¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Hi Dave,

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I just get echos from the tinySA with everything that I wrote, these echos come from the device, the terminal program has the echo option disabled.

This should be really easy, do you know of any step by step tutorial explaining it, a Youtube video perhaps?

The installed firmware is v0.3, I did not tried any newer version yet. Could be this the cause? I don't think so, because it communicates with tinySA.exe on the PC.

Thank you,

Ignacio EB4APL

9600 baud
command prompt:? ? ch>

Dave W6ZL

_._,_._,_

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El 24/08/2020 a las 10:46, Kurt Poulsen escribi¨®:

Hi Ignacio
Sorry to tune in on this matter. I think the tax and Custom system are not much different than her in Denmark. DHL is forced to do this sort of VAT and custom duties, and cannot leave it to do this clearence yourself except you are a company and registered for importing such kind of stuff. As a private person DHL has to honor the national rules about VAT and tax duties collection. It would be the same sort of charges if delivered thru the national post service so my point of view is that your protest is not justified. DHL is just doing what they are forced to do.

I'm not protesting about the VAT and duties charges, I always pay these. Probably in Denmark you, as a private person, cannot personally make the clearance but here in Spain any individual can do the clearance for items sent for him, I have done it much times. This is very easy: you go to the customs office at the destination airport, gives to the customs officer the shipping documents (got them from DHL, the National Post or the subject carrier, they are located very close to the customs office for obvious reasons) and a copy of the invoice, you get a payment document, pay it at a near bank office and go to to the customs officer and you get the package.

My protest is about DHL proceeding to the clearance (and charging me their fees) without asking me before.

In my country any far east purchase with a declared value inclusive shipping cost below 13 US$, is not subject to VAT and TAX duties and I have received several DHL shipments for no extra cost solely pending the decaled value.
Many Ebay sellers cheat and declare fake declared value and those is also passing the National post service straight away
Kind regards
Kurt

This will be my final post on the subject, it is becoming more and more OT.

Regards,

Ignacio

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: [email protected] <[email protected]> P? vegne af EB4APL
Sendt: 22. august 2020 01:41
Til: [email protected]
Emne: Re: [tinysa] They arrived too!

Hi Rachel,

Probably I didn't explained it well, I don't have any problem with paying custom duties (as I also pay all my taxes). The actual amount was 10€ and it was according to the rules. But my complain was that DHL charged me with 20€ for their customs clearing service, a service that I had not requested. Other carriers phones you informing that they have a shipment for me and it is needed to clear the customs and pay the duties, and they offers to do the service for me. Depending on the circumstances, I give them the ok or rather I perform the clearance myself. On the contrary DHL ringed my door with the shipment on hand and asking for 30.90€.

Regards,

Ignacio, EB4APL



El 19/08/2020 a las 15:53, RACHAEL SANDERS escribi¨®:

On the other hand if vat or duty is due according to said countries rules. We, as in the customer, ought to pay it.

We should not avoid it. It pays towards our society services after all.
Otherwise we are as corrupt as other countries despotic leaders ..........just in a smaller way. Nevertheless still corrupt!

On 18 Aug 2020, at 16:52, EB4APL <eb4apl@...> wrote:

?Today DHL delivered me a couple of tinySA.

Still no powered it up, but I want to note that the packaging was really good, thanks Maggie.

The only negative comment is about DHL. DHL is a carrier and also a customs clearance agent and they make extra money with it.

When using normal mail for receiving parcels from China usually I have not to pay anything, but DHL charged me 10€ for customs duties plus 20€ for the "service".

I forgot to say Maggie to sent it using common mail, it is cheaper for both.

I had a similar experience when I bought my first AirSpy SDR receiver, I choose FedEx or UPS (I don't remember which one) instead of common mail expecting a safer service, but when it arrived they called me asking for a ridiculous sum for clearing the customs. I refused and made the clearance myself, not before a long discussion about charging me just for giving me the shipping documents.

So when I bought another Airspy receiver I choose mail and the parcel arrived at my door without paying any extra.

This may not apply to all countries, but it is true for Spain and even worse for other countries.

Now I (and a friend) have another toy to play with.

