PSDR mRX General use questions...

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PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Tue Jul 11, 2017 7:55 pm

Ok ... I've finally used the rig to xmit (been testing receive through A/B comparison to an FTdx5000). Worked a G0 station on 20M JT65 using 1W .... and then a YU station on 40 CW using 1W as well ...

question:
1) when using JT65 the waterfall turns bright white when xmitting - is there no way to stop it during TX? I have looked and can't seem to find it. Surely its there somewhere.

2) the panadapter during TX - again JT65 - is this a legit representation of my signal? I mean - WOW... even though I'm only at 1W it is better than 70 db down on the sides!!! If so that is impressive. I then ran 10W and it was still worse case ~-68db.

3) the calibration for power is really non-linear ... and I can't do the "wattmeter" correction or put another way it doesn't offer enough range to correct it. At 200W (as read by a factory calibrated LP100) PSDR reads nearly 300W ... and I can only get it down to about 227W (the highest the setting will go is '240' for the 200W wattmeter calibration setting). I was able to get the lower ranges done however starting with about 100W and below. I know, I've been told its a "one-point" calibration... but this IS digital - I'd think it would be closer than this.

4) Is there a way to set a "MAX POWER" without having to fool the radio using the power calibration? I.e. calibrate it properly - but then set a max power of X%. This would hold for all modes/bands. Sorry if I missed it.

5) I saw what I thought was my signal when doing JT65 on the panadapter - but when doing CW there's nothing on the panadapter... how do i see it in that mode as well?

6) is there a way to record my xmit signal and get it entirely accurate - with all processing - as heard by others? I am not talking about using the monitor which probably has latency and thus might not prove very useful...

7) (alternatively) can I put a 6" wire on the RX2 jack 'shorting' it out and use that second radio on my xmit frequency to record?
Thanks

[I've been looking for some form of manual - even an older one - haven't found it yet ... I'd consider helping bringing one up to date.]

Gary Myers
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:38 pm

K9RX wrote:
1) when using JT65 the waterfall turns bright white when xmitting - is there no way to stop it during TX? I have looked and can't seem to find it. Surely its there somewhere.

Sadly, there is currently no way to fix this. The TX waterfall scaling uses the scaling factors that are set for receive. Independent waterfall scaling factors for transmit have been a Holy Grail for a long time. However, now that we are very, very lucky enough to have Chris, W2PA, is working on the UI, I know this is on his (rather lengthy ;) ) list of things to do.

2) the panadapter during TX - again JT65 - is this a legit representation of my signal? I mean - WOW... even though I'm only at 1W it is better than 70 db down on the sides!!! If so that is impressive. I then ran 10W and it was still worse case ~-68db.

It's legit. Use DUP mode to see the actual transmitted signal on RX1 in full duplex via the built in coupler (you are using an 8000, correct?)

3) the calibration for power is really non-linear ... and I can't do the "wattmeter" correction or put another way it doesn't offer enough range to correct it. At 200W (as read by a factory calibrated LP100) PSDR reads nearly 300W ... and I can only get it down to about 227W (the highest the setting will go is '240' for the 200W wattmeter calibration setting). I was able to get the lower ranges done however starting with about 100W and below. I know, I've been told its a "one-point" calibration... but this IS digital - I'd think it would be closer than this.

I've never played with the watt meter calibration, however it is a known shortcoming of the openHPSDR architecture that the drive control is highly non-linear because the gain flatness of the amplifier chain after the DAC is quite poor. The way the drive control works is to adjust a PWM signal coming out of the FPGA. This PWM signal is low pass filtered into a DC voltage that is then used as the DAC full scale reference voltage. The idea is that all DAC bits are always used that way. Unfortunately, while the drive linearity at the DAC output is reputed to be very good, this falls apart because there are no other gain control blocks past this point.

4) Is there a way to set a "MAX POWER" without having to fool the radio using the power calibration? I.e. calibrate it properly - but then set a max power of X%. This would hold for all modes/bands. Sorry if I missed it.

