HPSDRwiki - User contributions [en]

GRIFFIN

2010-10-16T15:51:38Z

W8XR: changed "...received signal had a 'chip'...." to "...received signal had a 'chirp'...."

'''GRIFFIN - Stand alone beacon board'''
[[Image:Griffin_Block_Diagram_Rev_1_0.jpg|thumb|500px|Block diagram as of 23 Aug 2010. Click for full size.]]

Many will be aware of the work undertaken by Bill, KD5TFD, to develop FPGA
code that enables Penelope to operate as a stand alone WSPR beacon. Not
only does his code allow a full implementation of the WSPR protocol, without
the need to connect to a PC, it also enables multiple beacons to operate
simultaneously on multiple bands. This is the dual of multiple independent
receives in a Mercury - multiple independent transmitters in a Penny.

More details of Bill's work can be found here:

svn://64.245.179.219/svn/repos_sdr_hpsdr/trunk/PennyWSPR

There's a README file at:

svn://64.245.179.219/svn/repos_sdr_hpsdr/trunk/PennyWSPR/README.txt

One of the advantages we have in the way that HPSDR has evolved is the
ability to try new modes without the need to build or buy new hardware.
Here's another example.

Many CW operators will remember the time when a CW report, say 559, also
sometimes included a 'C' at the end (e.g. 559C) which indicated the received
signal had a 'chirp' i.e. unstable when keyed, FM etc.

Chirp was regarded as an undesirable feature and best to let the operator
know. There was also the practice of adding an 'H' to the report
indicating Hum. The story goes that the difficulty in obtaining high
voltage smoothing capacitors in Eastern Europe resulted in some operators
applying un-smoothed rectified mains to the anode/plate of the PA stage
giving it a distinctive err... note. However, a story for another day
perhaps.

The introduction of digital/HDTV in many parts of the world has triggered
the removal of the analogue TV broadcasters that are/were located adjacent
to the 6m band. Magic Band operators often use these stations as an indicator
of propagation conditions. Since they typically run much higher ERP than
Amateur stations, 10's of kW, they were/are an ideal source of propagation
beacons.

With the removal of these services in many parts of the world 6m operators
loose a very valuable source of propagation information. It's just this
problem that has lead Andrew Martin, VK30E, to develop an alternative that can be used
in either a RADAR or beacon mode.

Andrew describes his technique fully in the 2/2010 edition of DUBUS

http://www.marsport.org.uk/dubus/last.htm

but here's the basic idea.

We deliberately, repeatedly, linearly sweep the frequency of a carrier over
1kHz in one second. The nominal frequency of the carrier is derived from a
GPS locked 10MHz reference. The start of the one second sweep is
synchronised to the 1 PPS signal from a GPS.

At the receiver we use a matched filter, again triggered from a 1 PPS signal
from a GPS, to detect the signal. The matched filter in this case runs on
your PC and uses your sound card or VAC to digitise the received signal.

The effect is similar to WSPR. However, we trade RF bandwidth for time - in
which case the output of the matched filter is available every second rather
then every few minutes as in the case of WSPR. We also gain a signal
processing advantage over WSPR which typically can decode at -26dB in a
2.7kHz bandwidth. 'Chirp' will decode at -36dB in the same bandwidth. If we
integrate multiple chirp signals over say 1 minute then the processing gain
increases to -54dB.

So if we run a 100W amateur beacon by applying a chirp to the signal we
effectively have a 400kW signal - in line with the TV transmitters we are
trying to replace.

Initial tests on 20m between Andrew and Don, VK6HK over a 2700Km path, have
shown the technique to work such that a barely audible SSB signal gives a
spike with a 45dB S/N ratio at the output of the matched filter.

This is chirp in the beacon mode.

Alternatively, one station can transmit a
chirp signal, using full power and a beam, in a certain direction and
another station listens beaming in the same direction. The stations need to
be sufficiently far apart such that the transmitting station does not
overload the receiver of the receiving station.

