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Re: New SA User - Basic Question on TinySA #tinysa


 

To look at your HF signal with an RTL-SDR you will also need a transverter (like a Ham-It-Up or a Spyverter), or an RTL-SDR dongle that has the modification to allow the use of the direct sampling mode. If you're buying one now, I recommend the dongles designed for ham use from either RTL-SDR Blog or Nooelec; they are a bit more expensive than generic ones but they have useful features like a TCXO master oscillator and SMA connectors, they are set up for direct sampling, and they have the protective diodes on the inputs that some cheap clones lack.

The direct sampling mode will leave a gap in coverage when your signal is too high in frequency for direct sampling but too low for the tuner to reach, but it will let you look at your SSB signal on the lower HF bands at least. If you're trying to test a 15 meter transmitter you're probably out of luck.

An SDR can also be a useful tool for looking for phase noise issues and other?near-in signal problems. But you'll need one with a larger dynamic range than the RTL-SDR. I'm very fond of my Airspy HF+ Discovery for that, and it's also a fine receiver when I don't have it on the bench. You still won't be able to find as much as you could with a professional-grade lab instrument, but you can certainly identify egregious failures.

An approach that can be useful is to find a problem area with the tinySA and then have a closer look at the offending frequency range with the SDR. For example, you can see whether the spur is a single spike or a modulated signal; that will give you a clue where the problem is.

On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 10:35 AM Erik Kaashoek <erik@...> wrote:
Josh,
You are right. As stated in the wiki the lower RBW is a limitation. For analysis of SSB signals you can use an RTL-SDR with appropriate? attenuation.

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