SDRplay and SWL usage

[TyTanYGraig]

Hello all. After some delay(!) I have managed to return to the forum.
Re the frequency discrepancy I don't think the 'shift' feature is suitable, as it adds or subtracts a fixed offset at all frequencies, whereas the SDRPlay (in common with all PLL synthesised tuners) has a 'per Hertz' offset. This means an error of 100 Hz at 10MHz will be an error of 1000 Hz at 100 MHz and an error of 10KHz at 1000MHz. The only way to correct this is to pull the reference xtal onto frequency either by hardware (a trimmer!) or via a software feature.
It would be nice to see this feature, but for now my SDRPlay's error has been corrected with a 20pf trimmer.

You are absolutely correct here and your solution is also spot on. As long as you can keep the temperature of the unit fairly stable, this should work really well
For future versions a VCTCXO with a clock out would be really neat!

[Quimquim]

Hi G1hbe,
thanks for the clarification about the frequency correction.

In HDSDR there is a Frequency Correction (ppm) on the mixer stage in the plugin popup. I don't know why they didn't put it in the SDR# one.

I think it's the kind of correction you're looking for.

SDRPlay team; why it's not present in the SDR#? Was it forgotten?

Stay tuned!!!!!

Quimquim

[ivorydawn]

My RSP is about 1.5KHz out in the VHF Airband. The ability to correct in SDR# would be great. I would also appreciate an explanation of the gain settings as well, my poor eyes cannot put up with the noise floor bouncing up and down in the presence of strong signals when the unit is on automatic gain.

Antenna here is a Diamond V2000 15 Meters up, I live in same town as a very busy port with three others close by and directly under the Clacton West sector for ATC. Some signals are massive and the poor RSP gets a battering!

Andrew - g7mns

[CaptainNemo]

Hi all.
I'm grateful this discussion is going on. This was my aim when i opened the subject "SDRplay and SWL usage".
This is a "large" argument to discuss and it is open to any topics related to "listening" with SDRplay.
I feel the discussion -- finally -- is now taking off... very good!!!

My comment about the latest 2 or 3 post about ppm correction... absolutely agree!
This is an other issue about sdr#-sdrplay-plugin (currently -- and for a long time -- v1.3 build 1014).
I wrote to sdrplay team about other problems. Mainly the fact that the sdr# plugin works in a strange way different
from other plugin we use with rtl-srd/funcube and so on... My issue at that time was mainly that if you use different sampling rate
you do not fulfill the available space on the screen, you have the frequencies compressed in a little portion, so you need to use zoom, but zoom is not saved from time-to-time in sdr#, you need to re-set zoom from run-to-run of the program, an you do not have a numeric figure of the zoom in sdr# so from run-to -run is not easy to have reproducible "shapshot" (suppose you want to take regular snapshot of a signal to see changes, and so on).
Etc. etc.etc. They kindly answered they will take into account my suggestion for the next release...
So to summarise according to me there are 3 big issue on the table:
-- ACG control sometimes is a "pain"
-- ppm correction missing... why sdrplay didnt SIMPLY copy what other have made before?
-- fulfillment of the waterfall/spectrum specially for the 200/300/... khz BW used for swlling
All that said, I add that I (and I suppose all of you) I am perfectly clear that the plugin is offered free of charge etc. etc. etc. and that sdr# is offered free of charge etc. etc. etc. and in the end no one is obliged to give us something better that what we already have...
Nevertheless...we ask!

please, try to excuse me for my english...

Bye

[CaptainNemo]

Hi all.

Does anyone know a free alternative software for AISmon?

I live in seaside town near the port of Genoa.
WIth sdrplay+sdr# I got very good AIS signals but ...
On my pc AISmon work well only for less the 50% of the times I run it
The other 50% it goes in error after few seconds and no way to run it
(it gives an error like RUNTIME ERROR 9 SUBSCRIPT OUT OF RANGE)
I tried some suggestion I found on internet or the ASIMON yahoo groups, with no success.

bye

[jon]

SDRplay confirm that they will be adding PPM correction to all all plugins over time. They also confirm that the feedback on the forum re AGC has been valuable and it is likely that future plug-ins will default to no AGC for HF operation (under 50MHz) - we continue to welcome comments on the subject.

[G4ABQ]

Take a look at these 14MHz SSTV screenshots taken using SDRplay + HDSDR + RXSSTV http://skywavesdx.org/viewtopic.php?t=629

[CaptainNemo]

Hi G4ABQ. Very nice pictures!
Would you write down just 10 lines about the way you got it?
TNX

[jon]

I have asked Daveb if he would write up his methods - see http://skywavesdx.org/viewtopic.php?f=7 ... 2121#p2121

Meanwhile for other people interested in playing with an SDRplay RSP I've set one up for remote access using SDR-Console. The antenna is a G5RV wire antenna which is optimised for Ham Radio bands 3.5MHz- 28MHz. Follow the instructions on http://v2.sdrspace.com where you can see it listed unders SDRplay. The userid is sdrplay and the password is rsp. Have fun!

[Quimquim]

Hi all,
I took a look at the remote SDR via SDR Console. It's fun to listen far radio transmissions ( oversea for me ).

The only thing is that I really don't like SDR Console.

- The options are too much spreads anywhere.
- It's not possible to scroll the waterfall without changing the tuned frequency.
- The waterfall is too fuzzy, compared to HDSDR, to easily determine the type of transmission.

My favorite program is, by far, HDSDR , who is a charm to operate.

The waterfall is clean. Just by looking we can easily determine the type of modulation most of the time.
It's very flexible to configure ( Zoom, contrast, speed, resolution).

We can scroll it without loosing the tuned frequency so we can continue to listen the actual station and search for other transmission anywhere up to the 8mhz span.

I also like the way we could play with the audio filtering ( the red line in the audio waterfall ) We can model the bandwidth on the fly and also add notch at any critical place.

The only missing functions in HDSDR is the frequency scanner and also the frequency notation in the waterfall as in SDR#.

Hope it will come some day.