This is done with the PA calibration table. Understanding, as discussed above, that the drive control is highly non-linear, there are two basic methods. Method 1 is to put the drive control at 100% and adjust the PA calibration on each band to obtain the max. power (e.g. 200W on the 8000) on each band. However, if you wish to run some other power level below max. it becomes kind of a guessing game and you better have a good external power meter. Method 2 is to put the drive control at whatever drive level you use the most, e.g. if you run your external amp at 40W, then put it at 20% (20% of 200W is 40W) and calibrate for 40W. That way you can obtain more precise and intuitive control of your amp drive at the expense of accuracy at max. power.

5) I saw what I thought was my signal when doing JT65 on the panadapter - but when doing CW there's nothing on the panadapter... how do i see it in that mode as well?

Hmmm...don't have the answer to that one. Not a CW guy. However, try DUP mode, I would think that would work, and it's really a more accurate representation of your signal since you are looking at a coupled off signal being received by RX1.

6) is there a way to record my xmit signal and get it entirely accurate - with all processing - as heard by others? I am not talking about using the monitor which probably has latency and thus might not prove very useful...

MON is the best way. Be sure to have PureSignal turned off, though, as with it on you will also hear the pre-distortion. Then turn it back on, of course.

If you use the low latency filters (and IMHO you should), the latency will be less than 50mS, annoying but not impossible to listen to. The only possible downside to using the low latency filters (Setup > DSP > Options) is that you cannot use CESSB processing (Setup > Transmit). However, since I think CESSB sounds terrible that works for me ;)

7) (alternatively) can I put a 6" wire on the RX2 jack 'shorting' it out and use that second radio on my xmit frequency to record?

The latency will be worse on RX2 than it is on MON. MON picks off the signal after the transmit processing chain, RX2 will deliver it up with the TX latency PLUS the RX latency. You can just record the MON output, if desired. However, it is possible to do what you describe with RX2.

I've been looking for some form of manual - even an older one - haven't found it yet ... I'd consider helping bringing one up to date.

The only formal manuals are those referenced here. They are barely adequate to get people started. One of the reasons for starting this forum was to get a more easily searchable/accessible compendium of information together.

Manual writing for the openHPSDR community of hardware, software and firmware is a daunting task. Just describing what everything in PowerSDR does would probably require somewhere on the order of two or three hundred pages. There are no less than 40 setup screens!

73!

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:38 pm

Thanks Scott,

Ok .... for listening to my SSB signal - I'd still like to hear it with all adjustments in place. I want a strong DX signal as I have with my Yaesu ... that means processing. I know there are those that like high fidelity - that's not me (not that I want a poor signal of course). I get rave reviews on the audio with the Yaesu now - although I've heard others get a good review that had noticeably crappy audio so I take that with a grain - but since I get these all the time unsolicited I do believe it is what I want to achieve ... good processing for increased average levels and still reasonable sound.

So what I had in mind is to simply record something and use it to play back through the Anan - then use RX2 to record it. That way latency isn't an issue. I can do the adjustments and get feedback relatively quickly albeit not instantaneous. The alternative is to use the Yaesu with its antenna just a piece of wire and its NaP3 used to 'view' the signal.

I'll ask Chris to add a (relative) max power setting. I'd prefer to calibrate it for the full power - and then set a max power value. Meanwhile I'm going to experiment using the Yaesu 5000 which has proper ALC input and the Expert amp - looking at the ALC output of the amp as i increase power ... and then condition that signal to hit the TX INHIBIT input to the 8000. This will give me some protection until a proper one that folds back power is in place, assuming that gets worked on.

thanks again, Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:42 pm

Gary,

I think you are substantially misunderstanding things.

MON output is with all adjustments in place where audio quality is concerned.

The old days of using compression in the amplifier to reduce your transmitted dynamic range are long gone, and absolutely the wrong way to do it. Thus you do not need ALC output to an external amplifier. With the ALC built into PowerSDR, you simply use Two-Tone to set your amp drive to a place where your amp is NOT in compression (and not thereby generating IMD products) , then rely on the PowerSDR internal ALC to keep your output at or below that level. PowerSDR ALC will absolutely prohibit the output of the radio from going any higher than the drive level you have set. And there is no way to defeat or bypass it.

