[CQ-Contest] Skimmer DR

[Bill Tippett]

W4PA:

 >I was wondering what the available DR of the Skimmer itself might be -- there
isn't a claimed specification page.  Outside of Amateur Radio, Ten-Tec provides
receivers that are used for wideband decoding of radio spectrum with a variety
of devices (or software, often both) that are hung off the IF and/or audio
outputs.

 >These devices/software have a dynamic range that is inherent and can be the
limiting factor itself in the ability to decode what is heard on the spectrum
-- receiver performance can exceed their available range.  If the software
itself has (picking a number out of the air) 70 dB of available range, the
loudest signals available to it will make the smaller signals unreadable.
During a contest, that would be certainly a potential issue!

         The DSP's DR will depend on the specific sound card,
but should be in the order of 100 dB (without external AGC),
assuming a 24-bit sound card.  This is similar to the DSP
in Orion, K3, Flex, etc.  These rigs all extend their DR by
using analog AGC to limit over-driving their ADC.  ~100 dB
should cover most receiving situations excluding overload
problems from local transmitters (i.e. the BDR problem
mentioned previously).

                                         73,  Bill  W4ZV

P.S.  Regarding the K3's buffered IF output which would drive Skimmer:

The K3 IF output is derived before the roofing IF filters and its
bandwidth is only limited by the width of the front end bandpass LC
filters, which are typically several hundred kHz wider than the ham band
you are operating on.

73, Eric   WA6HHQ