[Moon-net] Winrad 1.24 released

[Alberto di Bene]

Lance Collister wrote:
> Dear Alberto,
> 
> I just connected my SDR-IQ to the computer and it seems to work FB with 
> the new version of Winrad ;-)  The only problem I have is that I can't 
> seem to get it to work with Spectravue at all :-(  Spectravue keeps 
> saying the connection is "IDLE" and I have loaded the proper SDR-IQ USB 
> driver, too.

Dear Lance,

    Winrad and SpectraVue cannot run at the same time, nor be started, even if idle, at the same time... the reason 
being that both try to control the USB port where the SDR-IQ is connected. When you want to run SpectraVue, you have to 
close down Winrad completely, not just to stop it.

 > Can anybody tell me what the little red and yellow LED's
> on the SDR-IQ are for?  The yellow LED light blinks rapidly.  The red 
> LED never comes on.

The yellow led blinks fast when data are being sent via the USB port to the PC. When idle, it undergoes an on-off cycle 
with a period of a couple of seconds. The red led indicates overload. You can then lower the RF gain in the SDR-IQ panel 
of Winrad. It is the RF gain that you want to lower, _not_ the IF gain...
> 
> How can I tell if the RF gain is adequate going into the SDR-IQ?  The  
> no-signal S meter reading on Winrad never seems to read lower than S1, 
> and with a high level of drive from my converter, it reads S3.

The S-meter of Winrad behaves as all the S-meters should theoretically behave...:-) An indication of S1 means 48 dB less 
than S9. Being S9 equal to -73 dBm, then S1 is -121 dBm, i.e. about 0.2 uV on 50 ohm. I bet that if you connect an 
antenna to a HF receiver and tune it to an empty spot of any HF band, even in absence of man-made noise, the atmospheric 
noise voltage at the antenna terminals is more than 0.2 uV, so the S-meter should not go below S1. But on many HF 
receivers, my Mark V included, this is not true... it takes a good amount of signal to make the first lighted bar in the 
rig S-meter to appear...
If the Winrad S-meter does not go above S3, then probably the level slider of the Windows mixer relative to your sound 
card is set too low...

 > I want to be sure I have enough converter output to drive my regular receiver plus
> SDR-IQ/Winrad, but am not sure how I can tell if the RF drive is high 
> enough.

If you adjust the gains in your chain so that the red led does not ever light in the SDR-IQ, then you can maximize the 
dynamic range by keeping the level of the signal just below the ADC saturation point.
> 
> I have a roller mouse and have never used the roller on  it until now - 
> BOY THAT IS REALLY SMOOTH TUNING!  I can't wait to try to figure out if 
> there might be a way to use JT65 with this!
> 
> TNX for any tips anyone might have.  VY 73, Lance

73  Alberto  I2PHD