What throws people when they do this is they immediately say "I'm not getting rated power from my amplifier when I speak." Oh yes you are. The problem is that your average power is lower and your average reading power meter is not seeing the peak power that was set when you adjusted things with the two tone function. You need to use an oscilloscope to prove this to yourself, as so called "peak reading" power meters are not even fast enough to keep up with the PowerSDR ALC.

Once you've reached that point, what you want to do to get your average power up is compress your voice signal prior to the ALC, and even push 5 or 10dB into the ALC as shown on the ALC COMP meter. To do that you use all of the incredible new voice processing features built into PowerSDR. See this thread to get started exploiting these features, which are well beyond anything available in any other SDR software and even most ham-centric hardware, even the W2IHY stuff.

If you need automatic drive level settings beyond what is already in PowerSDR, look at the "auto-drive" features built into the DDUtil "helper" program.

Finally, you need to learn how to set up and run PureSignal. With PureSignal set up it will fight you tooth and nail if you try to run your amp into compression, your IMD will be the lowest on the band, and you'll sound like a million bucks. :)

73,

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Thu Jul 13, 2017 2:41 pm

Re: ALC : No - I'm not misunderstanding - I just can't seem to get across what I'm talking about ... It has to be me - I don't understand why people always misinterpret what I'm saying! I have and had said specifically I am not looking for ANY actions of ALC to limit voice peaks or anything along that line ... I'm only interested in using ALC OUTPUT from the amplifier, maybe it needs to be called "Amp Safe Limit, ASL"... to protect the finals in the AMP! Be it a fold back or a fault ... something to prevent accidentally hitting the amp with full power. Others will say that some rig makers recommend NOT using ALC for this purpose - that its too slow or other reasons - but obviously that is not the case as detailed here....

As stated ad naseum there are times when I want to run the rig at full power - 200W ... that is what I have to do on my Yaesu as I don't have a 'tuned' WARC antenna (yet) for 17M .... and the Expert 2K's tuner is only good up to 3:1 ... so there, on that band in order to try and work the stations I want to work (DX) I run full power with the amp on standby ... but one can make the human mistake of forgetting to turn this down and then switch to another band, enable the amp and BAMM ... with the Yaesu/Expert all is fine as they are designed to protect! Throttles the output to the amp max. It works well - it works every time. THIS is what I seek. Seems entirely reasonable as its only a bit of code in the rig (and would have been a simple additional of one RCA connector on the back on the 8000). WHY would this not be standard practice?

DDutil might well do it - but that is yet another piece of software ... this should all be self contained in the radio/amp...

And thanks for the MON info - I guess I was thinking it wasn't complete (the Flex isn't - I had a 6700 test here for a while).
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Thu Jul 13, 2017 2:56 pm

Now I understand :D

Unfortunately there are no facilities for an ALC input on any of the openHPSDR architecture radios, including the Apache Labs radios.

On the back of the 8000 there are "DIG IN" RCA connectors. I don't use them, but I believe that one of them is Transmit Inhibit (see Setup > Transmit > External TX Inhibit). You could then whip up a simple voltage controlled switch circuit that, when the external ALC voltage exceeded a threshold, asserted the TX Inhibit line.

Ground one of those DIG inputs, turn on the inhibit option and see if that's available to you.

73,

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:44 pm

Scott,

That is indeed my current plan - just to have a bang-bang controller from the ALC (out of the amp) to the TX INH input.

g.
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby W1AEX » Thu Jul 13, 2017 6:37 pm

Hi Gary,

I've been following the thread with interest. Did it turn out that the module that Clyde - K2UE developed won't interface with the 8000 at this point? As I recall he wasn't sure if the 8000 had the necessary "ins" and "outs" to allow it to work.

Hope you find a solution.

73,

Rob W1AEX
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:21 pm

Clyde's work is described here.

