This allows you to have the waterfall or spectrum display on one screen and your logger, text window, etc on the other. Consider dual monitors (most modern video cards have two jacks).When purchasing a sound card, look for one with a signal-to-noise ratio over 100 dBA. Typically, onboard (built-in) sound hardware (as found in most “mainstream” computers like Dell or HP) does not have a signal-to-noise ratio as good as an inexpensive (less than $50) separate sound card. This will give you an idea of how “clean” your sound card is. Use your digital mode’s software, or a program like Spectrogram, to see what your noise level is with the radio off.AGC (Automatic Gain Control) does nothing for a weak signal it only levels the louder ones. Attenuation will probably be around 20 dB, but by dropping the noise level, the signal readability may improve. This can help keep a strong signal from wiping out the weaker ones. Enable your RF attenuation and increase the volume.(For example, the difference between a lowercase “e” (11) and an uppercase “E” (1110111) is three times more bits.) You'll increase transmit speed and improve the likelihood of proper decoding on the other end by using lower case text as much as possible. Lower case text in PSK31 varicode transmits fewer bits of data. Keep in mind that how your waterfall looks does not impact decoding, but it is harder to work it if you can’t see it. Do not overdrive your sound card! Get the background noise and the transmit trace well defined and separate. Set your rig's volume to a low level (less than 25% of maximum) and adjust your waterfall and sound card levels for good contrast. There's no need to have the waterfall streaking bright red.Passband centering of the signal will give the best results of both RX and TX. You can easily lose 20% or more of your power on each edge of your passband. Don’t blindly use a 1000 Hz tone or strictly follow the VFO “set it and forget it” concept. Testing will show that your transmit (TX) and receive (RX) will be strongest there. Use the center of your waterfall (see definitions of italicized terms below) display.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |