RADIXON Excalibur Sigma User Manual Download Page 4

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WiNRADiO G65DDC User’s Guide

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ......................................................................................... 4

Introduction................................................................................................... 6

The Hardware ................................................................................................ 7

Installation..................................................................................................... 8

Recommended System Requirements ....................................................... 8

Software and Hardware Installation ............................................................ 9

Setting up the Sound Card ....................................................................... 10

Connecting the Antenna ........................................................................... 11

Grounding ................................................................................................. 11

Getting Started ........................................................................................... 13

Achieving Best Selectivity ......................................................................... 16

Avoiding Front-End Overload ................................................................... 17

Inside the Excalibur Sigma ........................................................................ 17

Resizing the Application Window ............................................................. 21

Drop-Down Menu Controls ........................................................................ 22

Tuning the Excalibur Sigma ...................................................................... 23

Manual Frequency Entry........................................................................... 23

Tuning Knob ............................................................................................. 25

Keyboard Tuning ...................................................................................... 25

Multiple Receiver Operation ..................................................................... 26

Point-and-Click Tuning ............................................................................. 27

Dragging the Passband ............................................................................ 27

IF Shift and Passband Tuning .................................................................. 29

Frequency Stepping .................................................................................. 30

Frequency Display Offset ......................................................................... 31

Receiver Selection ..................................................................................... 31

Mode Selection ........................................................................................... 32

AMS Mode ................................................................................................ 33

ISB and DSB Modes ................................................................................. 34

DRM Mode ................................................................................................ 35

FSK Mode ................................................................................................. 38

UDM Mode ................................................................................................ 38

Function Tabs ............................................................................................. 38

Tuning Tab ................................................................................................ 39

Audio Tab ................................................................................................. 43

Memory Tab .............................................................................................. 48

Notch......................................................................................................... 54

Squelch ..................................................................................................... 55

Gain .......................................................................................................... 57

Noise Blanker ........................................................................................... 60

Summary of Contents for Excalibur Sigma

Page 1: ...WiNRADiO by RADIXON WR G65DDC EXCALIBUR SIGMA TM Software Defined Communications Receiver User s Guide Ver 1 07 ...

Page 2: ...Australia All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher Trademarks WiNRADiO G3 G65DDC and Excalibur Sigma are trademarks of WiNRADiO Communications All other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners Published in Australia ...

Page 3: ... the computer and peripherals must be shielded and grounded Operation with non certified peripherals may result in interference to radio and TV reception Modifications Any changes or modifications to the WiNRADiO receiver not expressly approved in this book could void the user s authority to operate this equipment Limitation of Liability and Remedies The information published in this book has been...

Page 4: ...Excalibur Sigma 17 Resizing the Application Window 21 Drop Down Menu Controls 22 Tuning the Excalibur Sigma 23 Manual Frequency Entry 23 Tuning Knob 25 Keyboard Tuning 25 Multiple Receiver Operation 26 Point and Click Tuning 27 Dragging the Passband 27 IF Shift and Passband Tuning 29 Frequency Stepping 30 Frequency Display Offset 31 Receiver Selection 31 Mode Selection 32 AMS Mode 33 ISB and DSB M...

Page 5: ...ator 79 Preamplifier 79 RF Filter 80 S meter 80 Top Menu Bar 81 File 81 Options 84 Memory 98 Scheduler 99 Logger 103 Plugins 104 Power Switch 104 Date and Time Display 104 Appendix A SDR and DDC Primer 106 Appendix B Troubleshooting 113 Appendix C USB and LAN Interface Diagnostics 117 Appendix D Dealing with Interference 118 Appendix E Waterfall Spectrum Palettes 120 Appendix F Recording File Form...

Page 6: ...ith today s technology As the name Excalibur Sigma suggests a magical sword synonymous with power and bravery this is not just a receiver it is a powerful radio communications instrument in a class of its own We have crafted it with meticulous workmanship utmost care attention to detail and dedication to excellence to make it suitable for the most demanding of applications We are proud to present ...

Page 7: ...agnostics During normal operation its flashing can be disabled by a setting in the application software should it appear disturbing The power input socket requires 12 V DC with a tolerance of 1 V The power adapter must be rated for a minimum of 1 A CAUTION For best performance and safety we recommend using only the power adapter supplied by WiNRADiO which comes included with your receiver There ar...

Page 8: ...layback Sound card Any standard Windows supported sound card Interface USB 3 0 port OS Windows 7 8 or 10 32 64 bit The CPU speed directly influences the maximum selectivity and DDC bandwidth that can be achieved with this receiver The receiver may still be usable on slower computers but with some compromises for example using only one of the two receiver channels and or reduced maximum achievable ...

Page 9: ...on the new icon that has been installed on your desktop Note also a shortcut to the user s manual file G65DDC User s Guide pdf that will also appear on your desktop Finally connect your antenna to the antenna connectors SMA type at the rear of the receiver Having a good antenna is most important see more details in the chapter Connecting the Antenna Something to consider WiNRADiO also manufactures...

Page 10: ...put On Windows 10 the audio volume can be adjusted using the WR G65DDC volume slider inside the Applications section and the master volume inside the Device section Both controls need to be unmuted Click on the speaker icon and then click on the Mixer link to bring up the sound card control panel Different Windows versions may use a different method of bringing up this control panel in Windows 10 ...