The extra utility ADC connections do exist on J16 on the Orion Mk II board, just as they do on the Angelia and Orion boards. However those connections are not brought out externally to a rear panel connector. The necessary digital input also exists on J16, and I believe is one of the DIG in connectors on the rear panel.

It therefore appears possible to modify an 8000 to use Clyde's work. Perhaps rewire one of the existing rear panel RCA connectors to go to the ADC connection on J16.

I never understood what the digital input is used for. To me it looks like it is re-purposed as an output from the radio, based on the schematic of Clyde's design.

73,

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Sat Jul 15, 2017 8:49 pm

Scott has provided the first info I have heard of that indeed there is I/O for it... I knew through looking at the schematic that there's AI's on the one header - I assume that is J16 (dont' have the - here it is - yes, J16) ... I remember looking at the unit already available... I remember there's a somewhat large cap on the ALC input - not sure what the delay would be due to that ... of course I'd think the biggest complaint/issue people have with this type of ALC, to protect the amp, is it is too slow so I'd want it to be as fast as possible. I can of course calculate that and other delays in that system.

I was just going to look at the ALC output (from the amp) waveform, level shift it and use a transistor to hit the TX INH input for now - but if there is an AIN already and more importantly the code to support it I'll give that a try. Getting from that connector to the outside world doesn't bother me too much although it should have been done ahead of time ... but using one of the existing RCA's for testing is easy and if this works fine then I can drill a hole and make it permanent.

Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:51 pm

Hopefully the "General Use" name on the top of this thread, as when I made that folder that was what I thought would be appropriate, is understood as - general use questions and not "a" question ... not sure Scott how we'd do that otherwise ... that might be a better place/reason for the Yahoo group but maybe not ...

anyway along those lines - General use of PowerSDR.

-I had to reset the DB. Funny - I always cringed when I read someone suggest, what seemed like for every other problem, "corrupt database" ... as a programmer/designer and one that sells a product to the consumer market place I know that things can very easily be seen as "try this" items and I ask all of my customers to run things by me before doing anything weird ... so I had used the 8000DLE a couple weeks ago for one contact, my first time xmitting, on CW ... and it seemed to work ok. The sidetone tone wasn't great audio - a bit impure for lack of a better description but ok ... I sent at 32 WPM and felt the latency was a non-issue, something that has been on SDR's an issue.

So I've been using the rig on FT8/JT65 (and having a blast on FT8 working all kinds of DX) and last night went to work someone on CW ... but the sidetone was way late and I couldn't send - too much delay. So after posting sure enough someone said "reset the DB" ... which I did (a real fun time reloading everything) and sure enough that fixed it! A little bit scary to me that this could even happen ... hopefully a once only thing.

SO NOW when I xmit on CW the TX Meter only shows the output power in dbm. Nothing else - select SWR FWD, ALC, anything else - nothing - just dbm. HOWEVER when I use it with WSJT running FT8 ... lo-n-behold it shows power in watts! And SWR and everything else appropriately... I've been through those stinkin setup panels again and again and still haven't found what i'm missing ... either to be checked or to be unchecked ... HELP PLEASE?

Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Mon Jul 24, 2017 1:13 am

Gary,

If you want a better response to a specific question, then start a specific, separate thread in the forum, with a good descriptive title, like "Meter only shows power in dBm when running CW". If you lump all of your problems into a single thread, it might as well be labeled "Gary's problems".

Since this is clearly a PowerSDR related problem, the PowerSDR forum is a good place for it.

That said, some comments:

1. Don't forget that you are living in a funny world where Apache only sells you the hardware, and the firmware and software come from a tiny, very tiny, community of volunteer, open source firmware and software developers. If you are expecting support at the level of YaeComWood, prepare to have to rely on your fellow Apache/openHPSDR aficionados.

2. I have literally no clue as to how you could be having such a metering problem. There are no settings in the 40+ pages of settings that control this or could cause this. I'd suggest another database reset, as painful as that is.

3. Clearly something is wrong with your system that is causing your databases to repeatedly become corrupt. What that might be I have no idea. That is the one downside of Windows based software defined radios: PC's are not toasters, and sometimes you put bread in and get broccoli instead.

