AM Operation Using Power SDR with Flex and Other SDR Platforms

[WD5JKO]

Jim:
From your attached picture, what's the lower right meter used for in your Flex-3000?

Pete,

  It is a duplicate of the main transmit meter. I like to use the original meter to look at Forward Power, and the 2nd meter to look at one of the audio levels such as EQ.

For those with a F5K with 2nd receiver, the 2nd meter does what it always did. For those of us with a F1.5K or F3k, this 2nd meter function is a nice addition.

Jim
Wd5JKO

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I forgot you can bring up the second meter in the transmit profile. I just pulled down T9 (I was running T8) and installed it and diddled with the settings. Works fine. Weeks ago I upgraded the shack PC to Win 10, 64 bit, and added 8 Gig of memory. The machine was running Vista 32 bit with only 3 Gigs of memory and CPU usage was always high. I still would like to find a program that would shut down some processes on the "new" machine that I don't need when I'm running the Flex 5000 and some of the digital programs. I use to run GBOOST on the old machine which worked great but evidently the server(s) that activated the software no longer are functional.

[WD5JKO]

Pete,

   The use of Win 10 to run radios has been largely successful. Darrin, Ke9NS has a section on his F5K page on Win10, and how to tweak it. There are lots of issues with Win10 though after some of the MS updates and how they impact the SSDR users.

   The T9 PowerSDR up till a few days ago used a Microsoft installer. Therefore to upgrade further you need to uninstall from Control Panel like most any Windows program. Now moving on from here, he has went to a different installer that will not be seen in Control Panel programs list. This is a little confusing.

   Here is a recent post from Darrin showing the current features of his T9 revision of PowerSDR:

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/powersdr-2-7-2-ke9ns-revision-t9-available-for-download

Jim
Wd5JKO

[W1AEX]

The link below leads to a setup guide for attaining audio level settings that are optimal when adjusting each gain stage in the transmit chain of the PowerSDR mRX PS software. The short story is that while the GUI interface resembles the Flex version of PowerSDR the reality is that the entire transmit audio chain from front-to-back is completely different. The bottom line is that it is absolutely critical to make sure that you are regularly reaching 0dB on voice peaks while transmitting and observing the ALC meter.

This will assure that the Pure Signal algorithm samples your RF signal frequently to allow the adaptive pre-distortion protocol to apply an optimal correction to your output signal. It is almost a worry-free setup as the look-ahead algorithms at the LEVELER and ALC points in the transmit chain of the software make it absolutely impossible to drive the transmitter into clipping. It doesn't matter if your setup is simply a microphone plugged into the front panel, or an audio rack plugged into the rear panel DB25 line level input, or even a VAC setup using DAW audio processing software, getting it right is simple as long as your MIC/VAC, EQ, and LEVELER are adjusted correctly.

Hope this makes it simpler for all the guys who are just starting out!

73,

Rob W1AEX  

http://www.w1aex.com/anantxgain/anantxgain.html

[W1AEX]

A couple of new items for the ANAN platform of SDR rigs:

New firmware release for the Hermes based ANAN-100 rigs (Hermes_v3.2.rbf) available at this link:  

https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-Firmware/releases

New OpenHPSDR mRX PS release for all platforms. This incorporates the new Pure Signal 2.0 pre-distortion protocol which is far more robust in its capability to correct problematic linear amplifiers that exhibit memory effects. Additionally, the Pure Signal 2.0 protocol can be enabled via the front panel GUI and will remain toggled on persistently each time OpenHPSDR mRX PS is started up as long as the PS-A button (seen in the upper left of the image below) remains engaged.

https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-PowerSDR/releases

New beta release of CuSDR (version 3.3.0 QT5) from Herman. There is no installation for this program, just download the zip file, extract the files to any folder of your choosing and run it from there. I found it necessary to let the program run with admin privileges otherwise I received an error message (The program has stopped working) when it was started. This version does not yet have the WDSP protocol installed, but it looks beautiful, runs smoothly, and is very stable. I was able to open up 5 receivers simultaneously (seen in the second image below) in addition to running the wideband RX display of the spectrum from VLF through 64 MHz.