The receiving station will then receive echoes of the transmitted signal
from the various mediums in the direction he is beaming. Since his matched
filter is triggered at exactly the same time as the transmitting station he
can plot of graph of signal strength against distance in miles/km. Such a
graph can clearly show the presence of single and multi hop E's and their
intensity. Andrew's DUBUS article has some very interesting examples of
enhanced 6m propagation that chirp is able to identify.

The free sound card software Spectrum Lab:

http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/spectra1.html

will both generate and demodulate chirp signals.

What would be interesting would be to have a single board that generates a
chirp modulated carrier and could be used as the replacement for the low
level drive stage in a conventional 6m beacon. You guessed it - Penelope!

Bill kindly offered to take on this 'Weekender Project' (which did actually
fit in a weekend for once!) and produced a version of his PennyWSPR code
that included BOTH a chirp and WSPR beacon and would trigger on the 1 PPS
from a GPS receiver. The nominal frequency of the beacons is at 50.3MHz
(for initial testing) with the chirp extending from 300Hz to 1300Hz above
this and the WSPR beacon 1500Hz above. The WSPR beacon is 6dB below the
power level of the chirp beacon.

Since VHF beacons in VK are allocated on a 2kHz channel spacing the spectrum
of the two signals fits nicely within an allocated channel.

Work is also in progress to look at including an aural CW ident on the
allocated carrier frequency.

Testing is about to start and I'll report progress in due course.

If testing is successful then we intend to develop an FPGA based PCB that
will provide a 6m/2m beacon exciter stage. The board is intended to be used
as a replacement for the low level driver board in an existing beacon. As
well as the FGPA, power supplies etc, it will include a GPS receiver and
oven controlled 10MHz reference.

The project leaders for the board was Phil VK6APH and Kevin M0KHZ.

[[Category:Future hardware]]

KISS Konsole Requests

2010-03-04T00:01:09Z

W8XR: /* Current Wish List - 23 August 2009 */

'''[[KISS Konsole]] - Feature Requests''' This is the place to enter your 'dreams' for enhancements. Progress will be indicated by indented responses. Please feel free to do any of this!

==Current Wish List - 23 August 2009==

{| class=wikitable
|-
!What
!Volunteer
!Status
|-
|Improve the AGC performance, add user controls
|George K9TRV
|
|-
|Show Power output on meter when on transmit
|
|
|-
|Add mic gain/AGC settings contol to Setup form
|
|
|-
|Add multi band EQ for Rx
|
|-
|Add RF speech processor (intend to use VShaper by Alex VE3NEA) <ref> see http://www.dxatlas.com/VShaper/</ref>
|
|-
|Add VOX, anti VOX and Noise gate controls
|
|
|-
|Add second receiver within the bandscope bandwidth.
|
|
|-
|Add second independant frequency/bandwidth receiver in the Mercury FPGA
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|Add frequency and level calibration controls
|
|
|-
|Add transverter controls.
|
|
|-
|Add bandwidth info to the main screen (in addition to the slider)
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|Add SWL bands and Ham subbands, add setup to support these.
|
|
|-
|Auto-select starting bandwidth, AGC based on mode
|
|
|-
|Allow resizeable screen
|
|
|-
|Allow selection of bandwidth in spectrum and wideband modes
|
|
|-
|Add transverter controls.
|
|
|-
|}

<references />

[[User:VK6APH|VK6APH]] 07:13, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

==Lock Spectrum==
Add provision to "lock" spectrum and tune Mercury (and Penelope) within that window. This would conceptually be something like the second receiver function in PowerSDR. This could be useful, for example, in a CW contest where you don't want the spectrum display to move around when you pounce on another station. Or a RTTY contest, where you just want to see the data sub-band,or SSB...
:Comment - simpler to add a second receiver I think. [[User:VK6APH|VK6APH]] 08:52, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

==Test Equip?==

Could some of this code be used as digital test software for the HPSDR board set? I can imagine sending various 'commands' and testing for the 'correct' response. [[User:VK2NRA|Richard Ames, VK2NRA]] 21:11, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

==Fingerprinting?==

I can for-see doing fingerprinting of signals. Think of the advantage in contests if the computer 'automagically' tagged each of the signals on the bandscope with a callsign and changed the colour depending on whether you have logged a contact with them.... the rules will probably outlaw it! :-) Regards, [[User:VK2NRA|Richard Ames, VK2NRA]] 22:46, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

[[Category:KISS Konsole]]
[[Category:Maturity level]]

KISS Konsole Requests

2009-08-13T00:16:32Z

W8XR: /* Current Wish List - 12 August 2009 */

'''[[KISS Konsole]] - Feature Requests''' This is the place to enter your 'dreams' for enhancements. Progress will be indicated by indented responses. Please feel free to do any of this!