73,

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:09 am

DISPLAY DURING SSB TX

And he has a sense of humor too boot! Bread in - broccoli out ... that's funny.

ok - I'll start a separate thread for each question. I would say however it shouldn't/wouldn't divulge in to "Gary's Problems" if kept here - HOPEFULLY the title to THIS one is indeed specific enough that one could post here - you/we have to realize in this format NO ONE is going to be able to keep up with all the various threads (and new threads) going on. So the best way to check in to this forum is to look at the "New Posts" and see if you have responses to queries or new questions that interest you. Otherwise its a folder/subfolder nightmare. HOPEFULLY with a title of "mRX General Use" others would post here as well.

So - first thanks again for the help regarding the DUP/TUN issue. As noted on the Yahoo group that has been solved, once again, by resetting the DB. Not something I would expect to have to do - but it is what it is. So the problems with DUP/TUN is gone, i.e. its working... the CW sidetone is fine - no delay at all at 35WPM... but the power display on CW remains through 2 resets. Maybe its that way. I'm not going to worry about it since it appears another DB reset is somewhere down the road ...

a new question though - the display on SSB transmit. If I leave DUP off I get what appears to be a pretty normal profile... the base line 'hump' when there's no audio ... and the increased signal when there is ... but with DUP on I again get about what I'd expect - baseline hump with the signal tapering off either side. The 'peak' of that hump is about -90 db ... and it tapers off from there downward ... but if I talk now the 'sides' all RISE up and I never get much 'signal' over the sides! There isn't the classical head and shoulders of a sideband signal. This is with PS off and on. No real difference seen. Also no difference in the power level (which I'd not expect there to be).

So - suggestions on what I have set up wrong re the xmit display panadapter?

Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:16 am

Gary,

You need an Elmer to get with you and literally go through all the settings of your radio, show you what they do, and fix the obvious problems. This can actually be done remotely using a screen sharing program like Teamviewer or the like.

Note that, with all due respect, I am not volunteering to do this as I literally already do this for quite a number of people and just don't have time to take on more. However perhaps you can find someone to help you out, because 90% of your questions could be solved with a one hour Teamviewer session.

That said, you need to go into Setup > Display, experiment, adjust to taste, and then you'll be happy. In particular, make adjustments in Setup > Display > TX. Note that there is no separate scaling available for the waterfall when in TX, so the waterfall just becomes a big mess when in TX.

See also this thread.

73,

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:52 pm

Scott,

This was an open set of questions for anyone here .... are you and I (and a few others) the only ones here?

Really - I'm not a nube here... I DO know what I'm doing for the vast majority of it. I've had a Flex5000... I've had a Flex6700.... I am an accomplished EE and a HW/SW embedded designer .... the problems I've had haven't been "obvious problems" ... right?! My suspicion is anyone, including yourself, if they looked at my settings would not find anything out of place regarding those 2 issues I've had. All of the parameters have been set up "to taste", one of the main benefits of the radio -right? Most are subjective. Its not as if there are functions/settings that I'm messing with that detrimentally effect the function of the system! Proof of that is that I 'solved' those problems simply by resetting the DB and re-entering everything identically!

Please understand I'm not sitting here with my finger up ... and saying "DUH....." ... I AM looking and trying to resolve this.

I've already taken on board that I can't do anything about the TX waterfall. Regarding the TX pan display I don't see any adjustments for this other than being able to set MIN/MAX and STEPS. That is it! Unless there is a hidden menu somewhere. And I have, of course, twiddled with them. The display JUMPS ... isn't normal (I DO know what normal looks like afterall - also note I have an LP-Pan and run NaP3 on my FTdx5000 so I'm again familiar with setting up most of this stuff).

My question is more: are there settings that I'm not touching - DSP filtering filter sizes/types for TX for example that will directly effect this? Note I'm using the RESET DB values for these. My original post was in hopes that there was a parameter that 'jumps out' to someone, having experienced it, that isn't obviously defined (vague in name), that I might be missing? That's all I am looking for and at the moment all I can ask.

