrote:Hi Scott,

Yes indeed, this morning I "discovered" that it works perfectly. It was totally user error on my part due to my assumption that it would work with the EXT ports. From the statements by Gary, Dave, and you in the thread, it took about 10 seconds to discover that it does work as intended with the ANT 1,2,3 ports.

Thanks for your patience! :)

Rob - W1AEX


Good, I thought for a second there we were going to have to take your Anan away.
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:56 pm

There should be no 10dB pad in the EXT path. The EXT path, when selected, follows the same path as signals from any ANT connector, in the 7000. This may be a scaling error in the software.
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby Joe-W4WT » Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:28 pm

Hi Scott,

I believe I mentioned I didn't see it in the 7000 schematics. I've pasted below the 200D a partial from the 200D schematic that shows the pad.

joe W4WT
200D Pad.PNG
200D Pad.PNG (117.68 KiB) Viewed 6849 times
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:46 pm

Joe,

On the Rev 24 boards, as used in the 200D, those pads (one is a 10dB, the other a 20dB) are switched in as specified by the ATT control on the main console UI. They apply to all ANT and EXT inputs, i.e. they are downstream of all of them. You need to follow the path from the ANT inputs all the way through to the "TO_RX" connector to fully appreciate this.

73,

Scott
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Re: Rx Ant not working from main screen

Postby Joe-W4WT » Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:52 pm

Scott,

You are correct and the one on the left in my diagram is the 10db pad and it was being energized when Ext1 was being used as a receive antenna. Perhaps my 200D was different or defective.

Joe W4WT

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