HPSDR on 70MHz WSPR again

Overnight I remembered that it is possible to control the HPSDR under Cat control. It can emulate the TS-2000. So I went into HPSDR setup and changed Cat control to 4800-N-2 on COM17  and enabled it:-

In the WSPR program under station parameters PTT method was changed to CAT, enable cat was ticked and Kenwood TS-2000 4800-8-N-2, no handshake chosen:-

Remember N8VB VCOM previously set up a virtual com cable between com7 and com17
Now the HPSDR is controlled without DTR etc. WSJT can also control the frequency.
Efforts were rewarded. My signals were heard in Holland:-

2012-12-23 19:12	G4FRE	70.092501	-23	-1	IO82uc	5	PA0O	JO33hg	614	74
2012-12-23 16:08	G4FRE	70.092507	-17	-2	IO82uc	5	PA0O	JO33hg	614	74
2012-12-23 14:56	G4FRE	70.092474	-16	-1	IO82uc	5	PA0O	JO33hg	614	74
2012-12-23 14:22	G4FRE	70.092485	-18	-3	IO82uc	5	PA0O	JO33hg	614	74

And in the UK:-

2012-12-23 15:54	G4FRE	70.092522	-20	0	IO82uc	5	G3SHK	IO90dx	131	162
2012-12-23 12:00	G4FRE	70.092501	-25	-1	IO82uc	5	G0MJI	IO83ni	144	344
2012-12-23 10:32	G4FRE	70.092521	+12	1	IO82uc	5	G3LVP	IO81wv	26	154
2012-12-23 09:24	G4FRE	70.092451	-15	3	IO82uc	5	M0NKA	IO92	95	63

And I heard a signal from Holland:-

2012-12-23 14:02

PA0O

70.092501

-30

-1

JO33hg

50

G4FRE

IO82uc

614

261

HPSDR on 70MHz WSPR

Tonight I decided it was time to work out how to interface the HPSDR to the K1JT WSPR programme and try it on 70MHz. My Penelope board has a -20dB coupler on the output giving 0dBm which is fine for driving my DEMI L70-28 transverter http://downeastmicrowave.com/PDF/VHF-UHFXVERT_pd.pdf (serial number 1!) to 35W maximum. The normal 0.5W output of the Penny board should be terminated in 50 ohms to protect the output stage

I use the W5WC dual RX version of POWERSDR as this allows me two 96kHz chunks of the band to be seen at the same time. Usually one is on the beacons and one is on the calling channel

First I installed my paid for copy of Virtual audio cable which will allow the audio to be connected between the 2 programmes. It was configured to support VAC1 and VAC2.

Next a copy of N8VB's VCOM programme was installed with 2 pairs of cables, COM6>COM16 and COM 7>COM17

In the HPSDR Setup, CAT control TAB the port is set to COM 16, RTS and enabled:-  

Next the VAC setup in HPSDR. VAC1 is setup as VAC2 as the input and VAC1 as the output:-

Next the WSPR programme needed setting. Audio IN is set to VAC1 and audio OUT is set to VAC2. Note these settings are the REVERSE of the HPSDR ones

Drive level to the transverter was set to produce 5W output. The 10MHz reference for the HPSDR was produced by a Thunderbolt GPS unit,  which also, with the help of KE5FX "Lady Heather" Monitoring programme http://www.ke5fx.com/heather/readme.htm was used to set the computer clock every 15 minutes. The 70/28MHz transverter Local Oscillator is not yet GPS locked; an upcoming project based on the G4HUP DFS design

The system was allowed to run whilst packing the Christmas Candy

Looking at the WSPRNET spot database http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spots it was pleasing to see the signal had been seen:-

2012-12-22 22:16	G4FRE	70.092565	-15	0	IO82uc	5	M0NKA	IO92	95	63
2012-12-22 22:16	G4FRE	70.092534	-22	-1	IO82uc	5	PA0TBR	JO22pi	517	84

The PA0BTR spot was the ODX for the days spots on 4m; not bad for my Indoor Halo!

Hermes in motion

 Finally got a few minutes to put together my new SDR radio. I collected the TAPR Hermes Transceiver board mid week http://openhpsdr.org/hermes.php. The PA and enclosure are  from Apache labs https://apache-labs.com/ and have been here for a while. To Interface them together 2 connectors have to be soldered, a resistor removed and a couple of cables hooked up. It is a bit crowded in the box!