Page 11: ...ften require careful consideration with respect to the antenna connection and installation to make sure that computer generated noise does not enter the receiver s antenna input Grounding To obtain the maximum possible performance from your receiver you may also like to experiment with grounding in particular when you are using long wire antennas In some cases signal reception may be significantly...

Page 12: ...e than a few meters in length A low impedance connection such as braid removed from a section of coaxial cable should be used to make the connection In an ideal situation the length of coaxial cable to the receiver should be no more than a few meters in order to provide a low RF ground impedance at the receiver In order to make a connection to the coaxial cable a number of options exist These incl...

Page 13: ...ll return to these chapters as the WiNRADiO Excalibur Sigma receiver has many unique and innovative features the usage of which may not be immediately obvious and which would be a shame to miss Start the WiNRADiO Excalibur Sigma receiver application by double clicking on the program icon The receiver s virtual control panel will appear The control panel has some basic elements similar to conventio...

Page 14: ...shows the output of the primary Digital Down Converter DDC1 and the one on the right is that of the secondary DDC DDC2 which refines the observed spectrum further You can adjust the receiver s selectivity bandwidth for optimum reception using the row of numbered buttons at the bottom of the Tuning tab this being the left most tab located just under the AM mode selection button The numbers on the b...

Page 15: ... while tuning the increment will decrease ten times 100 Hz Pressing Shift will decrease the increment a hundred times 10 Hz And if you use the Ctrl key the increment becomes a thousand times smaller 1 Hz Another way of tuning is to use the up and down arrow keys on the PC keyboard The Alt Shift and Ctrl keys can be used to a similar effect as with the tuning knob to modify the frequency increment ...

Page 16: ...the CPU load which will depend on this setting It may not be advisable to select a value resulting in more than say 30 CPU load as the computer may then become sluggish Should the computer become sluggish or even freeze as a result of this adjustment please reduce the demodulator filter length to a lower value Note also that the CPU load can be lowered while keeping selectivity high by reducing th...

Page 17: ...er effective remedies do exist please peruse Appendix D Dealing with Interference Inside the Excalibur Sigma Let s have a look at what s inside this receiver and how it relates to the graphical user interface of the control application Here is a simplified functional block diagram of the hardware portion of the receiver The receiver operates in two separate frequency ranges Range 1 from 1 kHz to 8...

Page 18: ... by a 118 MHz high pass anti alias filter which also effectively suppresses the FM broadcast band The signal then passes through a switchable low noise low distortion amplifier which can be enabled or disabled by the user When enabled this adds approximately 10 dB of amplification making it possible to achieve higher sensitivity at the expense of strong signal handling capability This is followed ...

Page 19: ...luggish and the application may freeze The chunk of the input signal spectrum seen and processed by the DDC is shown at the top left this is called the DDC1 spectrum Its bandwidth is determined by the DDC1 BW control at the top of the DDC spectrum Anywhere within the DDC1 spectrum you can place three independent demodulators virtual receivers each of them capable of independently demodulating sign...

Page 20: ...ectrum You can also drag the gray areas sideways by clicking and dragging at their center or anywhere inside them in both the DDC1 and demodulator spectrum This is equivalent to the IF Shift function of conventional receivers Clicking on any of the three spectrum scopes will cause the receiver to tune to the corresponding frequency But as the WiNRADiO Excalibur Sigma consists of three receivers in...

Page 21: ...proportion of the three spectrum scopes simply drag the edges or corners or the internal boundaries separating the three spectrum scopes Below is an example of how the application window can be resized This was achieved by first dragging the right hand edge of the application panel to extend the panel horizontally then making more room for the DDC1 spectrum at the expense of the demodulator DDC2 s...

Page 22: ...and down with a little bit of inertia the faster you spin the faster the imaginary wheel will turn Clicking on an item will select it double clicking will select it and also close the list If you don t have a mouse wheel for example using a laptop with a touch pad instead of a mouse you can also use the keyboard up down cursor keys to navigate inside the list There is also another difference with ...

Page 23: ...Hz or h for Hz after entering the digits The tuned frequency will then be displayed in the chosen units Any invalid keystrokes are ignored The same principle of changing the displayed frequency units is applied anywhere in the Excalibur Sigma application where frequency is to be entered if you prefer to display or enter the frequency in different units simply terminate the entry with h for Hz k fo...

Page 24: ...a user defined description of a particular frequency stored in memory This overrides the band description for that particular tuned frequency only It is also possible to change the naming and frequency allocations for entire frequency bands This can be done by editing the file called Bands csv in the program installation folder usually located at with a 32 bit operating system C Program Files WiNR...

Page 25: ... button As the knob rotates the frequency will change in 1 kHz steps Holding the mouse button down will accelerate the tuning The step size can be changed to 100 Hz 10 Hz or 1 Hz by pressing the Alt Shift or Ctrl keys respectively while clicking the tuning knob with mouse button The tuning knob can also be conveniently rotated using a wheel of a wheel equipped mouse or any other standard Windows s...

Page 26: ...e this new frequency while keeping the other receivers tuned to their existing frequencies the software will dump disable one or both of the other two receivers This gives priority to the currently selected receiver except when one of the other receivers is currently recording or its frequency is locked by the user In such a case the new frequency will not be accepted and the recording or lock ind...