https://github.com/hvh/cusdr3/files/862159/cusdr3.zip

I made a YouTube video of CuSDR v3.3.0 (QT5.4.0) as I was listening to an AM conversation on 75 meters yesterday. The fidelity of CuSDR is very nice and rivals OpenHPSDR mRX PS when tuning the AM broadcast band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYIkvBrSITU

Lots of good stuff to play with!

Rob W1AEX

[W1AEX]

Thanks to the efforts of Warren - NR0V, Doug - W5WC, and Chris - W2PA the user base for OpenHPSDR mRX PS is enjoying a major software upgrade with the release of version 3.4.1 that is now publicly available. Gone are the days when a new release meant you would have to reset your database and then sort through the menus to set everything up again as well as plunging through the tedious task of re-creating your transmit profiles and filter sets. The new v3.4.1 release will import any database you throw at it and migrate everything into a new database that is compatible. To test how smart the new database migration tool is, I went back to databases that I used 3 years ago and it migrated them flawlessly. My biggest surprise was when I went to an old database from my Flex 5000 and it migrated that without a hitch!

Additionally, the version 3.4.1 release contains the long-awaited CFC Audio Tools implementation which offers PRE-EQ, CFC (10 Band Continuous Frequency Compression), POST EQ, Phase Rotator, and an adjustable soft-limiting ALC Max Gain setting. These new audio tools can be used in conjunction with the adjustable soft-limiting leveler, conventional wide-band compressor, and the CESSB option. Of course all the audio options can be further enhanced with the adaptive pre-distortion linearization protocol that reduces the transmit THD from the nominal 2.0 % to 0.2%.

If that was not enough to play with, version 3.4.1 also adds the ability to transmit AM with one sideband, your choice whether it be the upper or lower sideband.

For those users who are clinging to an old version of OpenHPSDR mRX PS there is absolutely no reason not to upgrade to this one! The developers really hit a home run this time!

73,

Rob W1AEX

Note the setup information in the videos below is applicable to AM and SSB modes:

Quick Setup Guide for the CFC Audio Tools:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5JmDAaDBVo

Using the new CFC Comp and ALC Comp metering to adjust CFC Pre Comp and Post EQ levels:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o73aAc9oWnw

Adjusting the OpenHPSDR mRX PS Phase Rotator:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM2x2tk0UbY

[W1AEX]

Over the past two weeks there has been quite a lot progress made with the release of new protocol 2 firmware for the Apache Labs ANAN radios. The older protocol 1 firmware that is used to run OpenHPSDR mRX PS and other programs such as the Zeus Radio software and CuSDR is limited to 100 Mbps through the ethernet port. This bandwidth cap limits the number of possible RX paths and the amount of data exchanged between the hardware and the computer software that is being used. This is not a huge problem when you are running smaller sampling rates such as 192kHz and one or two receivers along with the predistortion protocol (Pure Signal), but it is a problem if you decide to run higher sampling rates plus a second receiver along with Pure Signal which requires an RX path of its own. The new protocol 2 firmware runs at gigabit speeds and can handle sampling rates as high as 1536kHz in RX1 and RX2 along with Pure Signal with lots of headroom left over.