Anyone?
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Tue Jul 25, 2017 3:45 pm

unless someone has an immediate suggestion I'm done for a while... this is taking up too much of my time. NOW I can't get the TX audio to work right. Nothing changed since I last used it - but listening on another radio there is very weak crackling audio heard there. As I ask my customers: "what changed since it last worked" ... my reply - nothing! No wiring changes (i.e. NOT RF issues - haven't had any of these) - no parameter changes other than MIC Gain and COMP (of course I tried turning off COMP) ... frustrating.

I have reset the DB - for a third time, obviously cycled power on the radio, still not working. I'll reboot the computer later.

I DO want this to work - I'm quite excited about the receiver ...

Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby AB2EZ » Tue Jul 25, 2017 5:26 pm

Gary

Please answer these additional questions:

0. Are you using an external RF power amplifier? What RF output power level (coupled into the antenna system) are you producing when you operate? What frequency (frequencies) are you using?
1. What computer are you using (brand, model, CPU type, quantity of memory)?
2. What operating system are you using?
3. What 13.8V power supply are you using (brand, model, output current rating)?
4. How is the Ethernet port of the ANAN connected to the Ethernet port of the computer? (Direct connection? Via an Ethernet Switch?)
5. Are you using any external (to the computer) USB hubs?
6. Have you taken any steps to control common mode RF currents (caused by the radiated and conducted RF produced by: your ANAN transmitter / external RF Amplifier / Antenna) from flowing through the various interconnecting cables (DC power/Ethernet/USB/outside surface of coaxial cable shields/audio cables). For example, have you placed ferrite cores around all of the USB and Ethernet cables that go between the ANAN, the Computer, and the Digital Audio Interface?

Note that excessive RFI (in the form of induced currents, and associated voltages) can cause various types of "upsets" that can corrupt the data stored in your computer... and also the firmware stored in the ANAN.

Stu
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Thu Jul 27, 2017 9:36 pm

Stu,

Thanks.

Ok - first let me say I did the same thing to resolve this latest problem that I did for the CW sidetone problem and for the "DUP" display not working. I reset the DB! As someone that believes that should be absolutely one of the last things to try. That was it. I re-entered identical values and lo-n-behold it worked fine.

So an update. As mentioned, for the third time, I reset the DB and reentered values. This latest time just "importing" the "stable DB" file I had saved previously when the 2 above problems were 'solved' as opposed to carefully entering them one panel at a time and testing along the way. AND - the good news is I now have great audio. I followed W1AEX's excellent document on setting up the TX audio ... everything just worked. And I'm very pleased regarding those results. I have not, yet, tried to do PS. It was after I did that last time that things went wonky. My suspicion is that I didn't have the audio set up correctly the first time, if so obviously user error, and then when I tried PS it just made matters worse.

So I'm going to find the info on setting up PS. I believe the only doc/info is what was put in to the release doc when PS-2 was released. I'll check for that. If you are aware of more/other information on how to set it up please let me know.

One last problem. (for now of course - again haven't done PS)... CW is working GREAT ... JT65/8 working wonderfully - love the flexibility there, SSB audio sounding wonderful ...

But the one last thing still is relative to the display. When I transmit on CW with the DUP on I see what looks right. A receiver 'floor' and the carrier caused by the CW signal (I also see LOTS of other 'garbage' not that far down but when looking at the panadapter, NaP3 running on an FTdx5000, it looks clean).

When I do this on SSB I do not get anything close to, for example the pan display pictures as seen in W1AEX's TX Audio document - which are what I'd expect - a receiver floor and the signal. I do see this, what would be 'proper', on the FTdx5000/NaP3 display. What I get instead of on PSDR, with DUP on, is this really really bad looking display. I'm going to do a screen save of both the second receiver view and the DUP/PSDR view of the same signal and try to post it to the other group. If you would, or others if they're reading this, let me know what i'm doing wrong I'd be happy to correct it here.

Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Thu Jul 27, 2017 9:46 pm

Stu,

Apologies for not answering your questions. I believe as mentioned I've resolved the problem and believe, with lack of information, that I was the cause of the 'bad' audio first by not properly adjusting the TX audio and second by then jumping ahead and trying PS2.

