Using CW Skimmer

Ben Sinclair

This is probably more of a CW Skimmer question than a Flex question, but here goes anyway...

I have my 6300 working with CW Skimmer, using DAXIQ and CAT (as a TS-2000). It seems to work well, but if I click on a callsign in CW Skimmer it "tunes" the radio, but I'm not sure it's working right.

If I click a signal or anywhere on the waterfall, it will tune the radio to the selected frequency, and move the CW skimmer pointer, but it shifts the entire waterfall so I'm no longer at the signal. I feel like it shouldn't tune anything, and just move the current decoder to the selected signal.

Basically I have it set to show callsigns, but if I see an interesting station, I want to click on it and have it decode at the bottom.

Does that make sense? Maybe I'm just not sure how it's supposed to work.

Thanks!

DK1EY

Ben,

have a look here: HOW-TO: Setup FLEX-6X00 with N1MM / CW Skimmer for multiple slice contest operating

VY73
Tom
DK1EY

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Ben,
Are you using SDR-Bridge?

If so, Un-Check the "frequency click tune" box -- I think it will do what you want.



or this one.....



Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

EA4GLI

I also noticed differences in performance by varying the Sample Rate of the IQ Stream. Depending on your network and/or computer performance you might be better off using a lower Sample rate.

@NN4ZZ Thanks Al for the post!

Ben Sinclair

I'm not using SDR-Bridge, I just have it setup for CAT as a TS-2000. Should I be using that instead?

It does tune the radio when I click the CW Skimmer waterfall, but like I said it then shifts the whole waterfall, or maybe CW Skimmer and the radio are slightly off on their frequencies. The end result is that the station I clicked is no longer in the center of the waterfall.

Tim - W4TME

I'm not using SDR-Bridge, I just have it setup for CAT as a TS-2000. Should I be using that instead?

Yes, absolutely.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Ben,
The second screen shot from above is a CW Skimmer setting and may work with CAT also.  It may do what you want.  

I'm using the SDR-Bridge app which works very well and supports up to 4 CW skimmers.   There is more information about SDR-Bridge here in the community and on the Ed's web page:

http://www.qrv.com/

I also have a document with all of my settings for SSDR, DAX, SDR-Bridge and CW Skimmer as well as some troubleshooting tips.  If you want a copy send me an email and I'll send it.

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Ben Sinclair

I just tried a few more things, and here's what happens:

If I tune in a signal in SmartSDR, to 14.060, for example, CW Skimmer moves the pointer exactly to 060 in the waterfall. However, in CW Skimmer the signal itself doesn't appear at 060. It seems to vary actually, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, depending on where I'm at in the band.

Basically I think the waterfall doesn't line up with the frequency in CW Skimmer.

Here's a screenshot that shows what I mean. I tuned SmartSDR to 14.070, and you can see in CW Skimmer the pointer is at 070, but the signals are not.

Thanks!

Al_NN4ZZ

I think you will find CW Skimmer works better with SDR Bridge.   

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Tim - W4TME

These are the issues SDR-Bridge addresses.

Ben Sinclair

I just switched over to using SDR-Bridge, and at first it seemed to work a bit more like I expected, but it was still tuning just a bit off.

I started tinkering, but now I've gotten it all messed up. At first, it seemed better because if I panned the SmartSDR waterfall, the CW Skimmer waterfall would move as well. Somehow I've broken that in an effort to get the tuning right.

SDR-Bridge says it sets up a CW Skimmer INI, so I deleted the generated INI files in an effort to start over. It does recreate them, but it doesn't seem to work now. The new CW Skimmer instance launched by SDR-Bridge doesn't have the radio setup right at all, so it won't even show the waterfall unless I correct it.

So now I'm not sure how to get back to where I was.

Also, should I have CAT enabled at all when using SDR-Bridge? I think the first time it used part of my original CW Skimmer configuration, so it still had CAT setup as a TS-2000. Shouldn't it use telnet to talk to CW Skimmer, so CAT is not needed?

Thanks!

Al_NN4ZZ

Ben,
Email me and I'll send you my document with all of the setup notes and troubleshooting tips.   

CAT is not needed for SDR-Bridge.....

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Ben Sinclair

I think I just figured it out! The CW Skimmer instance created by SDR-Bridge had its telnet port set to 7300, but SDR-Bridge was using 7310. I just switched CW Skimmer to 7310 and it now pans the waterfall and correctly tunes signals!