Page 27: ...oint and Click Tuning Pointing and clicking anywhere inside the three spectrum scopes will tune the currently selected receiver to the corresponding frequency Also when clicking on the spectrum the Shift or Ctrl keys can be held down which will round the tuned frequency to the nearest kHz or 100 Hz respectively However there are some ramifications depending on which one of the three spectrum scope...

Page 28: ...e wideband spectrum Inside the DDC1 and demodulator DDC2 spectra it is actually possible to drag the respective DDC or demodulator filter passbands beyond the existing boundaries in both directions In such a case the receiver will tune automatically Dragging either one of the edges of the grayed out area inside the demodulator spectrum will result in continuously changing the filter bandwidth exce...

Page 29: ...tly where it is This makes it possible to quickly and visually tune to another station represented by a signal peak in the spectrum However it is not very suitable for the AMS USB LSB ISB DSB and CW modes if you only wish to adjust the filter passband position slightly for the station you are currently receiving for example in order to avoid interference from an adjacent channel If you do this whe...

Page 30: ...cursor to indicate you are in the PBT mode and showing the tuning offset at the same time To revert to the IF shift mode simply use the left mouse button again Frequency Stepping To make the chapter on tuning complete we need to fast forward a bit There is one more tuning facility located on the right under the Tuning tab all the function tabs will be described in more detail in one of the followi...

Page 31: ...called Display offset and is located under the Options top menu bar As usual you can enter the display offset in Hz kHz or MHz by terminating the entered value with either h k or m respectively if you prefer to change the displayed frequency unit An option to invert the spectrum is provided for situations where the spectrum is inverted by the down converter Receiver Selection Clicking on one of th...

Page 32: ...ceiver tabs you can quickly alternate between receivers in a similar way in which you would use the VFO function in a conventional receiver There is the additional benefit of being able to change complete receiver settings including demodulation mode bandwidth notch filter audio filter etc without the need to keep reprogramming when switching receivers Mode Selection The Mode selection buttons are...

Page 33: ...tain capture range a frequency range within which the receiver will capture the signal and achieve synchronization If you are tuning to a new signal this initial capture Tune capture range is initially quite wide within plus or minus 1 5 kHz default value from the actual signal frequency This is to enable easy tuning by pointing and clicking near the peak in the DDC1 spectrum or dragging the filte...

Page 34: ...ode and makes it possible to receive independent information in the two sidebands of an AM modulated signal with suppressed or partially suppressed carrier The desired audio output can be selected between the lower and upper side bands using two selector USB and LSB buttons accessible under the Tuning tab Note Both channels of an ISB transmission can be recorded simultaneously using the recording ...

Page 35: ...achieved by introducing sophisticated state of the art digital signal coding and compression together with extending channel bandwidth This results in a dramatic improvement in broadcast quality For more information about this mode refer to www winradio com drm Activating this mode requires purchasing a license from the DRM consortium Selecting the DRM mode will provide details how to acquire the ...

Page 36: ...gram information associated with the broadcast At left there is also a description of services that are available Up to four services are available in a DRM broadcast and these are selectable by the services selector in the Audio tab On the right hand side of the demodulator spectrum DDC2 a DRM capture progress indicator will display Sync detected before Audio decoded and finally Signal to Noise R...

Page 37: ...r program is launched to display this information To receive a DRM station simply tune to the frequency and select the DRM mode If the signal is of sufficient strength and quality it will be decoded A DRM station is easily recognizable thanks to its characteristic flat spectrum DRM broadcaster schedule information is available at www drm dx de and also at www drm org index php p broadcast_schedule...

Page 38: ...ers operating in a suppressed carrier mode However any offset may be used and the values are automatically saved UDM Mode The UDM User Definable Mode makes it possible to define any set of parameters for a special application All settings including the actual demodulation mode may be selected and saved For instance a user may wish to have a special USB mode with a very wide demodulation bandwidth ...

Page 39: ...mouse are interchangeable The advantage of this control is that the actual tuning offset is visible and can be precisely adjusted Passband tuning makes it possible to finely adjust the demodulator filter position in the AMS LSB USB and CW modes without a whistle effect due to a misaligned BFO making it possible to avoid interference and finely tune the receiver for optimum reception Pressing the R...

Page 40: ...h h for Hz or k for kHz or select the required bandwidth value using the drop down list Another very convenient method of adjusting the demodulator filter bandwidth is a graphical one by dragging the edges of the shaded area representing the filter passband in the demodulator spectrum Continuous adjustment of the demodulator filter bandwidth makes it possible to adjust the bandwidth to exactly fit...

Page 41: ...modulator spectrum AFC Automatic Frequency Control When engaged the AFC button forces the receiver to automatically adjust its tuning to follow the frequency drift of the received transmission While this function is active the receiver will periodically check the received signal and correct the frequency in approximately five second intervals This facility is not recommended for LSB and USB modes ...

Page 42: ...e tuning tab also includes Band selection controls These controls make it possible to choose which of the sidebands is to be listened to either the lower sideband upper sideband or both This is useful in situations where one of the sidebands is damaged by interference UDM Mode Selection If the UDM mode User Definable Mode is selected the AMS band selection controls are replaced with the Mode selec...

Page 43: ...equencies can be adjusted using the Low and High controls The De em control is used to adjust de emphasis relating to the filter s slope from the highest frequency to the lowest which is particularly important for FM signals a typical de emphasis value for narrow band FM modulated signals is 6 0 dB oct However it can be also useful for AM signals Gently sloping the filter passband can sometimes ma...