Regards,

Ignacio EB4APL

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Hi Ignacio
Sorry to tune in on this matter. I think the tax and Custom system are not much different than her in Denmark. DHL is forced to do this sort of VAT and custom duties, and cannot leave it to do this clearence yourself except you are a company and registered for importing such kind of stuff. As a private person DHL has to honor the national rules about VAT and tax duties collection. It would be the same sort of charges if delivered thru the national post service so my point of view is that your protest is not justified. DHL is just doing what they are forced to do.
In my country any far east purchase with a declared value inclusive shipping cost below 13 US$, is not subject to VAT and TAX duties and I have received several DHL shipments for no extra cost solely pending the decaled value.
Many Ebay sellers cheat and declare fake declared value and those is also passing the National post service straight away
Kind regards
Kurt

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: [email protected] <[email protected]> P? vegne af EB4APL
Sendt: 22. august 2020 01:41
Til: [email protected]
Emne: Re: [tinysa] They arrived too!

Hi Rachel,

Probably I didn't explained it well, I don't have any problem with paying custom duties (as I also pay all my taxes). The actual amount was 10€ and it was according to the rules. But my complain was that DHL charged me with 20€ for their customs clearing service, a service that I had not requested. Other carriers phones you informing that they have a shipment for me and it is needed to clear the customs and pay the duties, and they offers to do the service for me. Depending on the circumstances, I give them the ok or rather I perform the clearance myself. On the contrary DHL ringed my door with the shipment on hand and asking for 30.90€.

Regards,

Ignacio, EB4APL

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It's a usb device. Ignore the speed and just connect to the usb port the SA is connected to.?

9600 baud
command prompt:? ? ch>

Dave W6ZL

Hi,

I'm trying to send console commands to the tinySA, but I don't know
which speed should I use.

Also, I have seen ch> and > as the command preamble. Which one is the
right one?

Thank you,

Ignacio EB4APL


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On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 06:59 AM, Martin wrote:

Having used expensive test equipment throughout my professional career, I learnt that it was always a good idea to keep a low power 20dB attenuator connected to the input of a spectrum analyser or output of an RF generator, unless on the odd occasion when you need higher sensitivity or more output power.

The attenuator would tend to act as an RF fuse if you ever accidentally stuffed too much RF up the cable, and would protect the more expensive equipment from major damage on the odd occasion when you did something silly in the haste of the moment.

However as the tiny SA costs almost as much as a decent attenuator at new prices, it would maybe seem that it is a cheaper option throw away the test equipment rather than risk an attenuator :-)

How times have changed.

Martin,
? ?My manager called me into his office one time inquiring about why we needed to order 20watt attenuators periodically.? After I explained the cost difference between the attenuators versus repairing the front end of a receiver or spectrum analyzer his only comment was, "Carry on".

? As you said its cheaper to purchase a spare tinySA than what we paid for lab quality attenuators. You can justify a second tinySA to yourself not only as a spare spectrum analyzer, but also as a separate RF source if you don't already own a suitable generator.

- Herb

On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 08:09 AM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:

1. So in MARKER/MARKER SEARCH/ add an option GLOBAL MAXIMUM?
? ?[A more conventional term would be MARKER PEAK?but, as Kurt once said, the tinySA has options sometimes not available on a conventional spectrum analyzer and therefore, can use its own naming conventions.]

2. If you do a marker search on a tracking marker it automatically becomes a normal marker. Is that behavior OK?
? ?[I don't usually do a search on a tracking marker because it will override the search and jump back to tracking - except when the display is paused.? Its logical that if a user does a search using a tracking marker that they probably no longer want tracking behavior to apply, so I would agree with you that switching to normal marker mode is the correct behavior.]

Forgot to ask

3. The zero Hz peak can not be ignored in a GLOBAL MAXIMUM search as it is unclear how far to ignore (starting from 0Hz). OK?
? ? [Yes.? The user will learn soon enough that any measurements with the zero peak visible will affect measurements like marker peak?and that the tinySA settings need to be changed to minimize its impact.? This is not only true with the tinySA but Agilent and R&S spectrum analyzers that I have used.]

4. So in MARKER/MARKER SEARCH/ add an option GLOBAL MAXIMUM???
? ?[My preferred option name would be MARKER PEAK?but most of the other menu names you have chosen have grown on me.? For me its more the added functionality than anything else.? Also, if you do manage to add this menu item to a future update, then adding a corresponding??marker x peak?(sends marker x to the display peak value and returns the value and frequency) to the console command list would be helpful.]

Thanks for considering.

- Herb

Forgot to ask.
The zero Hz peak can not be ignored in a GLOBAL MAXIMUM search as it is unclear how far to ignore (starting from 0Hz). OK?

