[Skimmertalk] Skimmer Signal Detection Levels

[Pete Smith]

I have definitely seen this, Rick.  Another potential issue is on the lower 
bands, where QRN or QSB may interfere with getting the requisite 2 copies 
of a callsign needed to produce a spot.

73, Pete

At 12:10 PM 10/29/2008, Rick Walker wrote:
>All,
>
>I have been conducting some very informal experiments here at my station
>with my 6 skimmers.  I have 6 SDR-IQ receivers all fed by a single receive
>antenna.  What I have observed is that there are cases where the skimmer
>software doesn't decode a weak signal even though it is clearly visible in
>the skimmer waterfall display and audible in the audio output of the skimmer
>application.  I did validate that the skimmer application does assign a
>decoder to this class of signal, however, the decoder doesn't produce
>anything on these weak signal levels.  It appears to me that when the
>skimmer application shows a signal to have a SNR of 5 (or 6) dB or less, the
>decoders don't produce anything even though there are clear visible and
>audible indications that the signal is present.
>
>Is anyone else noticing this?  Most importantly, am I doing something wrong
>here?
>
>73,
>
>Rick
>K4TD
>
>
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