Page 44: ...o 31 full volume To enter a value directly click on the display and type in the new volume level followed by ENTER The volume can also be increased or decreased by selecting the desired value from the drop down list An alternative way of changing the volume is by using the Volume slider Place the mouse cursor on the slider and drag it either left or right to change the volume Finally another conve...

Page 45: ...your left ear and the third receiver with your right ear There are many possible combinations The mixer buttons are located at the bottom left of the audio tab If the Mix button is disabled the currently selected receiver will behave as if there was no mixer at all and you will simply hear audio from the receiver which you have currently selected i e the receiver that is in focus Enabling the mixe...

Page 46: ...Mix on Left on Right on Mix on Left on Right on Mix on Left on Right on RX3 Audio will come out for all RX1 RX2 and RX3 all mixed together from both channels Mix on Left on Right off Mix on Left off Right on Mix on Left on Right on R 3 Audio will come out for all RX1 RX2 and RX3 RX1 RX3 from left channel RX2 RX3 from right channel Virtual Sound Card The Excalibur Sigma receiver is equipped with an...

Page 47: ...band zero frequency and the target application must be able to accept these parameters Any demodulation mode may be selected for the IF output this setting is not relevant as the VSC IF output sends a raw spectrum without any filtering or demodulation The sampling rates for both the VSC audio and IF outputs can be set independently using the VSC Set up function under the Options top menu bar To us...

Page 48: ...ned memory makes it possible to store and recall arbitrary frequencies and group them together in a tree like structure The number of frequencies that can be stored in Excalibur Sigma memories is limited only by the size of your computer s hard disk Storing a Frequency into Memory With each frequency you can store several additional attributes mode callsign description bandwidth squelch parameters...

Page 49: ...demodulation mode If you do not wish to store a particular demodulation mode with a frequency simply leave the Mode button disengaged in such a case the frequency will be recalled with the currently selected demodulation mode unchanged The squelch settings can be also stored optionally If enabled using the Squelch button the specified squelch settings will be applied automatically when the frequen...

Page 50: ...he previous assignment with a new one if you wish Note F1 calls the help menu so cannot be assigned to a memory Memory scan lockout This setting relates to the Scanner facility If this checkbox is ticked this will cause this frequency to be skipped while scanning Note that as although the Excalibur Sigma does not have the scanner facility the memory format is the same for a range of WiNRADiO recei...

Page 51: ...eft hand side Editing a Memory To change the settings for a particular frequency click on the Edit button or select Edit from the right click menu A window will open showing the current settings All settings can be edited After the entry has been edited click on OK Deleting a Frequency To remove a frequency first click on the Recall button Select the frequency you wish to delete and click on the D...

Page 52: ... and subfolders All these folders and subfolders are user definable and can be nested indefinitely i e a subfolder can contain another subfolder etc These folders and subfolders represent memory Groups You can group frequencies together using your own arbitrary criteria To create a new group use the New group button at bottom left of the User memory popup If you do this after you have clicked on a...

Page 53: ...currently selected group If no matching frequency is found there then the whole memory structure will be searched and the first one found will be displayed Saving the User Memory File You can have more than one user memory file the number of such files is limited only by the capacity of your hard drive You can save a user memory file under an arbitrary name and then load it back making it possible...

Page 54: ...ng the appropriately named controls For both notch controls the same usage rules apply as with the demodulator bandwidth setting i e the values can be changed by direct manual entry or selected from the drop down list Another way of changing the notch filter parameters is by dragging the stopband of the filter a blue shaded area with the mouse The stopband width can be adjusted by dragging the edg...

Page 55: ...rong buzzing sound After applying the notch filter adjusting its center and bandwidth by dragging the blue area center and edges to fall exactly over the interfering signal the situation will look like this This results in significantly reduced interference and a much more pleasing sound Squelch The Squelch tab contains squelch related controls ...

Page 56: ...ext to the corresponding control Voice squelch determines the contents of voice frequencies in the spectrum of the demodulated audio If lower than the preset threshold the receiver will be muted The voice frequencies content of the currently received signal is also shown next to the corresponding control CTCSS Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System defines a particular CTCSS code which when received...

Page 57: ...Then tune to an occupied frequency where there is a useful signal and note the noise content value again Then set the noise threshold somewhere between these extreme values Note that the noise squelch is particularly effective in the FM mode and its values also depend on the demodulator bandwidth setting The adjustment procedure for the voice squelch is similar Tune to an unoccupied channel first ...

Page 58: ...ium position For most practical applications the medium setting is recommended Slow setting would be used especially with Morse code CW mode while fast AGC speed might be appropriate for very noisy signals where noise bursts might temporarily desensitize the receiver if a slower AGC was employed While the timing of the slow medium or fast speed settings is fixed the remaining three settings are us...

Page 59: ... gain that the AGC has at its disposal and preventing an excessive pumping noise between transmissions This is especially useful with SSB signals or when monitoring point to point transmissions where the transmitter is switched on intermittently In such cases if the maximum gain was not limited the AGC may tend to increase the maximum gain too much which could result in unpleasant noise bursts bet...

