[Skimmertalk] Fwd: Decode range? Skimmer and PowerSDR ?

[Andrew O'Brien]

Thanks again Bob.  I will try again later tonight, busy at work so not as
much continuous time as I would like for this project.  Part of the issues
(aside from my old brain) is slightly conflicting help files.  Some saying
use WDM, some saying MME, .  Some saying set radio to "none" some saying
set radio to PowerSDR. I am fairly certain I used the article you
reference, above. One odd thing this morning, that you may
have partly answered, is what I saw on the PowerSDR screen did
NOT correspond to what I saw on CW Skimmer screen   Example, I had a CW
signal calling CQ on PowerSDR at around 14022.  On CW Skimmer, his CQ came
in as "-11".  ON several occasions, despite many CW signals in PowerSDR,
there was nothing on the CW Skimmer screen.  So the two screens seem
totally unrelated.  That is where I left things when I needed to go to the
office this morning.  I have successfully set up CW Skimmer with Omni rig
in the past, for 3Khz mode using a Kenwood TS2000 in sync.  I have
also frequently used CW Skimmer with an SDR-IQ  and Spotcollector.  This
morning , briefly,  I had the CW Skimmer frequency change from 0.0 to a
match with my PowerSDR frequency but when I then changed frequency in
PowerSDR, CW Skimmer stopped following it.

I suspect that I need to get them both fully sync'd, and then things will
work as they should.

Andy'


On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 1:57 PM, Bob Wilson, N6TV <n6tv at arrl.net> wrote:

> You need to feed the I/Q "IF output" of the Flex radio to the VAC sound
> card, not the "AF audio" output.  Did you select WDM or MME?
>
> From http://kc.flexradio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50357.aspx:
>
> *VAC Installation*
> Please refer to the KC article, How to Setup Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) 4.0x
> with PowerSDR 1.x <http://kc.flexradio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50230.aspx
> >,
> for instructions on how to configureVAC.
>
> NOTE: For this configuration, select the Windows WDM-KS driver in the
> PowerSDR VAC Cable setup described in step 6.
>
> The text in blue is really important.  The linked article describes that as
> an option, but you must select it, apparently.
>
> Set the CW Skimmer Signal I/O to VAC 2 as shown in the first link.
>
> Also, CW Skimmer needs to communicate to the PowerSDR to determine the true
> HF frequency.  Is the frequency display on CW Skimmer correct?
>
> 73,
> Bob, N6TV
>
> On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 3:26 AM, Andrew O'Brien <k3ukandy at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Duh, found another of my mistakes.  I needed to activate VAC1 in PowerSDR
> > when in CW mode. So, next issue is the decode bandwidth range of CW
> SKimmer
> > when interfaced with a Flex 1500 and power SDR .  It seems to me that I
> am
> > only getting CQs from Skimmer from signals within the audio range of the
> > PowerSDR filter width rather than decode CQs from the entire 48 Khz of
> > spectrum that I see on the PowerSDR.
> >
> > Andy K3UK
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 5:56 AM, Andrew O'Brien <k3ukandy at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> >
> >> Thanks again Bob.  I am making progress.  I did have a few things wrong
> >> in VAC.  I have now set VAC to the settings suggested by Flex knowledge
> >> base.  CW Skimmer now works without error , set as Softrock IF.   I
> don't
> >> see CW working (CW signals not  visible in Skimmer waterfall)  if I have
> >> PowerSDR in a non-digital mode.  I do get signals in the Skimmer
> waterfall
> >> if I am in a digital mode on PowerSDR.  Perhaps the settings for VAC
> need
> >> something different for Skimmer compared to those suggested on the Flex
> web
> >> site.?
> >>
> >> An
> >>
> >
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