Questions from a new Kiwi host
Hi all, I set up a KiwiSDR last week for the first time at my home in Juriquilla, Queretaro, Mexico (juriquillasdr.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073). It is registered online and has had some traffic already. Since I am new to Kiwi and to SDRs in general, I have a few rookie questions.
- The Log tab on the Admin page shows a "Dump" button. Will that allow me to download the log data? Dump might also mean delete, which I don't want to do without saving a record.
- Are there tools available for Kiwi hosts to efficiently monitor frequency and locations of visitors and perhaps visualize the data?
- My setup has some noise during daylight hours, although it decreases at night. What remedies have others used to decrease noise? I bought some cheap ferrite RF chokes based on a friend's recommendation, but they have not made much of a dent.
Finally, I invite experienced users to visit my Kiwi and offer suggestions for improvement. Thanks in advance.
Comments
Hi!
Glad to have another Kiwi in a relatively under-represented area. Queretaro is new to me and I look forward to hearing and seeing what the spectrum looks like from there.
My first impression is that your system is generally working (checking at 0129 UTC) but that you do likely have common mode current QRM from something switching at around 32 kHz. Particularly odd-order harmonics seem prevalent. Were it me, I'd look for ways to reduce the common mode current path through the kiwi and (probably) out the antenna feed line. A first thing to try might be a 1;1 isolation transformer, perhaps made from something like a Mini-Circuits T1-1, which has low inter-winding capacitance. This might get you dB of CM isolation. Of course you might also be able to improve balance at your antenna, depending upon what type it is.
Simply hoping for ferrite to solve the problem over 3-4 decades of frequency is probably not realistic, though you might be able to improve some portions of the spectrum.
After isolating the feed line from common mode as best you can, you might move away from a hardwired LAN interface to a WiFi interface. For the Kiwi, CM noise coming in/out the LAN cable is often the dominant coupling mechanism to the (likely) SMPS that is producing the interference you are seeing.
It's a never ending process to improve performance but some first-order methods may help a lot.
Glenn n6gn
I'm dealing with an avalanche of non-Kiwi problems at the moment. But let me quickly say that the "dump" button simply records a snapshot of the Kiwi internal state to the log for debugging purposes. Just try it. You won't hurt anything although there will probably be a glitch in the audio if there are any open user connections.
The Kiwi software doesn't provide any tools really for dealing with downloading or analyzing the logs. Several users have described solutions on the forum for doing so, e.g. post-processing the log, realtime sampling of connections via the <kiwi name>:8073/users URL etc.