==Current Wish List - 12 August 2009==

{| class=wikitable
|-
!What
!Volunteer
!Status
|-
|Improve the AGC performance, add user controls
|George K9TRV
|
|-
|Add full split frequency duplex facility in FPGAs
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|Show Power output on meter when on transmit
|
|
|-
|Add mic gain/AGC settings contol to Setup form
|
|
|-
|Add CW keyer/Memory keyer/keyboard keyer
|Mark W8XR
|
|-
|Add multi band EQ for Rx
|
|-
|Add RF speech processor (intend to use VShaper by Alex VE3NEA) <ref> see http://www.dxatlas.com/VShaper/</ref>
|
|-
|Add VOX, anti VOX and Noise gate controls
|
|
|-
|Add second receiver within the bandscope bandwidth.
|
|
|-
|Add second independant frequency/bandwidth receiver in the Mercury FPGA (after 5 is done)
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|Add frequency and level calibration controls
|
|
|-
|Add transverter controls.
|
|
|-
|Add bandwidth info to the main screen (in addition to the slider)
|
|
|-
|Add SWL bands and Ham subbands, add setup to support these.
|
|
|-
|Auto-select starting bandwidth, AGC based on mode
|
|
|-
|Allow resizeable screen
|
|
|-
|Allow selection of bandwidth in spectrum and wideband modes
|
|
|-
|Add transverter controls.
|
|
|-
|Setup should not allow clock choices inconsistent with hardware
|
|
|-
|PTT Sequencer
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|CW note raised cosine profile
|Phil VK6APH
|Done, for V1.0.6
|}

<references />

[[User:VK6APH|VK6APH]] 04:00, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

==Lock Spectrum==
Add provision to "lock" spectrum and tune Mercury (and Penelope) within that window. This would conceptually be something like the second receiver function in PowerSDR. This could be useful, for example, in a CW contest where you don't want the spectrum display to move around when you pounce on another station. Or a RTTY contest, where you just want to see the data sub-band,or SSB...
:Comment - simpler to add a second receiver I think. [[User:VK6APH|VK6APH]] 08:52, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

==Test Equip?==

Could some of this code be used as digital test software for the HPSDR board set? I can imagine sending various 'commands' and testing for the 'correct' response. [[User:VK2NRA|Richard Ames, VK2NRA]] 21:11, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

==Fingerprinting?==

I can for-see doing fingerprinting of signals. Think of the advantage in contests if the computer 'automagically' tagged each of the signals on the bandscope with a callsign and changed the colour depending on whether you have logged a contact with them.... the rules will probably outlaw it! :-) Regards, [[User:VK2NRA|Richard Ames, VK2NRA]] 22:46, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

KISS Konsole Requests

2009-08-13T00:15:25Z

W8XR: /* Current Wish List - 12 August 2009 */

'''[[KISS Konsole]] - Feature Requests''' This is the place to enter your 'dreams' for enhancements. Progress will be indicated by indented responses. Please feel free to do any of this!