Hermes Transceiver board

Apache Labs PA and Filter board

Anan-10 Front Panel

Anan-10 Rear Panel

As can be seen it can select 3 antennas, an ethernet interface to the outside world (can be GIGE), can be locked to GPS, has a low level transverter output, operates 10kHz to 55MHz and produces around 15W from one of the 3 antenna ports

It arrived with V1.8 software but I upgraded it, through the ethernet port to version 2.0 which was released a couple of hours earlier

I hooked it up to the W5WC dual receiver version of Power SDR which allowed monitoring of 500kHz and 40m as can be seen from the following:-

There is software available that allows monitoring 160/80/40/20/15/10 all at the same time with panoramic displays for each although you cant listen to all at the same time

VK6APH has also created software to use the device as a 55MHz VNA allowing transmission/reflection to be measured and displayed as a graph or a smith chart

QtRadio and the HPSDR

With the passing of the Labor day holiday, which traditionally marks the end of Summer in the USA it was time to think of the upcoming LF season. I usually use the HPSDR to receive as it goes down to 100kHz but I want this year to see what is happening on 500kHz from around the house (ie outside the shack). Browsing the openhpsdr web site http://openhpsdr.org/download.php I noticed the ghpsdr3-Qt software which can operate on a server client basis. There are 3 parts to the software,  QtHPSDRServer, which connects to the HPSDR, QtDSPServer  and QtRadio which provides the GUI and audio. All three programmes can be on the same machine, attached to the HPSDR or   QtHPSDRServer and QtDSPServer can be on the HPSDR attached machine and Qt Radio on another machine somewhere else in the Internet cloud

Firstly I unlocked the specified the UDP and TCP ports that would be needed for remote connection

The ghpsdr3-Qt Windows Binaries prepared by KV0S was downloaded and ran. QtHPSDRServer was run but no connection to HPSDR started. It seemed to be looking on a strange IP for the HPSDR which I found specified in QtHPSDRServer.ini supplied in the package.  I deleted the .ini file and it generated a new one. Still no connection and the discovery process didnt work.  Two hours later I found that even though I only have one LAN port on my machine called "Local Area Connection" I had to name it in the .ini file ("interface=Local Area Connection")  Having done this discovery worked and QtHPSDRServer connected to the HPSDR. Progress.

Next I tried launching QtDSPServer from the command line but QtHPSDRServer could not find it. It wasnt until I checked the "autostart QtHPSDRServer" and "autostart QTDSPServer" in QtHPSDRServer that connection was established on launching QtHPSDRServer. Note QtDSPServer has no .ini file as, being on the same machine as QtHPSDRServer it communicates via localhost IP (127.0.0.1)

After adding the machines IP to QtRadio.ini and launching and starting QtRadio we had action. I could hear stations and tune the band on 40m.

I never worked out how to use the keypad dropdown to set frequency but that was a minor inconvenience

I then installed QtRadio on my laptop and could connect to the HPSDR from around the house. Mission Accomplished.I must thank KV0S for answering my email questions on QtRadio.

July 4: Time for radio

Todays USA holiday was used as a chance to catch up on some radio projects.

First I tried out the 6GHz TWT and power supplies which failed during last weekends activities. Miraculously both now worked, one pair produced 27W the other, a bit more temperamental,  only 15W so they were put aside for operations this weekend

While having coffee at around 1700z heard the WF9XRU beacon from Virginia on 70.005 at 529.Antenna is Dipole at 20' feeding a microwave modules converter into the K3

Next the KX3 was interfaced to the Ipad to use the ISDR app as a panadaptor. An IMIC is connected to the IPAD through the Apple USB "camera adaptor". A 3.5mm stereo to 2.5mm cable was made to connect the IMIC to  I/Q output of the KX3.  Note the demodulated audio comes out of the "out" connector of the IMIC, NOT the Ipads speaker, so this was fed to some amplified speakers I have that are normally used for the HPSDR. It worked well but it took me ages to find how to set the vertical signal axis. I eventually found the answer on the ISDR yahoo group. This setting is not controlled from within the ISDR programme but is set from within the "settings" "ISDR" of the Ipad itself. Initially I had to reverse the I/Q settings in ISDR but eventually I crossed over the tip and sleeve connections on the 3.5mm connector and set the menu entry to "normal". The following is a screen capture of 20m from the Ipad

Next it was time to make some audio cables to allow the KX3 to be used on digital modes. Unlike the K3 the KX3 does not have isolated audio inputs and outputs which in the past I have found essential to avoid ground loops. Luckily I had previously made a box containing 2 audio transformers to isolate the audio paths for my now sold FT847. receive and transmit audio paths so matching cables just had to be made. The audio comes out of the KX3 from the 3 pole 3.5mm speaker connector. The transmit audio input to the KX3 and the PTT signal  were input to the KX3 via the 4 pole 3.5mm MIC connector using a resistive divider. the speaker output Voltage from the computer is far too high for the KX3 mic input. To try it out I used JT-65HF to have a few QSOs with success. It also drives the new version of Argo used as a QRSS grabber fine.

Finally I installed the Hetrodyne App for the HPSDR on my ipad.This provides a panadaptor display and can decode various modes (USB, LSB,CW etc). The LAN port of the Metis card is connected to a Netgear WNCE2001 configured as an access point which the Ipad can see from anywhere in the house. Now I am glad I upgraded to a 802.11n WIFI router. The following is a screen capture from the Ipad