So in MARKER/MARKER SEARCH/ add an option GLOBAL MAXIMUM?
If you do a marker search on a tracking marker it automatically becomes a normal marker. Is that behavior OK?

Having used expensive test equipment throughout my professional career, I learnt that it was always a good idea to keep a low power 20dB attenuator connected to the input of a spectrum analyser or output of an RF generator, unless on the odd occasion when you need higher sensitivity or more output power.

The attenuator would tend to act as an RF fuse if you ever accidentally stuffed too much RF up the cable, and would protect the more expensive equipment from major damage on the odd occasion when you did something silly in the haste of the moment.

However as the tiny SA costs almost as much as a decent attenuator at new prices, it would maybe seem that it is a cheaper option throw away the test equipment rather than risk an attenuator :-)

How times have changed.

Regards,

Martin

On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 06:31 AM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:

On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 06:21 AM, hwalker wrote:

The tracking marker is supposed to track the peak of the displayed signal but, as shown in the following screen shot, that is not always the case.?

I added some explanation to the wiki:?
In short. If no maximum (at least NOISE LEVEL above the surrounding minima) is found the tracking marker is positioned at the start of the trace.

? ?Thanks for the explanation.? I'll add it to my notes.? It also explains why max->right search places the marker at the end of the trace.?

? ? My only comment is that the behavior makes sense for a tracking marker but a normal marker should just go to the maximum displayed level, or the first one found searching left to right if there are multiple display points of equal maximum value.? That is how the max or peak function works on other spectrum analyzers I have used.
? ?
? ?Any chance of adding a marker->search->peak? button that functions the same way?

- Herb

On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 06:21 AM, hwalker wrote:

The tracking marker is supposed to track the peak of the displayed signal but, as shown in the following screen shot, that is not always the case.?

I added some explanation to the wiki:?
In short. If no maximum (at least NOISE LEVEL above the surrounding minima) is found the tracking marker is positioned at the start of the trace.

Erik,
? A question came up while I was demonstrating the tinySA to some club members.

? The tracking marker is supposed to track the peak of the displayed signal but, as shown in the following screen shot, that is not always the case.? The screen shot is the tinySA 30MHz calibration output at 100kHz span. The manually placed marker 2 is 1.5dB higher than the tracking marker 1. Also, a max-left or max-right moves either marker to -26.3dBm instead of -24.8dBm.



- Herb

Er, yes. ?I was not the person in danger of connecting a delicate piece of equipment to a transmitter, just offering some alternative strategies.

I did not spend my working life with peofessional/ commercial gear, but had radio/ electronics as a hobby from the age of 10. I added vintage computers along the way. My hobby actually kept me sane during the sometimes brutal years of my medical training.

My working life was spent anaesthetising many of my patients and waking some of them up again.

Steve L. G7PSZ

Hi Rachel,

Probably I didn't explained it well, I don't have any problem with paying custom duties (as I also pay all my taxes). The actual amount was 10€ and it was according to the rules. But my complain was that DHL charged me with 20€ for their customs clearing service, a service that I had not requested. Other carriers phones you informing that they have a shipment for me and it is needed to clear the customs and pay the duties, and they offers to do the service for me. Depending on the circumstances, I give them the ok or rather I perform the clearance myself. On the contrary DHL ringed my door with the shipment on hand and asking for 30.90€.

Regards,

Ignacio, EB4APL

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On Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 01:45 AM, Stephen Laurence wrote:

I cannot imagine anyone being so absent- minded as to connect any test gear (other than dummy load or a power meter/inline swr meter etc) to ANY transmitter or generator of rf.

You've apparently never used a signal generator from HP or Rohde & Schwarz and likely others.? Many of them have reverse power protection up to 50 watts, some up to 100 watts.? And you've apparently never used a communications service monitor, such as those from IFR, HP, Cushman, Motorola, and others.? Those are generally used for two-way radio service, and it is common to connect a transceiver to one.? Many of those will accept input power up to 100 watts, some as high as 150 watts.? If you had spent your career servicing mobile radios with a service monitor, you wouldn't think anything of keying up into a piece of test equipment.

Of course, you'd learn a? quick lesson the first time (and hopefully last time) you keyed a 100 watt transmitter into your tinySA!

I usually use a 30dB high power attenuator for a watt to milliwatt conversion, with an additional 10 or 20 dB low power attenuator for power levels of 10 or 100 watts respectively.
Gary
W9TD

I mever nake mistteacks...

73,

Bill KU8H

bark less - wag more