[Skimmertalk] Deaf QS1R

[Andy KU7T]

Bob,

I have made a few more measurements and confirmed the Low pass at the input is fine. So, I am declaring my QS1R dead. ☹

Regarding the Stemlabs/Red Pitaya, someone mentioned a new one is coming out.

What is the difference between new and old?
Is the old one (+ transformer) just as performant as the new one?

Thanks and 73
Andy
KU7T

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________________________________
From: Bob Wilson, N6TV <n6tv at arrl.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2018 8:49:42 AM
To: Andy KU7T; SkimmerTalk Reflector
Subject: Re: [Skimmertalk] Deaf QS1R

On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 11:58 PM Andy KU7T <ku7t at ku7t.org<mailto:ku7t at ku7t.org>> wrote:
Can only hear my signal very, very low. Tried HDSDR, with same results.

Thanks.  If you hear signals just fine when you connect the same cable to an "RX ANT" input of your transceiver, then it highly likely that the QS1R needs to be repaired (GL with that).

Need to study the Red Pitaya, althrough I can only find a product called Stem labs. Assuming this is the same?  How good is it and is it widely used?

Yes, many of us have switched to the Red Pitaya STEMlab 125-14 starter kit for 8-band skimming, as performance is just as good as the QS1R  (when properly configured with a 14:1 transformer<https://www.kkn.net/~n6tv/XFMR/> on the input), plus you get two antenna inputs instead of just one.  See:

http://hamsci.org/cw-reverse-beacon-network-how-guide
http://hamsci.org/n6tv-red-pitaya-combine-cw-rtty-skimmer-hdsdr
  (some links out-of-date, I will update eventually)
https://github.com/HrochL/CWSL/tree/master/bin

A new model is coming that will be even better, but it may be months away from availability (I will try to find out).

https://www.redpitaya.com/n86/new-stemlab-sdr

73,
Bob, N6TV