Page 60: ... automatic gain This is because there is no constant carrier for the AGC to act upon and maintain at a constant level If AGC is used then the slow setting is preferable Noise Blanker The Noise Blanker can be used for removal of random high level noise spikes resulting from atmospheric effects and man made interference There are two types of noise blankers available one using the Short Time DDC Ave...

Page 61: ...h the adjustment The ADC Input threshold method is activated by pressing the Enable ADC threshold button If the input at the ADC exceeds that defined by the ADC threshold control the ADC input will be blanked The current ADC level is shown in the adjacent display to help with this adjustment The maximum level 100 corresponds to the entire input range of the ADC Pause The Pause facility makes it po...

Page 62: ...tinue to be saved in the buffer The Orig time display shows the time when the currently played signal was originally received Data that has already been played back is automatically removed from the buffer to make room for the incoming signal so that simultaneous buffering and playback can run for an unlimited time effectively making it possible to listen to the signal with an adjustable delay In ...

Page 63: ... displays the RF spectrum contents of the current range which the receiver is tuned to in real time For the first range this is 88 MHz wide from 0 Hz to 88 MHz for the second range this is 72 MHz wide from 118 MHz to 190 MHz A zoomed in portion of the wideband spectrum is the DCC1 spectrum top left whose width can vary from 20 kHz to 64 MHz in 36 steps selectable using the DDC1 control The DDC2 sp...

Page 64: ...are made visible by pressing the toolbox button while in the wideband spectrum scope these are visible at all times Pressing the button in either of the DDC spectrum displays will reveal a toolbox worth of controls on the right hand side Zoom Spectrum Each spectrum scope includes Zoom buttons Use the two zoom buttons to zoom in and out of the spectrum this is a useful feature for observing frequen...

Page 65: ...r words it specifies the amount of detail that will be visible in the spectrum A low RBW value provides a greater detail a higher value results in a smoother trace The resolution bandwidth control is similar in functionality to that available in high performance spectrum analyzers Please note that average CPU load may rise with finer RBW settings The saved waterfall spectrum files which are also o...

Page 66: ...d to reveal the minimum and maximum signal values respectively received during the averaging period These buttons are enabled only if the averaging period is non zero Waterfall Spectrum The DDC1 and wideband spectrum scopes are both equipped with a Waterfall function Clicking on the Waterfall button transforms the standard spectrum scope into a waterfall type display where the vertical axis repres...

Page 67: ...ighlight a given signal level of special interest with enhanced colors If for example the palette gravity has been selected at 80 dBm then the monitored signal will be shown with additional colors around that signal level thereby improving the contrast of this section within the overall waterfall display The check box inside the Gravity control activates the gravity settings or when unchecked rest...

Page 68: ...sor position and the frequency difference between the receiver tuned frequency and the current cursor position The frequency delta display is very convenient for measuring signal bandwidths distances between transmitted channels or signal sidebands etc Right clicking on the spectrum reveals a menu with the following functions Tune to nearest peak this will tune the receiver to a peak that is neare...

Page 69: ...rkers Remove marker at xx xxx MHz by selecting this function this marker will be deleted Tune to marker at xx xxx MHz this will tune the receiver to the marker frequency Clear all markers this function removes all markers from the spectrum Information Buttons The information button in the DDC1 and DDC2 spectrum scope toolbox conveniently duplicates the functions Show measurements and Show data rat...

Page 70: ...f the displayed spectrum for example in noisy environments or with large antennas Peak Hold This feature is only available in the wideband spectrum scope making it possible to observe a spectrum for a long time and indicate any signal peaks that may have occurred in the past but have since disappeared In other words when this value is set the spectrum scope will record and display the signal maxim...

Page 71: ...ed over the audio spectrum The low and high cut off frequencies of the filter can be graphically adjusted by dragging the left and right edges of the displayed passband The input audio signal to the filter is shown in a darker color while the filtered output is shown in a lighter color Finally clicking the RF button while the audio spectrum is displayed will exit the audio spectrum mode and return...

Page 72: ...p size The step size and the starting frequency must be determined so that they fall on the actual channel frequencies inside the searched band Start and End frequencies must be within the currently selected range The next value to set up is the Threshold The threshold can be set using the drop down or by keying in a value preceded by a minus or the threshold line can be dragged with the mouse to ...

Page 73: ...but it reduces the speed of the activity search as well The average value can be set between 2 and 16 or toggled off In addition to the visual activity search on the right hand side of the spectrum the search result will also be presented in a textual form where the currently active frequencies will be highlighted The Hit column will show the percentage of the time since the start of the search th...

Page 74: ...y to the Exclusions list Clear clear the most recently found active frequencies in the activity spectrum display and reset the activity frequency list The activity search results can be saved in a special proprietary format extension g65ddcact and then loaded back to be viewed by the Excalibur Sigma application The frequency table with hit counts can also be saved to a CSV or XLS file This is acco...

Page 75: ...ions in the activity search press the Enable button Excluded bands are highlighted in the activity spectrum Recording Functions At the top of the DDC1 and DDC2 spectrum scopes there are Recorder buttons that serve to reveal their respective recording facilities ...

Page 76: ... received many times with different demodulator filter bandwidths notch filter or audio filter settings etc to arrive at the best possible demodulated audio Recording starts when the Recording button is engaged and stops when the Stop button is pressed A Pause button is also available to temporarily pause both the recording and playback Playback starts when the Play button is engaged The Loop butt...

