New to CW Skimmer, SDR Bridge and Flex 6700 DAX having issues with Skimmer not decoding

W1RE

Hi,

I am new to DAX, CW Skimmer and the new SDR Bridge - basically this is my first attempt to get all this working and while I feel I'm close something isn't working correctly and there is no joy.

I have SSDR 1.2.1 running on my Flex 6700.  I today installed the latest version of CW Skimmer, the new SDR Bridge and WriteLog.  I have never used any of these third party tools previously.

I followed Ed's (W2RF) instructions and here is where I'm at:  I have my SSDR on my 6700 open with one Pan Adapter and One slice (A, CW) on 40m @ 7.030.  In the slice DAX audio I have it set to none since this is DAX audio and I believe I need DAX IQ.  In the Pan adapter I have DAX IQ Channel 1 selected (although it seems it 'unselects itself from time to time and I don't understand why just yet).  I opened the DAX Control panel and it has only IQ Stream 1 highlighted in blue (selected).  I set the Sample rate 96 kbps. It is displaying a 'current' rate of 6352 so it appears happy.  I close the DAX control panel and open SDR Bridge.

SDR Bridge Sync tab shows IQ 1, Assign A, Slice 7.030.000 (in Red?) Stream 7051.9.  I select the Skim check box and CW Skimmer launches.

The skimmer window show a freq of 7030.01 but is otherwise blank (black actually). Nothing is decoding.  I can see there are CW signals up and down the band from my current freq. The bottom of the Skimmer display shows 'Decoders: 0 of 0' and 'Tln: 0 users', but this changes between 0 and 1 users?

I need a little assistance here to understand what may be wrong. I can post screenshots if needed.

Thanks,

 - Bob, W1RE

Ed - W2RF

Bob,

From your description everything appears to be set up correctly. There are a couple of things to check.

First, look in the bottom right corner of Skimmer. It should show 1 connection, not 0 (this only works for the first instance of Skimmer, though).

Next, in SSDR shake the panadapter with the hand so the center frequency moves. You should see Skimmer shaking too. Click the panadapter to QSY the slice. Skimmer's green box should go to the same frequency.

If all of this works, the only thing wrong is that there is no IQ signal getting to Skimmer.

For this, check the Skimmer Settings Radio tab and make sure Softrock (not -IF) is selected and the sample rate is 96khz. Then look at the Audio tab and make sure it is set for WDM DAX IQ 1 on the input.

If this is all correct, try exiting Skimmer by clicking the X in the upper right corner. Then click the Skim checkbox in SDR-Bridge first off, then on. This will restart Skimmer. I have seen Skimmer have trouble starting from time to time, and this usually fixes the problem.

If none of this works, post back here and we will come up with further steps.

73 Ed W2RF

W1RE

Ed,

Thanks for the fast response.  I checked the Skimmer settings and found the radio type was set to SDR-IQ (I probably did that earlier when I was trying to get things going the first time).  I changed it to Softrock and that allowed Tln: 1 user to connect and it now things seem to have started working.

One quick question: On the Bridge Tab Sync display: Does the color background for the Slice Frequency have any special significance?  Right now it's red but earlier it was yellow so I'm not sure if it's trying to tell me something is wrong of if it's just random coloring to make the different IQs easier to differentiate?

 - Bob, W1RE

 

Ed - W2RF

On the Sync Frequency display

Yellow is for Active,
Red with Black text is for Transmit
Red with White text  is Transmit and Active

Right click to change Active and Transmit status
Hover over a digit to tune the slice with the mouse scroll wheel

Glad you got it working!

73 Ed W2RF

Lewis Cheek

I have the same issue, NO SIGINAL GETTING TO SKIMMER, however ALL of the setting are correct.

I can shake skimmer, and have changed DAXIQ channels but nothing seems to help.

I suspect it's a Windows issue, but don't know where to look, any suggestions?

73
Lew

Ed - W2RF

Hi Lew,

Please post a message giving details at http://www.qrv.com/contact.html. This will open a support ticket and will allow us to work out the problem.

Thanks for testing!

73 Ed W2RF