==Current Wish List - 8 August 2009==

{| class=wikitable
|-
!What
!Volunteer
!Status
|-
|Improve the AGC performance, add user controls
|George K9TRV
|
|-
|Add full split frequency duplex facility in FPGAs
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|Show Power output on meter when on transmit
|
|
|-
|Add mic gain/AGC settings contol to Setup form
|
|
|-
|Add CW keyer/Memory keyer/keyboard keyer
|Mark W8XR
|
|-
|Add multi band EQ for Rx
|
|-
|Add RF speech processor (intend to use VShaper by Alex VE3NEA) <ref> see http://www.dxatlas.com/VShaper/</ref>
|
|-
|Add VOX, anti VOX and Noise gate controls
|
|
|-
|Add second receiver within the bandscope bandwidth.
|
|
|-
|Add second independant frequency/bandwidth receiver in the Mercury FPGA (after 5 is done)
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|Add frequency and level calibration controls
|
|
|-
|Add transverter controls.
|
|
|-
|Add bandwidth info to the main screen (in addition to the slider)
|
|
|-
|Add SWL bands and Ham subbands, add setup to support these.
|
|
|-
|Auto-select starting bandwidth, AGC based on mode
|
|
|-
|Allow resizeable screen
|
|
|-
|Allow selection of bandwidth in spectrum and wideband modes
|
|
|-
|Add transverter controls.
|
|
|-
|Setup should not allow clock choices inconsistent with hardware
|
|
|-
|PTT Sequencer
|Phil VK6APH
|
|-
|CW note raised cosine profile
|Phil VK6APH
|Done, for V1.0.6
|}

<references />

[[User:VK6APH|VK6APH]] 04:00, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

==Lock Spectrum==
Add provision to "lock" spectrum and tune Mercury (and Penelope) within that window. This would conceptually be something like the second receiver function in PowerSDR. This could be useful, for example, in a CW contest where you don't want the spectrum display to move around when you pounce on another station. Or a RTTY contest, where you just want to see the data sub-band,or SSB...
:Comment - simpler to add a second receiver I think. [[User:VK6APH|VK6APH]] 08:52, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

==Test Equip?==

Could some of this code be used as digital test software for the HPSDR board set? I can imagine sending various 'commands' and testing for the 'correct' response. [[User:VK2NRA|Richard Ames, VK2NRA]] 21:11, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

==Fingerprinting?==

I can for-see doing fingerprinting of signals. Think of the advantage in contests if the computer 'automagically' tagged each of the signals on the bandscope with a callsign and changed the colour depending on whether you have logged a contact with them.... the rules will probably outlaw it! :-) Regards, [[User:VK2NRA|Richard Ames, VK2NRA]] 22:46, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

KISS Konsole

2009-07-25T22:18:09Z

W8XR:

[[Image:KKV1.0.0.jpg|thumb|400px|Here is screen shot of V1.0.0. The upper green trace is the full spectrum from 0 - 55MHz and the lower white trace 48kHz of the 20m band. Click to enlarge.]]
K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) Konsole is a straightforward PC program that will allow beginners in SDR and DSP programming to get their feet wet.

KK is intended as a learning experience and not as a competitor or replacement for any existing Console code. Where it goes and what features get added is up to you.

KISS Konsole is written in C# using the free VS 2008 IDE. The code is heavily commented and aimed at the newbie programmer. It is straight line code with as simple a format as possible.

The code is available under SVN at: svn://206.216.146.154/svn/repos_hpsdr_kiss ([[How to use SVN]])

The directory structure is:

:\branches - directories containing alpha code from some of the developers. Since it's alpha code the usual caveats apply!
:\tags - directories containing previous Stable Releases
:\trunk - directories containing current Stable Release, Beta Release for user testing, Documents etc

Beginners, intermediate and expert programmes are encouraged to play with the code, make modifications and share them with the group.

If you would like to share your modifications with the HPSDR community then please:

*make your code available under the terms of the GNU General Public License; and

*Any code you write MUST HAVE SUITABLE COMMENTS in it - too many comments will get you a higher grade! If you find/know a better way of doing something then explain in the comments how it works and how it’s implemented.

As a novice C# programmer myself my deep gratitude to Bill, KD5TFD, Dave, WA8YWQ and Joe K5SO for their invaluable assistance in getting KK released. We also owe Phil, N8VB our thanks for making his SharpDSP library available under GPL.

Links to other pages:

* Known [[KISS Konsole Bugs|bugs]]
* [[KISS Konsole FAQ|Frequently Asked Questions]]
* Feature [[KISS Konsole Requests|requests]]
* Programmers [[KISS Konsole Notes|Notes]]

Phil VK6APH