Page 77: ...sk you if you wish to overwrite the file Increment its name each time the record button is pressed a counter will be inserted in the file name and prefixed with the symbol If there is no initial number then 001 is automatically used first and then incremented each time a new file is created For example the file name may look like this rec 001 wav Overwrite the file will be overwritten with the new...

Page 78: ...ped if a user tunes other receiver outside of the current DDC1 bandwidth This is done by activating the Lock when recording checkbox Audio recordings can be controlled by the squelch condition Should the recording pause if the receiver is squelched this can be set up by checking the Pause recording if squelched checkbox This function is not applicable to DDC recordings The Insert frequency to file...

Page 79: ...r automatically by increasing the attenuation to the point when overload stops However it does not automatically decrease the attenuation if the original strong signal disappears this needs to be done manually If sensitivity appears poor please first ensure that the attenuator is disabled Preamplifier The Preamp button engages a low noise preamplifier which adds approx 10 dB of amplification to th...

Page 80: ...frequency in order for the signal to remain within the flat portion of the filter passband When the RF filter is engaged its passband is indicated by a grayed out area visible in the wideband spectrum S meter The WiNRADiO Excalibur Sigma receiver is equipped with a very sensitive and selective Signal Strength Meter S meter which makes it possible to measure peak or RMS signal level in dBm µV or S ...

Page 81: ... compensated for by the S meter This means that the S meter always displays the true value of the signal strength at the antenna input within the available measurement range Top Menu Bar The top menu bar contains numerous ancillary functions of the Excalibur Sigma File The File menu includes functions associated with file operations Did you know The word file was used publicly in the context of co...

Page 82: ...o the Activity search chapter has the extension g65ddcact Spectra are all saved as images using the BMP JPEG or PNG format They can also be printed Memory Export and Import The Save user memory as and Load user memory functions can also save or load the user memory in the CSV format comma separated values making it possible to export frequencies in this commonly used format as well as import frequ...

Page 83: ... subfolders groups which are separated by slash signs for example as follows Memory SW stations Australia Frequency Bandwidth and the audio filter parameters are specified including the frequency unit for example 21 525MHz To save or load the CSV file simply specify this as a file type in the respective window for example User memory can be cleared using the New user memory function This deletes a...

Page 84: ... number of user settings making it possible to customize the receiver s look and behavior adjust its numerous operational parameters activate various test and measurement displays calibrate the receiver as well as restore factory defaults for user definable parameters ...

Page 85: ...eiver is connected via its USB port The receiver must be turned off using the power button on the bottom right of the application panel to be able to change the network settings Otherwise the dialog is displayed in read only mode with a short explanation Filter Length This facility makes it possible to adjust the digital filter length which directly translates into selectivity for three types of f...

Page 86: ...ths can also be adjusted using this facility resulting in sharper or shallower notch and audio filtering tailored to specific operator requirements Should the computer become sluggish or even freeze as a result of this adjustment please reduce the respective filter length to a lower value Note also that the CPU load can be lowered while keeping selectivity high by reducing the DDC1 bandwidth For e...

Page 87: ...uit the user s preference Display Offset This feature makes it possible to introduce a fixed offset to the displayed frequency It is particularly useful when an external frequency down converter is being used with the receiver Enter the required offset value in the Display offset edit box click OK this value will be added to the displayed frequency Optionally you can invert the displayed spectrum ...

Page 88: ...ed by the Windows locale settings Note the format in which the date is displayed depends on the locale settings of your computer You can change this in your Windows control panel under Regional and Language Options the exact wording will depend upon your Windows version We are open 24 7 With despatch centers located in the UK EU and Australia no matter what the time of the day is the WiNRADiO dire...

Page 89: ...n table the same keystrokes are specified for more than one function this will be highlighted in red The Default button restores the factory defaults and the Enable button can be used to enable or disable all shortcuts The Load and Save buttons allow the user to load and save shortcut settings from to a file VSC Set up The Virtual Sound Card VSC is a software option designed to transfer digitized ...

Page 90: ...ffers count should be set to an optimum value to avoid drop outs in data due to unequal sampling rates between the applications Audio Buffering The audio signal resulting from the receiver filtering and demodulation process is sent to a Windows multimedia output device i e in most cases the PC sound card Prior to this the audio data is buffered in order to avoid potential drop outs due to other ba...

Page 91: ...lue from the actual signal frequency to enable easy tuning by pointing and clicking near the peak in the DDC spectrum or by dragging the filter passband area in the demodulator spectrum You can adjust the Tune capture range to a different width for tuning convenience Once locked to a signal the capture range automatically reduces to 50 Hz factory default value from the signal frequency The reason ...

Page 92: ...one for data decoding via a virtual sound card etc It is also possible to channel the audio output to an ASIO Audio Stream Input Output device if it is available in your system This feature makes it possible for an ASIO device to bypass the Windows audio processing layers and access the receiver s audio output directly with the lowest possible latency and eliminating any artifacts introduced by th...

Page 93: ...mputer becomes sluggish you might need to either revert to the default 50 ms value or reduce the CPU load by narrowing the DDC1 bandwidth or reducing the Filter length setting under Options Show Measurements The Test and Measurement functions of the Excalibur Sigma receiver make it possible to indicate the ADC input level in percentage of the entire ADC range Frequency error of the received signal...

