[Flexradio] 1.18.3 Noise ?

[Tim Ellison]

Did you perform a full re-calibration of the SDR-1000 with a new database after the upgrade to 1.18.3?  This is required for the SDR-1000 for every software upgrade. 



-Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: flexradio-bounces at flex-radio.biz [mailto:flexradio-bounces at flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Dan Scott
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 5:14 PM
To: Flex-Radio E-Mail Reflector
Subject: [Flexradio] 1.18.3 Noise ?

I've been fighting what I thought was an RFI problem.  To the point of connecting the radio to a Battery and swapping out the computer's UPS with different one as well as testing with a power inverter. Obviously I turned off all power in the house for the test.  What looks like RFI remained.

Anyway what I eventually did was ... think.  That is, I asked myself the 
question "What was the last thing that changed?".   Hmmm .. Oh, I 
installed 1.18.3. 

Anyway for a 1.18.2 vs. 1.18.3 comparison with a dummy load for antenna and a fresh database when swapping between version:
   Noise Floor
   -- V1.18.2 = S1
   -- V1.18.3 = S3
   Waterfall
   -- V1.18.2 = blank with a couple off freq spurs
   -- V1.18.3 = green with a solid noise line every kc.. i.e.  14.200, 14.201, 14.202...etc.  not exactly but general idea.

When connected to an antenna, the Noise Floor of v1.18.3 is always 2db to 3db higher than that of v1.18.2.  Also another radio was used to verify if the higher noise floor was just a metering difference or a if
1.18.3 was imposing additional noise.  The result is the FT-100 could receive SSB, CW, and digital which the SDR1000 with 18.2.3 covered up with noise.  With 1.18.2 the SDR-1000 easily out received the FT-100.

I did not see anything else on this problem in the forum, meaning I'm rather poor at finding things (true!) or the problem is isolated to my setup.  I have not tried swapping PCs yet, hoping for a resolution before having to do that painful test.

The rig is a SDR1000 with FA66.  Parallel cable is used.  Computer (homebuilt quad-core) runs 7% - 13% while using PowerSDR along with DDUtil, DX Commander (without WW), and N1MM (if not a couple other odds-n-ends).  This exact hardware setup has been running flawlessly for at least 1 year.

Thanks
Dan



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