That stated as a response to some of your questions. I believe i have a very well done station re grounds. I have never, even though I run the legal limit on all bands, had a single issue that was RF in the shack related. Not before - and not since using the 8000DLE (or with the Flex6700). Everything is well and properly grounded. To repeat: I've not seen a single instance of what would appear to be RF in the shack. I've been a ham for, well this is my 1/2 century mark (although I am 62) and KNOW what it looks like and know how to mitigate it. Nothing here.

The computer hasn't seem to be an issue. It is an i5-4460. I have only once seen mRX "lock up" in now what has to be 100's of hours of use just running (overnight for many nights straight). I've not seen any 'weird' things happening re the computer or other programs with one exception. The virtual serial port for the PTT from WSJT will lock up if I don't properly sequence how things are shut down or started. I am convinced that has more to do with the 'creater' of that port - MicroHam KeyerII which is currently being used to create the needed VSP's and VSC's. And this is benign if i just follow a sequence (which when I have to reset the DB, which forces PSDR to shut down, I often don't and I screw it up). I plan on getting a standalone VSP program at some point.

I just got in an SSD that I'm going to put in to the computer and I'm going to increase the RAM which currently is 4G (going to 8). But I suspect other than convenience (faster starts) these will not materially effect what I'm seeing.

Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Thu Jul 27, 2017 10:55 pm

K9RX wrote: What I get instead of on PSDR, with DUP on, is this really really bad looking display. I'm going to do a screen save of both the second receiver view and the DUP/PSDR view of the same signal and try to post it to the other group. If you would, or others if they're reading this, let me know what i'm doing wrong I'd be happy to correct it here.

If you put your screen shot up on Imgur, Flickr or the like, you can share it for everyone to see here.

73,

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby K9RX » Thu Sep 07, 2017 5:37 pm

Two items:
1)SETUP | General | Ant/Filter | BPF1/LPF
There is a setting there for "Active" ... what is it please? I understand the others I believe - but it would seem this should normally be checked and it is not.

2) SETUP | DSP | Options
Filters settings won't stay! I've changed them many times but have yet to get them to stay through a power cycle/restart of the program. I've tried saving the TX Profile as well as a DB Export - neither works - it comes up with the defaults. How do you get these to stick!?

Thanks for any help on these.

Gary
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Fri Sep 08, 2017 1:06 am

Gary,

The "Active" circles are indicators, not controls. They are supposed to show which filters are currently active at any given time. Unfortunately, they don't seem to work 100%. If you switch to "Manual" and then back to "Firmware" (the latter really means "automatic") you'll see the indications pop up correctly.

As for why your settings in Setup > DSP > Options aren't being stored, the only suggestion I have is that your database is corrupt. Perhaps I should say "corrupt, again". You've got some sort of curse or black cloud over your head, Gary. You are definitely winning the award for the guy with the most problems ever :( Those settings are supposed be part of your transmit profiles.

In Setup > General > Transmit I recommend that you turn OFF both "Auto Save" options. They can cause changes to TX profiles that you don't expect. I don't think that's the problem, but just in case...

73,

Scott
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby W1AEX » Fri Sep 08, 2017 4:37 pm

Gary,

Another thing to consider is that PowerSDR.exe (OpenHPSDR mRX PS) should be run with administrative privileges as the database.xml file is stored in the "Users" hierarchy of folders and Windows is very fussy about non-admin level programs writing data to that area. Without an administrative level of privilege, saving data to that area gets very sketchy.

I would echo Scott's suggestion about the "Auto Save" functions as they can cause all kinds of settings to the database to be changed inadvertently.

Rob W1AEX
"One thing I am certain of is that there is too much certainty in the world."
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Re: PSDR mRX General use questions...

Postby w-u-2-o » Fri Sep 08, 2017 4:55 pm

Excellent point about running as admin, Rob, thanks! I always forget that because I'm always logged in as admin on all of my machines.

73!

Scott

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