It is really easy to move your ANAN to the protocol 2 firmware, and if you wish, it takes less than a minute to move it back to protocol 1. At this time many users are moving back and forth between the two protocols almost daily to test out new software releases, so as long as you are comfortable using the HPSDRProgrammer utility (used for flashing protocol 1 firmware or for flashing from protocol 1 to protocol 2) and the HPSDRBootloader (can be used for flashing any protocol 1 version to another protocol 1 version, or to move from one protocol 2 firmware version to another protocol 2 version, or for flashing from protocol 2 back to protocol 1) which requires installing the WinPCAP libraries and also moving the bootloader switch in the hardware, you should be good to go. There is also a very nice P2 web programmer which works beautifully and does not require using the bootloader switch or the installation of the WinPCAP libraries. Everything you need to know about flashing the firmware can be found at this link:  

https://apache-labs.com/community/viewforum.php?f=18

When you flash your ANAN to the protocol 2 firmware the original OpenHPSDR mRX PS software will not run with your ANAN hardware, so you will need to move to the Thetis software package or Simon Browns SDR Console. Both of these packages are completely independent of each other and do not interfere with each others settings or your original settings in OpenHPSDR mRX PS. So, you can feel free to experiment without disrupting anything in the other software installations.

The trickiest part of the new protocol 2 architecture is getting the new firmware to play well with the FPGA in every piece of hardware that is out there. After a lot of effort on the part of the volunteers who handle the firmware development a lot of progress has been made. Using the last firmware release (January 5th) my ANAN 200D is able to run both Thetis and SDR Console without any anomalies with TX and RX but as protocol 2 is still in beta that is not the case with everyone's hardware. So if you want a little adventure, you might want to give it a shot. If you don't flash you can't play!

Rob W1AEX

The three screenshots: 1) Thetis in collapsed mode listening in the AM Ghetto  2) SDR Console in QSO with N1BCG  3) Thetis at 1536 sampling rate on the AM BCB

[WD5JKO]

Been a while, but this post needs an update.

PowerSDR for Flex Legacy users, there has been a ton of updates. In fact Darrin, KE9NS is on a tear so far during this Pandemic.

Take a look here, lots of new stuff, videos, etc.

https://ke9ns.com/flexpage.html#home

Jim
Wd5JKO

[W1AEX]

For those using the ANAN platform to get their AM fix be advised that PowerSDR mRX PS has reached EOL and there will be no further development for that software platform. All further development will be with the Thetis/Andromeda platform which has the ability to auto-detect whether you have protocol 1 or protocol 2 firmware installed in your hardware. So... for those who have resisted moving to protocol 2 you can enjoy all the new features in Thetis and keep your hardware at protocol 1. Additionally, with Thetis you can install either the 32-bit or the 64-bit version or both if you like.

There are many new features installed in Thetis that are not in PowerSDR mRX PS including the display option to run Direct X (reduces the CPU utilization by offloading the panadapter/waterfall rendering to the video card's GPU), updates to the REC/PLAY feature with auto VAC bypass and CFC auto-disable during playback, addition of a status bar at the bottom of the GUI for on-the-fly RX and TX antenna switching along with an integrated ID timer. Additionally, the KE9NS spotter utility is integrated into Thetis. You also have the option to run Thetis with the onscreen Andromeda control panels. This is especially useful for those with a 4k monitor and lots of screen real estate or for those who have multiple monitors as the undocked Andromeda control panels can be put anywhere on the screen or dropped onto other monitors if you wish. There are many other refinements under the hood as well to assure smooth running.

For those who still want to cling to their PowerSDR mRX PS software you can leave your current installation in place and install Thetis anyway because the programs are completely separate and do not install into the same folders. You can also export your TX profiles from PowerSDR mRX PS and then directly import the profiles into Thetis and they will operate fine with all your carefully tailored audio setups. You can still run either program whenever you want but not simultaneously. The software is updated regularly and it keeps getting better and better!

73,  Rob W1AEX

[KD6VXI]

Will this support other radios using protocol 1?

IE, the Hermes Lite?


That would be awesome if it did!!!


--Shane
KD6VXI

[W1AEX]

Shane,

According to the Apache Labs forum, it supports everything except for the old HPSDR Atlas backplane models. If you have a Hermes-Lite it should be good to go with your protocol 1 firmware.

Rob W1AEX

https://apache-labs.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3557