It's all about the Software

Hi,
For various reasons my antennae are some distance from my shack so upto now I have used ICRON USB ranger 2204 which allows two boxes of electronics to be connected by network cable, the box at the antenna end has the SDRs pugged into it and the box at the shack end is hooked up to the computer by usb.

It works fine with the RTL dongles and a Hackrf but if I try and use my SdR play Dual or Play V2 the display is just a series of closely packed spikes and the audio is a hi pitched whine.

I have set up the system all in one place to make swopping plugs easier, if I plug the Play sdr's directly into the computer everything is fime but using the Icron box of tricks I get the row of spikes It does this when set to any frequency, the Icrons are powered by 5v 3amp PSU's.

I have had it working at some time but medical matters goto in the way and I had to leave it for a while, now i am at a loss to know what to do, can anyone offer assistance, is there a setting in Console that affects these usb extending devices?

Why not just use the server feature of SDRC and place a cheap W7 or W10 laptop out at the site and use the Ethernet cable back to your router. Then you can access your radios from within your LAN and WAN if you travel.
Just what is the distance you are attempting to haul IQ data?
I have many servers on antennas that are +300’ away using cheap RG11, or 1/2” aluminum repurposed CATV cable. RG6 can be had cheap as well. Search your local Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for “Coax”, “RG-6”, or “RG-11”.

The spikes may well be RFI from the 5V switching PS, but without a screenshot or two, I’m just shooting in the dark.

I wonder if he has gone from wired lan to wireless lan. I'd not expect much performance with a wireless lan.

He might try reducing the sample rates.

The units that act funny might need their gains adjusted.

Absent that an unedited screen shot of SDRConsole with as many settings visible as possible attached to a message here might show a settings error. I'd also be inclined to include a screen shot of the definitions as that might reveal something.

Kriss, it looks like he may be using VHF rather than HF.
300' of almost anything will not be suitable for VHF. {^_-}

{^_^}

No mention of VLF, MF, HF, VHF, UHF in the OP post, so I (we) are urinating in the wind here without some screen shots…. Hint hint.
The attenuation charts show RG11 better than RG213, but just slightly more lossy to 9913. See first chart:
https://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html

Hi , many thanks for the prompt replies, I am thinking that the server is going to be a good shot, I have a spare laptop.
The icron devices are connected by cat 6 and as I put in my first message it’s happening at all frequencies But I don’t suppose any of that matters if I go for the server option.
I’ve even used a battery pack to power the icrons but it made no difference,I would like to beat this problem but I guess the simple solution is the server.
Many many thanks
And 73
Chris G6ihn

Yeah, at HF none of those losses really hurt on an antenna big enough to require that much coax. On VHF and particularly UHF on up, 300' of anything will slap a penalty on your system's noise figure. 1 dB can be significant. 3 dB is more than you should tolerate except for very special situations where other factors make up for it. (You have a 200' tower and 100' run to the shack? {^_-} For THAT I'd take the loss at 435 MHz. At a GHz I'd work VERY hard to move some of the electronics, PA and LNA, up to the antenna.)

Let's see what his pix show. I hope we see something obvious to help him get back running considering he said it used to work before health got in the way for awhile. (Boy, howdy, I know THAT problem.)

{^_^}

Not really using any long lengths of coax, the bit I use is from the antenna to the sdr. In the case of vhf and uhf it’s 10 ft of stuff called zero loss (no such thing eh) at hf I use a magnetic loop and a multi band vertical called a dx commander.
They all terminate v close to the sdrs and the usb device so coax isn’t really involved.
My main hf tx antenna is 90m away from the rig it’s either that or drop power, I have a pacemaker and it does weird stuff in the presence of rf .
I will now setup a server I think that’s the easiest way out.
Cheers and beers

This is a little dated, but here's how to do it (make a server) starting on pg 19 of this pps:
https://www.sdrplay.com/wp-content/uplo ... Guide2.pdf
I had one as a pdf that I wrote, but thanks to our local club's groups.io, it got stripped off the files
section for space saving.

Just some key notes when working with the 'Server Manager'...
The Default Server Account username and password in the "On Air" tab has to match EXACTLY to the one in the 'Guest' account
in the "accounts" tab.
The username and password gets handed off automatically, so you don't have to get all complicated. I'm still using the example from
v1.5 Username of Guest, and PW of FortKnox Just because I remembered it from so long ago.
Use FT240-31 cores on the Cat5/6 cable as to not have to listen to network RFI. I'm a 17m fan and the Ethernet cable was wreaking havoc
on 20 and 17m. Do not use WiFi for the link between host computer and router, to unreliable and you nay get dropouts. I can use WiFi on the
client end at 1MHz BW, but in hotels with teenagers watching puppy videos on Tik Toc, I am lucky to get 256k BW.
Set the host computer's IP address to a static one and open ports in router to forward TCP data to the IP of host computer
Get the antenna(s) far away from the computer (QRM)
Get the SDR's away from the computer (QRM)
Set the laptop to do nothing when screen is closed, turn off USB power savings, set screen to turn off after X minutes (screen is a source of QRM
for poorly shielded SDR's).
Install some sort of remote desktop app on the host computer for remote troubleshooting and tweaking of laptop settings.

The Server is a 'Windows Service' and runs in the background, even when the computer is repurposed to another family member. The
server manager doesn't have to be running in order for the SDRC Server to function. I keep it running on my servers to check on activity,
see what people are listening to, etc In the "Service" tab of the Server manager you can turn that feature off (default is on) and that's
probably why we see so many servers that are inoperative:
http://onairv3.sdrspace.com/onair-v3.xml
These repurposed computers (or those who gave up on setting up a server) are still pinging Simon's server saying they're online, even when
the router ports may not be open, pointing to a bad IP, or no SDR is connected.

That’s v kind of you, I’ve read thru your text and come to realise I would have needed help .
So that’s the next project when I’ve managed to find Eshail2 satellite again, I’ve spent all afternoon with newly replaced Lnb specifically for Eshail and got nowhere.
If the weather holds tomorrow i will give it one more go then switch to the server?
Why do we do this ??