G8JNJ

@Lonecrow

"That diagram there - the chokes are "as needed" right? Or do you need 2 for sure? Those brown lines above the "ground" symbol. What are they? Thinking of how I could ground coax without making another cut."

Yes the 'chokes are as needed' you will reach a point where adding more makes little or no difference.

The brown lines were meant to indicate the noise level being carried on the outer of the coax screen gradually diminishing as it gets closer to the actual antenna.

The three stepped horizontal bar symbols are ground connections and meant to indicate the addition of earth rod's, which like the chokes are "as needed".

You can ground coax by carefully stripping back the outer insulation and tightly wrapping some wire around the screen (if it is copper and you can very quickly solder with a hot iron even better) then tightly wrap the connection with some self amalgamating tape and cover with normal PVC insulation tape for a water and UV resistant joint.

I hope that now makes a bit more sense.

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

After all that I forgot to raise the point that I originally intended.

I think the built in WSPR decoder is adequate for casual users. It's a bit like the FSK and Fax decoders. They are perfectly OK for a quick 'look see' but serious users would probably use an external decoder fed via a sound-card loop-back or VAC.

At lest there is a good technical workaround for WSPR and 'serious' users now have the option of being able to use up to 8 RX channels too, which I think is a very good solution.

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

Hi All,

I think that maybe we are all loosing sight of what the KiWi was originally designed to do and what it is now capable of.

A while ago John posted a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_good_deed_goes_unpunished

Which I think nicely sums up the situation today. John has managed to achieve a fantastic amount of functionality in the KiWi, but unfortunately human nature being what it is, this just leads to us all (well me certainly) tending to want even more, no matter how technically difficult and no matter how much Scotty would have protested that “Ye cannae change the laws of physics”.

I suspect that we have now well gone past the point of 'diminishing returns' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns so perhaps we need to be more realistic about what is desirable, possible, or what is likely to cause John to "spontaneously combust" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion if we carry on urging him to try and do even more with less.

My apologies to John, for all my reduculous requests and crazy suggestions, and I hope that's enough metaphor's in one posting for folks to consider :-)

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

Hi Dave,

I think part of the problem is that the KiWi tunes to the center of the signal when you click on the waterfall rather than to the carrier frequency in the case of USB or LSB. Hence the bandwidth is relative to that center frequency.

There have been lots of discussions in the past about the waterfall tuning point, with arguments for and against tuning to the 'missing' carrier frequency in the case of SSB. I think most amateurs are used to tuning to the carrier, but Johns argument was that most KiWi users would instinctively click on the midde of a signal they see on the waterfall rather than to one edge or the other depending upon if it's USB, LSB or something else.

Personally I like tuning to the carrier, as you can easily swap between USB, LSB and AM, but I understand John's point, and it's his baby :-)

I don't think that defining the upper and lower pass-band points is a bad feature, most amateur transceivers and SDR's (usually by dragging the filter 'edges' on the waterfall) work in that way, although they may also have narrow, normal and wide presets for quick changes.

I think it's just a quirk of the KiWi, just like any other transceiver or software application.

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

Hi John,

Ah my fault. I hadn't realised that selecting one of the coloured tabs on the config page actually selected the method, I thought they were just tabs to access the config entry boxes. I'd accidentally left the reverse proxy tab set the last time viewed the separate options and then exited the page.

Now I've been made aware of it I properly understand the notes above the tabs.

Thanks for the quick fix, and apologies for the confusion.

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

@Lonecrow

Two things make a difference to the Mini-Whip signal level. The height above 'ground' and the length of the actual Whip element.

PA3FWM has some good notes on the subject.

http://www.pa3fwm.nl/technotes/tn07.html

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

Yes, unfortunately you have two massive AM broadcast signals on 760KHz and 800KHz.

As a temporary measure try attenuating the input signal by about 10dB.

A longer term fix is to build a notch, or high pass filter to reduce the level of the BC stations without reducing the level of other signals.

Some notes on the subject can be found towards the top of this web page.

https://www.g8jnj.net/softwaredefinedradio.htm

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

Hi Ron,

The reduction in IP products with improved amplifier balance are likely to be mostly 2nd order products.

One trick you could try is to place a 1:1 voltage balun (a pair of bilfilar windings with the end of winding one connected to the start of winding two ) across the amplifier input with the center tap to ground. You may need to experiment with the number of turns and type of ferrite but this is likely to be just as effective (and easier to construct) as an isolating input transformer with a grounded center tap on the secondary (amplifier input) side.

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ

This thread covers splitting GPS feeds.

http://forum.kiwisdr.com/discussion/comment/3949#Comment_3949

Another success today - I emailed Esteban, EA8DGL, and asked if he could enable his GPS as he's in a great location for TDoA in the Canary Islands just of the West coast of Africa.

He very kindly did this today and he's now appearing on the TDoA map :-)

The other good news is that he's just got his Amateur licence and permission to put a better antenna up, so hopefully reception will soon be even better.

My thanks to Esteban for doing this.

If anyone else feels like emailing other KiWi owners in key locations that would be very helpful too.

Maybe we should compile a 'hit' list ?

Regards,

Martin - G8JNJ