Page 94: ...r filter length thus sacrificing selectivity and audio latency may be minimized by reducing the Audio buffering while inviting the possibility of audio drop outs or distortion Both these controls are available under Options Note that this function is also duplicated by the information button in the DDC1 spectrum scope toolbox Measuring your Excalibur Sigma s sensitivity using your Excalibur Sigma ...

Page 95: ... S N N is used in practice with a good receiver such as the Excalibur Sigma there is no noticeable difference Note When measuring sensitivity using SINAD it is very important that the Audio Filter is enabled and the cut off frequencies and for FM measurements also the de emphasis are set according to the specified test conditions Proper audio filtering makes a substantial difference to the SINAD r...

Page 96: ...illator directly or using automatic calibration against a known reference signal To calibrate to a peak simply tune the receiver to a known reference frequency presuming a reasonably strong and steady signal The frequency difference between the peak and the receiver s tuned frequency will be shown as Peak offset To calibrate the receiver to the peak frequency click on Calibrate to peak If successf...

Page 97: ... of interest is found and you wish to record or monitor it and then tune the Excalibur Sigma to a frequency outside the currently tuned DDC1 bandwidth Audio from the WR G313 or WR G315 receivers will normally be presented to the stereo mixer system although with the WR G313i or WR G315i models internal PCI card version it may be more convenient to use a separate speaker connected directly to the r...

Page 98: ...unctions are described in full detail in the chapter Memory tab under Function tabs Selecting this top bar menu function is equivalent to pressing the Recall button under the memory tab The top menu bar function Memory contains the following facilities ...

Page 99: ...ed to adjust the accepted offset from stored frequencies In this example only stations that fall within 1 kHz of the tuned frequency are shown in the callsign display Scheduler The Scheduler is used to schedule automatic audio recording of stations at predefined dates and times When the Scheduler function is selected the following Task list is shown ...

Page 100: ...WiNRADiO G65DDC User s Guide 100 You can add new recording tasks by pressing the New button at the bottom left This opens the New task window ...

Page 101: ...tuned to The next items are Start time and Start date This is when the task will be executed for example a recording will commence After this you will need to specify whether you wish for this task to run only once select Run once or whether this is to be a repetitive task select Repeat If this is to be a repetitive task you can select the repeat period in terms of days hours and minutes and the e...

Page 102: ... can set the demodulator filter bandwidth DEM BW an identical control to the one in the demodulator window For DDC recording type this control can be used to select the DDC recorded bandwidth For Audio recordings the Mode Squelch and Audio filter controls also become enabled making it possible to set these parameters similarly as they are set under their respective tabs during normal receiver oper...

Page 103: ...cies at the same time These are specified by simply tuning one or all of the three receivers RX1 RX2 or RX3 to the desired frequencies A simple dialog box then makes it possible to specify the file path and name into which the logging will be made in the CSV format and the logging period While the Logger is running normal operation of the receiver is not possible Elapsed time is shown in the Logge...

Page 104: ...ower switch located at the bottom right corner of the application window controls the receiver s power When it is off the receiver circuitry will be powered down When you exit and restart the WiNRADiO G65DDC application the power on off status will be remembered However you do not need to power off the receiver using this button before closing the application Date and Time Display The top menu bar...

Page 105: ...ime is abbreviated UTC The International Telecommunication Union wanted Coordinated Universal Time to have a single abbreviation for all languages English speakers and French speakers each wanted the initials of their respective language s terms to be used internationally CUT for coordinated universal time and TUC for temps universel coordonné This resulted in the final compromise of using UTC ...

Page 106: ...sulting signal is applied to a demodulator and then to the audio output circuits These receivers depend only on hardware for their performance and functionality In the currently prevailing nomenclature of the SDR industry they are formally referred to as SDR Tier Zero receivers meaning that there is no involvement of software at all First Generation SDR With the proliferation of personal computers...

Page 107: ...Software Controlled Radio Second Generation SDR The second generation SDR receivers bring the radio computer integration a step further by including an analog to digital converter ADC into the essential functionality of the receiver This came about primarily as a result of performance improvement in PC sound cards as well as increased CPU power of personal computers that started to rival that of d...

Page 108: ...is concept is in the ability to present the IF signal in a real time spectrum display Being able to see a signal and its neighborhood in addition to merely hear it has brought about a major paradigm change and increased a radio operator s expectation as to what to expect from a radio receiver The preceding spectrum display is that of the WiNRADiO G313 receiver a typical representative of this type...

Page 109: ...te of 200 MHz and beyond The Nyquist theorem says that the maximum frequency that can be sampled needs to be smaller than half of the sampling rate see www wikipedia org wiki Nyquist_frequency So with 210 MSPS mega samples per second we have the potential with the Excalibur Sigma to sample almost 105 MHz of spectrum at once However one ADC does not yet make an SDR and more software processes are i...

Page 110: ...e inside the PC within the demodulator software If the USB 3 0 interface is used there are no limitations to the operation of the receiver However if the Gigabit Ethernet LAN interface is used it is important to note that the theoretical limit of 1000 Mbit s reduces the available DDC bandwidth of the receiver to 16 MHz when operating over the Gigabit Ethernet As the whole DDC spectrum is sent to t...

