[Skimmertalk] Skimmer Server and QS1R

[Ricky Walker]

All,

I have recently purchased a QS1R receiver for the purpose of putting Skimmer Server on-line at my station.  I have noticed a couple of things since activating this configuration.  First, the QS1R seems to be a bit more sensitive than my SDR-IQ receivers, which is a good thing.  Second, I have noticed that all the spots produced by the "Skimmer Server/QS1R" combo are as much as 200 Hz off of zero beat.  I have gone through the calibration procedure for the QS1R several times, but nothing I do seems to make much difference when the QS1R is used by Skimmer Server.  BTW, when I activate the QS1R Server and the SDRMAXGUI, I can see that my attempts at calibration make a difference in the performance of the QS1R.  I even went so far as to severely miscalibrate the QS1R to see if it would make a difference in the spot frequencies produced by Skimmer Server.  From what I can tell, this had no noticable effect.  I checked the SkimSrv.ini file to see if
 there was a calibration parameter embedded there, and was unable to find such a parameter.  Does anyone know how Skimmer Server interacts with the QS1R and if it's possible to perform some sort of meaningful calibration on this combination?

FWIW, I have six SDR-IQ receivers, all of which are closely calibrated to WWV at 10 MHz.  These six receivers produce spots that are almost exactly zero beat with the results I obtain with the automatic zero-beat function on my K3 XCVRs.  I was hoping for similar performance with the Skimmer Server/QS1R combination as well...  Any information, thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

73,

Rick
K4TD