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Hi,
I'm awaiting the delivery of my X6100, and I am gathering as much info as possible from the internet.
Being an SDR user since 2004 (many receivers) and until recently an Elad FMS-DUO and still owning the SDR TRX-DUO, I wanted a portable SDR (hybrid) tranceiver.
Some x6100 things are not really to my liking.
- The sometimes big spurs coming showing en the centre of the waterfall. These are caused by the imbalance of the I/Q signal. This is normally calculated in the software to and have a lesser impact on the reception and waterfall. Any chance of improving on this within the firmware or by hack?
- The waterfall is way under performing by what I use on a daily basis with SDRconsole. I know that the 800x400 screen can not perform miracles. Still, the contrast between the strongest and weakest signals is very low. I experience that a 50 dBm dynamic range will offer the best performance, and this in combination with a better colour choice of the different grades can offer a huge improvement in spotting small intelligent signals. A faster speed will be out of the question as it will put a (too) big load on the CPU processor. This can also be changed in the Firmware without much effort.
- Are there any of the boards inside the x6100 that had an upgrade since its introduction 2 years ago? Maybe things are better screened, or so? And is the battery autonomy improved anyhow.
Any thoughts or info are welcome?
73' Ron Liekens
ON2RON
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On Wed, Aug 23, 2023 at 01:06 PM, Ron Liekens wrote:
- The sometimes big spurs coming showing en the centre of the waterfall. These are caused by the imbalance of the I/Q signal. This is normally calculated in the software to and have a lesser impact on the reception and waterfall. Any chance of improving on this within the firmware or by hack?
The peak in the center is not always DC skew. Sometimes it's really low frequency noise. There is a DC filter inside the software, but it is fixed. Therefore, this peak is different on different bands. Perhaps in my firmware I implement it so that it can be individually suppressed on different bands.
A faster speed will be out of the question as it will put a (too) big load on the CPU processor. This can also be changed in the Firmware without much effort
Calculating the FFT for this processor is a negligible burden (CPU usage 1-2%). The main problem with the slow spectrum is that digitization takes place on the side of the BB processor (STM32) and then the signal is sent to the main processor to calculate the spectrum and display it. In this case, the signal from BB comes in pieces with holes between them. Therefore, there is no way to speed up the spectrum, there is simply not enough data.
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Oleg,
Thanks for the explanation. OK, about the skew. But is it possible to get an offset from the skew, let's say a by fixed 10 kHz,? left or right or something in that ballpark, so the received signal is not obscured by it.
What about the waterfall colours and its dynamic range. It will gain a lot of detailed visibility. I have made a bunch of custom colour schemes in SDRconsole or you can use the well known "Linrad" colour scheme that is available for use. You can ask Leif, SM5BSZ about it as he designed it.
Best regards,
Ron - ON2RON
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On Wed, Aug 23, 2023 at 02:44 PM, Ron Liekens wrote:
But is it possible to get an offset from the skew, let's say a by fixed 10 kHz,? left or right or something in that ballpark, so the received signal is not obscured by it.
Do you mean shift the received signal from the center? No, this is not yet possible.
What about the waterfall colours and its dynamic range. It will gain a lot of detailed visibility.
In my firmware, a convenient and affordable setting of the minimum spectrum level (noise shelf) and maximum is made. Therefore, there is no problem with contrast. I will change something in colors or in general in the GUI only when a professional designer joins the project.
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Oleg, are the FFT and Waterfall settings separate and not linked?
73' Ron
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On Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 03:23 PM, Ron Liekens wrote:
Oleg, are the FFT and Waterfall settings separate and not linked?
Not really. The zoom in the spectrum is independent of the waterfall, but the settings for the min/max levels are general. This is logical.
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Oleg,
To have a good working waterfall, you have to keep the min/max setting independent of the FFT to get good visibility. I do this every day with SDRconsole. Simon Brown knows very well to keep these separated. This, besides a few other things, SDRconsole has the best visualization of all SDR software programs. This is also used in radio astrology to detect weak signals.
It seems that many SDR developers do not see the benefits of a good working waterfall. It is not a show gimmick, but a tool! One of the worst cases I encountered very recently is shown in the development of SDRconnect (SDRplay). Even the big Japan boxes are mediocre on this topic.
I included 2 screenshots. One with a good waterfall dynamic range (50 dBm) and one with a bad dynamic range (too big). You can see this in the waterfall scale on the right of the screen. Notice that the FFT min/max has NOT been changed by me.
73' Ron
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On Fri, Aug 25, 2023 at 01:20 PM, Ron Liekens wrote:
To have a good working waterfall, you have to keep the min/max setting independent of the FFT to get good visibility.
I don't really understand what you are talking about. Have you tried my firmware? Do you have specific comments on it in terms of the waterfall, or are you talking theoretically? Very often I see in other people's reviews that operators do not set min/max at all and then it looks terrible. In my videos, you will not find this, I build levels quite often (because it is done so conveniently ;)
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Oleg,
Yes, I'm talking theoretically because I'm still waiting for my radio to be delivered. I saw several videos in YouTube with the original firmware and your firmware version. None of them showed a, for me, good waterfall action. I will wait until the delivery and evaluate things happening as they are.
73' Ron
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Oleg and others,
I just replied to a waterfall question on Facebook.
- The base colour is medium blue and should be black or dark blue. This is to provide decent contrast with the plotted signals.
- There should be different colours with gradients.
- The scale must be around 50 dBm dynamic range for good efficiency to show weak signals.
- A variable speed can bring out more detail and eventually show CW dots and dashes or to determine which mode is received.
See the screenshots:
- SDRconsole with a too high set waterfall base, just like in the X6100 as default, and the low in the screenshot should be how it should be.
- NDB test shows the beacons' visibility when set right. Never mind the 3D function here, as it is not present in the X6100.
- Theo Log met amp5 shows many different transmitting modes and some PLC interference on the right plus some digital PSU interference on 6550 kHz. The antenna used was a home brew 36 meter LOG which has a very low gain and low noise floor for best SNR.
Hope some Firmware developers or Xiegu can benefit from this info. These colour schemes and specific settings are my own. I also made some others for specific use, but this is my default.
If you have questions, feel free to ask.
73' Ron
ON2RON
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On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 03:10 PM, Ron Liekens wrote:
I just replied to a waterfall question on Facebook.
- The base colour is medium blue and should be black or dark blue. This is to provide decent contrast with the plotted signals.
In my firmware, the colors of the gradient are in this order: black, blue, red, yellow, white.
- There should be different colours with gradients.
Read above
- The scale must be around 50 dBm dynamic range for good efficiency to show weak signals.
In my firmware waterfall/spectrum high level from -79dBm to -33dBm, and a low level from -127dBm to -85dBm. Thus, the dynamic range may be from 92dB to 6dB.
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Oleg,
Seems nice, and I'm glad some developer has made efforts towards visibility. I will surely try your firmware when my radio is delivered sometime next week. Where can I download your version? Maybe I can help with development if you like. I'm no coder, but some Linux stuff is no stranger to me.
73' Ron
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On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 03:46 PM, Ron Liekens wrote:
Where can I download your version?
https://r1cbu.ru/
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