Page 111: ...t 105 MHz 210 MHz respectively will be digitally sampled and processed However in order to provide sufficient sensitivity it is necessary to insert a degree of amplification before the ADC but this amplification can have a detrimental effect if not correctly managed Traditional super heterodyne receivers often include many tuned circuits designed to reduce various spurious ghost signals birdies of...

Page 112: ... the anti aliasing filter However this anti aliasing filter cannot be made perfect its skirt is always somewhat sloping rather than being an ideal vertical line and its stop band attenuation cannot be made infinite As a result the receiver s lower bandwidth is smaller than 105 MHz and there is also an image response of signals higher than 105 MHz However in the Excalibur Sigma the image response i...

Page 113: ...receiver is turned on The blue LED should flash Compare the LED flashing pattern with the table shown in Appendix C If the flashing pattern is 5 meaning USB connected driver not installed please reinstall the driver Disconnect the receiver from the USB port first and reinstall the software from the supplied CD ROM Then reconnect the receiver Windows should detect this and start the usual new hardw...

Page 114: ...o sound coming from the speaker please check the following The Mute button under the Audio tab is disengaged and the volume is set to a medium level say 15 AGC under the Gain tab is enabled and set to medium speed The squelch is disabled the Enable button under the Squelch tab is disengaged The sound card output is properly connected to speakers or headphones and both the WiNRADiO Application and ...

Page 115: ...l panel or on the amplified speakers you are using Make sure that AGC under the Gain tab is enabled Try to adjust the Gain parameter under the Audio tab excessive audio gain can cause distortion I can hear the audio and tune the receiver but the software is very sluggish sometimes it may even freeze Close all other programs to reduce the CPU load Go to Options top bar menu and select Filter Length...

Page 116: ... interference in your surroundings it could be fluorescent lights a lamp dimmer or other household appliances Your PC could be the culprit Unless you are able to suppress the interference at the source the only solution is to install a better antenna preferably an outdoor one Computer networks are especially noisy and if your PC is connected to one you will almost certainly need an outdoor antenna...

Page 117: ... client connected radio off 4 One short flash followed by a long one USB or LAN client connected radio on ready 5 Two short flashes followed by a long one USB connected driver not installed 6 Three short flashes USB or LAN connected driver installed application not running For the normal Ready state as indicated by pattern 4 one short flash followed by a long one the front panel LED can be control...

Page 118: ...wever any receiver needs to be connected to an antenna and antennas can t discriminate between useful signals and interference The interference from your computer can either radiate directly to the antenna or it can be conducted to it along the outer conductor of the lead in cable Even in professional radio receiving stations a lot of care and effort is always needed if this type of self interfere...

Page 119: ...adio com cmc30 which is well proven to cure most common mode interference problems In extreme cases two or more chokes can be used placed strategically along the antenna lead where suitable grounding points exist Long wire antennas while most commonly used also appear to be most susceptible to problems related to ground loops If you encounter such problems we would also suggest experimenting with ...

Page 120: ...isplayed by the waterfall the bottom line corresponds to the minimum signal strength min_SS Each line contains a set of decimal RGB values separated by spaces 0 0 0 represents black 255 255 255 is white The incoming signal strength values are mapped to this color space as follows If the attenuator is off the minimum signal level is 150 dBm the maximum level is 0 dBm If the attenuator is on the att...

Page 121: ...g an RXW recording the recorder panel shows the original time of the played back signal and the DDC spectrum scope shows the original DDC frequency If Waterfall timestamps option is enabled the DDC waterfall also shows the original time in its vertical axis All DDC files are stereo as they are stored in the I Q form and 24 bit for DDC bandwidths below 3 2 MHz and 16 bits for 3 2 MHz and wider DDC ...

Page 122: ...al strength These additional data can be viewed in special WWV players such as the WiNRADiO WAARP The following standard naming conventions apply to files created by the DDC and audio recorders If the Insert Frequency and Date Time checkbox is checked in the recorder toolbox a file with a name such as rec 12 345678MHz_11 07 04_15 34 57 ddc is created The center frequency of the DDC spectrum togeth...

Page 123: ...e Split button and the file size reaches 2 GB the existing file will be automatically closed and named rec 12 345678MHz 001 001 ddc where the sign denotes these split sections and recording will automatically continue into a file named rec 12 345678MHz 001 002 ddc If you manually stop and restart the recording it will continue to a file named rec 12 345678MHz 002 ddc etc ...

Page 124: ...ctors may not be installed depending upon the customer s requirements 1 Frequency reference output optional 2 Frequency reference input optional 3 Antenna input frequency range 1 1 kHz 88 MHz 4 Antenna input frequency range 2 118 MHz 190 MHz 5 Power input connector 12 V 6 Gigabit Ethernet Interface LAN with PoE capability 7 USB 3 0 Interface ...

Page 125: ...ave determined and warrant that the above described device has been shown to comply with the requirements of the FCC Part 15 by having a device tested at an accredited testing laboratory Each unit marked is identical to the device as tested Compliance assumes no unauthorized changes will be made to the equipment and it will be maintained and operated properly A test report has been generated A tec...

Page 126: ... disposed of separately from the municipal waste stream via designated collection facilities appointed by the government or by the local authorities 3 The correct disposal of your old appliance will help prevent potential negative consequences for the environment and the human health 4 For more detailed information about the disposal of your old appliance please consult your city office waste disp...

Page 127: ...WiNRADiO C O M M U N I C A T I O N S w w w w i n r a d i o c o m ...

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