Layout Help

[steelgtr]

Hi Guys

I have installed V3 but I ca't get my layout to look anything like the videos that I Have watched. Not sure if I messed up on the initial install or?

thx

bob

[Max]

I have installed V3 but I ca't get my layout to look anything like the videos that I Have watched. Not sure if I messed up on the initial install or?

thx bob

Bob, I suspect you are talking about the need for the RX DSP panel at least and if you intend to TX then the TX DSP panel also.

Activate here:

RX-DSP.jpg (63.17 KiB) Viewed 1412 times

Lots of instructions on layouts here, and in general if you go to this site, move mouse pointer to top of screen and lots of drop-down menus with loads of info:
https://www.sdr-radio.com/LayoutPanes

DSP info here (mode, filters etc):
https://www.sdr-radio.com/receive-dsp

If unclear on anything come back here.

73

Max

[steelgtr]

Thanks, Max

Just Rx for now. How do I get to am/fm/wfm, etc?

bob

[steelgtr]

Max, I'm getting somewhere but I can't get AM OTA broadcast to play anything? Does this look right?

[Max]

Max, I'm getting somewhere but I can't get AM OTA broadcast to play anything? Does this look right?

Depending on model or RTL-SDR Dongle you may need to try switching to Q-Branch. See below. Also try with IF AGC on.

Q-Branch.jpg (28.07 KiB) Viewed 1321 times

AM reception at 810kHz on RTL-SDR dongle is often very poor on many dongles. Try higher up first, SW broadcast bands around 7MHz.

Also maybe try some broadcast FM first in which case you would need to switch HF Mode off (for frequencies above about 22MHz). For FM broadcast the correct mode is BC-FM, not WFM.

If you really want to do AM lower frequency reception then please consider at least the RTL-SDR Blog V4 dongle. It is far superior for those frequencies than most "off the shelf" dongles:

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/

If you do buy one of these then only buy from this official store. There are many fakes out there!

Good luck.

Max

[Max]

Max, I'm getting somewhere but I can't get AM OTA broadcast to play anything? Does this look right?

I also suggest you run the latest Beta of SDRC as it has the latest DLL files for RTL dongles, more particularly it has the correct DLL for the RTL-SDR Blog V4. Without this the V4 would not function correctly.

Particularly if you have a Blog V4 dongle, you will need to download and install SDRC 3.3 (Beta). There is no need to uninstall the old version of SDRC. Just install over the top of it. It's worth just using anyway, whatever your model of dongle. It is tested as being fully stable:

https://www.sdr-radio.com/download#Beta

If you have a V4, delete the existing RTL Dongle from the Radio Definitions, then re-add it and it will be correctly recognised and add the correct features.

Max

[steelgtr]

Thanks, Max! The Q and med AGC did the trick. I have an OEM V3 connected to an outdoor Discone antenna and AM is fine on other software too

[Max]

Thanks, Max! The Q and med AGC did the trick. I have an OEM V3 connected to an outdoor Discone antenna and AM is fine on other software too

I was actually talking about the Radio AGC (in the Radio panel in the top Ribbon Bar) but glad you got it working anyway.

Just to say the AGC you mentioned in the RX DSP panel is signal processing that takes place after the signal is acquired. I guess you'd call it more of an audio AGC than RF AGC of any sort.

The RTL-SDR does need careful manipulation of both the gains in the Radio panel at the top. If you decide eventually to become more serious about AM DXing (LF/MF/HF) then you would ideally consider a higher performance SDR. The Airspy HF+ Discovery would be an excellent choice and pretty good in price. It's a huge step up in performance from the RTL-SDR. If you are on a tighter budget then I recommend the RTL-SDR-Blog V4 I linked earlier. At just $30 it is amazing value and AM performance is greatly increased over the standard RTL-SDR dongles. But only the V4 version, not to be confused with NooElec V4 - totally unrelated. You can read about the HF/MF performance improvements in the RTL-SDR Blog link I gave.

Good luck

Max

[steelgtr]

Max, If I turn on the AGC in the ribbon bar with the DSP AGC off, I still hear nothing. With the DSP AGC on, the ribbon bar AGC adds boost but won't give any audio on it's own?

Thanks for all your help

bob

[Max]

Best to always leave the RX DSP AGC on at all times. If you turn it off you have manual gain controlled by the slider (which is now just called "Gain"). It's very easy to end up with either too little audio (silence) or distortion. Keep that one on or turn slider up to adjust manual gain, but I recommend never turn it off. In fact I usually just leave it on the Slow setting.

As you can see, RX DSP AGC does not affect the signal level in the waterfall. Only affect the audio AGC.

The gain settings in the Radio panel are actually adjusting the gains inside the radio itself, so affects the signal that you are "inputting" to SDRC software prior to any DSP treatment.

See this link and scroll down to "Options" section for full description:

https://www.sdr-radio.com/rtl-dongles

In SDRC the "Radio" section is different for every individual model of SDR. It also does not always appear in the Ribbon Bar, depending on the model, especially for transceivers. But for RTL-SDR, HF+ and SDR Play RSP receivers it is always in that place.

Hope that makes sense.

Max