Could my Kiwi be damaged?
I have a KiwiSDR-BBAI that shares an amplified vertical antenna through a 4-way splitter that has just enough amplification to keep its gain at 0 dB. The Kiwi mostly supports wsprdaemon, but has one channel open for testing etc. Using the new s-meter function, I usually check the signal level of a local AM broadcaster with a very steady signal to make sure the antenna system is ok. It's always exactly at -72 dBm.
Today I moved the Kiwi to an Elad ASA15 5-way antenna splitter. The AM broadcaster's signal strength dropped slightly. The Elad has switches to add +12 dB amplification to any channel. Since the strongest signal on the Kiwi spectrum was -60 dBm, I thought it would be safe to try this. When I added the +12 dB gain to the Kiwi's channel, its entire spectrum suddenly went very low.
I put the Kiwi back on its original splitter, and also rebooted the BBAI and Kiwi. Now, the AM broadcaster is steady at -75 dBm. In other words, -3 dB lower than before.
Could this test have damaged the Kiwi? If so, is there anything I can do about it?
Comments
The Elad doesn't put DC on its outputs does it? If so it might have damaged the Kiwi TVS input diodes. Seems unlikely though.