My friend Ian makes some good points. Just to clarify though, the
SDR-IQ/SpectraVue combination does provide spectrum, waterfall and combinations
of the two viewing. Personally, I run the combo view. I guess thirty years of
sitting in front of real spectrum analyzers makes me like to see a spectrum
display and to like the clean layout of SpectraVue.
Wes N7WS
On 9/30/2017 2:11 AM, Ian White wrote:
N7WS wrote:
"SpectraVue software is the only SDR software I've ever liked. It interfaces
with the K3 seamlessly. Every other program I've tried has been installed
and
quickly uninstalled. Sometimes more than once, usually having me ask
myself,
"Self, what were you thinking?" before uninstalling again. Apparently,
programmers do not think like normal people do and try to turn a relatively
simple tool into a video game. " Sorry Lyle:-)
For measurement purposes I love the SDR-IQ and SpectraVue; but operating and
contesting are a different application.
When operating, I focus almost entirely on the waterfall display because that
presents a time-history of everything that has been happening for the past
several minutes across the entire displayed bandwidth. The waterfall is a huge
information resource. On an empty band the waterfall shows instantly where new
stations are popping up, while on a full band it shows if there are any free
channels and how long they have been free. Meanwhile the color shading shows
which signals are strongest, and instantly identifies which ones are spreading
more than they should.
Compared with that wealth of operating information from the waterfall, I find
the spectrum-analyzer display is almost worthless (but remember we're talking
about here operating, as distinct from making measurements).
To extract the maximum possible information from the waterfall, I normally
maximize the vertical size, aiming for a time-span of 3-5 minutes. The spectrum
analyzer display is always minimized (and if the display software allows, I get
rid of it entirely). When operating, the waterfall display is front-and-center
on a wide-screen monitor. For most modes, only the small log input windows need
to share display space at the bottom of the screen, and all other operating
windows are displayed on a second monitor. RTTY is the only exception, where
multiple decoder windows take over the center screen and the waterfall has to
take second place.
I currently have two K3s with different types of spectrum/waterfall displays.
The HF/50MHz setup uses a P3, which of course has the advantage of very tight
integration with the K3. However, I do find that the P3 requires the SVGA
adapter to display the wealth of detail that the waterfall has to offer. The
P3's own screen is bright and clear, but is simply too small (in terms of
pixels). And unfortunately the P3/SVGA has a number of disadvantages compared
with the SDR-PC competition. There is an issue with the P3SVGA's limited color
palette which tends to suppress weaker signals. The P3 also lacks any method to
QSY *quickly* across a wide frequency span to grab fleeting DX opportunities on
a nearly empty band.
The other K3 is used with external VHF/UHF transverters, and for this
application I decided not to buy another P3 but to play the market of separate
SDRs and PC software.
The SDR is attached to the K3 at the transverter IF frequency of 28MHz, which gives much
better display sensitivity than the 8.2MHz IF. For VHF/UHF contesting and DXing it is
essential to display everything that lives and breathes across the entire "contest
sub-band", which in Europe extends over at least 250kHz. Important multipliers tend
to lurk at both the top and bottom ends of that range, so 200kHz is not acceptable.
Several good SDRs with 190-200kHz maximum bandwidths, including the SDR-IQ and the P3,
had to be ruled out for that reason. After some searching I found that the SDRplay RSP-1
delivered the best combination of dynamic range, available spectrum width (far more than
I need) and value for money.
Again after some experimentation, I settled on the HDSDR software, which gives
a very readable and sensitive display on the large screen and provides most of
the facilities of a second receiver. Integration with the K3 was not easy to
configure, but after some work it now has all the frequency agility that is so
lacking in the P3. The SDR frequency is linked to VFO B on the K3, and can be
tuned using any combination of the VFO B knob, point-and-click on the display
(rolling the mouse wheel for fine tuning), clicking on the bandmap in N1MM+, or
typing frequencies directly into the callsign window. Thanks to HDSDR's
built-in Omnirig interface, any one of those frequency inputs will
automatically update all the others. As a receiver, the SDR is more than
adequate for searching the band and finding new stations to work, interleaved
with calling CQ on the K3. If a new station appears on the SDR, its frequency
is already pre-loaded into VFO B on the K3 so one tap of VFO A/B will sw
ap that signal into the K3, ready to call at the right moment.
I do share Wes's dislike of "video-game" displays. I hate how modern software
so often arrives with every possible function activated at once... but if you take the
time to strip away the dross, the end result can be quite lean and functional. Maximizing
the waterfall display and hiding the controls tends to remove most of those annoyances,
and the advantages of a really good panadapter have persuaded me to live with the rest.
73 from Ian GM3SEK
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