Ordered an sdr-iq...

[KA1ZGC]

Our college had one of those Tek terminals back in 1979.  It was *really* easy to draw graphics with that thing.

It was also really easy to re-link said graphics apps to feed a plotter.

One of the Tek terminals we had at UMaine in the early 80's had a four-pen table-top plotter attached to it. Took its output directly from the Tek, though for the life of me I can't remember how. I usually re-linked the code and spooled the output to the big Calcomp plotter in the machine room.

Somewhere I still have code that made maps out of the BITNET and EARNET routing tables. It's probably somewhere in my giant collection of magtape reels I still hang on to.

Also,unique to the time compared to the other computer terminals around it had >80 char/line display as I recall.  And no screen flicker!

I'd forgotten about that. It was greater than 80, but I don't think it was as wide as 128. I want to say it was something like 112 or so.

And very high resolution graphics - 1024 x 780 or 4096 x 4096 on the high end machine. Computers today don't match the 4096 spec.

Hmmn... what was the pitch on the 4052? I think that's the same model I was using. 4096 sounds awfully dense for the images I remember conjuring.

Yes, I know... this has nothing to do with SDR.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

The 4096 rez was only availble on the 4054.

We used a 4 pen HP plotter with these Tek machines. All that and a whiring tape drive! Lots of action.

[N2DTS]

I took the sdr-iq to work and loaded the winrad software on the work laptop, I have about 50 feet of wire in the trees, but the noise level at work is just nasty will all the telco equipment in the building.
40 was ok, but no AM activity, 80 was brutal with noise.
I need to get something better up away from the building.

Brett

[WB2EMS]

I need to get something better up away from the building.

One of our 'disaster recovery' provisions for the U was to set up a fairly capable ham station in our building.  TS2000 with an HF-9 vertical on the roof. To my dismay, it's nearly deaf because of the noise radiated from this building or the others nearby. S7-S9 broadband crap! We had a horizontal antenna first and hoped that the vertical might be less susceptible, but that didn't turn out to be the case (and of course the radials are still horizontal on the roof). The saving grace is that if the power is out and the regular phones and network are down to the point where we need to depend on the radio - most of the hash should be gone!

I'd been trying to compare what I could hear here, and what I can hear at home on similar gear to get a feel for how bad the situation was. What an eye opener to bring in the sdr-iq and *see* the level of noise. About 20 db more noise floor than I have at home. I'm going to have to go through the place some day to see just what generates all the noise. We have gigabit ethernet in here to every room on UTP, and that's my guess for the source, but maybe there's something else I'm not considering.

Because of the noise, I've been running the sdr-iq on the remote server at home nearly continuously the last few weeks so I can tune in from the office in the afternoons. Makes a big difference in what I can hear. 

Hey Brett, what version of Winrad did you finally get to work on the sdr-iq and did you have to do anything special to make it run? (and where did you get the version you're using?). I'd like to give it a try on mine.
BTW - was nice to work you on 75 last weekend.

[N2DTS]

1.32, plus the files for the sdr-iq and sdr-14.

The building is full of sonet equipment, routers, etc.
The antenna is just a long wire  (not long enough) close to the building, and in the spring maybe I could put up a coax fed dipole somewhat away from the building.
Sometimes I have slow days and am hanging around (not often lately), and like to listen.

As it is, huge noise on 80, with a big hash at 3860, spikes all over the place, but 3885 was a bit clear.
40 meters was not bad, 20 meters was so/so, but signals were weak.

The roof is metal, and might be good for a vert ant, there is also a 250 foot tower, but its loaded with cell stuff, a repeater for the police, dead microwave stuff.

There are a number of big trees around though...

Last Saturday was great, large group, lots of interesting stuff was discussed...
I am still working on setting up the audio, and got a useful report from Tim, hlr..


Brett

[w8rpw]

 I am still having trouble with poor audio quality from my sdr-iq, listened to AM BC station last evening for about 30 minutes and that was all I could stand. it appears to have numerous low level echos that drive me nuts. also difficult copy on ham signals due to the same echos.  going to try some of the other software and see how that does. my sound card is a mid range card and when playing cds or dvds they sound fine. ( whatever that means) other aspects seem great, however this has become very disapointing to me.  I wanted to try SDR with possible intent of getting a Flex 5000, now not sure at all.  Bernie W8RPW

[W3RSW]

I had similar in a competing SDR product but traced it to incorrect settings in my sound card.
-Was with a Win SP, service pack 3 older Sony machine too that I don't use now.
It may not be the SDR IQ that's giving you the problem.

 

[N2DTS]

I don't think it would be a radio problem.
Mine sounds very good, I usualy use headphones as the sound from the laptop is very poor.

Brett