jks
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- jks
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Band Bars Overlapping
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Band Bars Overlapping
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Uncommanded 26 dB attenuation, SMA connector tightening
There is a software bug (v1.665 and earlier) that has been observed by a number of people now. The attenuator becomes set to about 26 dB of attenuation even though the slider on the user RF tab and admin page config tab all say zero. Worse, the problem persists across restarts.
I have reviewed the code and can't see an obvious issue. So the next release, v1.666, has a bunch of debugging added to log the problem so I can fix it. You can clear this problem by simply changing to attenuator to a non-zero value and then back to zero on the user RF tab slider (changing the admin slider won't fix the problem). If your Kiwi is public you might want to consider making the RF attenuator adjustable by "everyone" for this reason. Setting on the admin page, config tab. My apologies for this very annoying bug.
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About SMA connector torque: Many of you will know more about this than me. But I'll tell you what I know.
You have to be careful with SMA connectors. Because the fittings are brass they have to be torqued tight enough to make a good ground connection on the outer threads. But you don't want to use a wrench that supplies too much torque because that will deform the soft brass and then the connector will be ruined.
So if you think signal levels from your antenna are down try finger tightening the threads a little bit more. But don't use a tool unless you're extremely careful. You can use the self-test function of the signal generator extension with the SMA-to-SMA cable that was supplied with the Kiwi to verify the Kiwi's RF front end is working properly. Procedure described here: http://kiwisdr.com/quickstart/#id-self-test
Hewlett-Packard used to ship a special SMA/SMB connector torquing tool as part of the service kits for their test equipment just for this reason. But it was very expensive if purchased separately. Hundreds of dollars! Anyone remember that?
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Hackers be hacking..
An alert Kiwi owner/admin has sent me some suspicious log messages. They are obvious hacking attempts. If you see anything similar or unusual in your logs I'd appreciate it if you could forward the relevant log messages to support@kiwisdr.com
I'm particularly interested in log messages containing
### SECURITY: NO AUTH YET:
And also
**** unknown stream type
And any attempted admin login messages from IP addresses you're not expecting.
So far the Kiwi security mechanisms appear to be working and there has not been any evidence of any breaches. Please be sure you have a good, strong admin password in place.
The IP address in question has been added to the IP blacklist which your Kiwi should receive during the overnight update window. You can also update it manually on the admin page, network tab.
Thank you.
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API?