What are each of the two SNR measurements?
Hi All,
I am dense sometimes, and I cannot seem to find on the web the significance of the two SNR scores e.g. (20, 18). 😀 I remember reading once that one was day and the other night, but I can't recall which was which, nor can I verify my memory. There is a nice page [here](http://rx.linkfanel.net/snr.html), but despite reading it several times I cannot find what I'm looking for. Did I miss it?
Thanks & 73,
Rob
KL7NA
Comments
Hi Rob,
according to the admin control tab (see bottom right), the first value is for the whole HF range (0..30 MHz), while the latter is for 1.8..30 MHz, thus excluding strong AM broadcast stations and below.
Regards,
Manfred
If you're using a desktop (i.e. not mobile) then hovering the cursor over the values on the user page, or the rx.kiwisdr.com listing, shows a popup giving the frequency ranges.
If you click on the column headers Internal / HF / External on the http://rx.linkfanel.net/ webpage, it will sort that column in descending order.
Personally, I like to sort by the HF value, as that is often a better indicator of actual performance.
However, the whole SNR measurement process can only really be used as a rough guide, and unfortunately the majority of KiWi installations are badly let down by poor antennas, often in very noisy urban locations.
The KiWi's in the top 10% (70 out of approx 700) SNR scores, are generally OK, but some of the rest are really awful, which is a great pity, and IMHO a great waste of resource.
Purchasing a receiver is only a very small part in the overall process of receiving signals. Although you can't really do without one, even a top of the range model, isn't going to make up for a poor antenna.
Signal to Noise Ratio is what matters, not absolute signal strength. Good transmit antennas don't always make good receive antennas, as they are required to do different things.
I'll keep on repeating this mantra until things improve, but I suspect I'll die first...
Regards,
Martin