Noise on waterfall display with Flex 5000.

Andrew Thall

I just got a Flex 5000.  There is so much noise on the waterfall display that it is difficult to see the signals.  Is there a way to attenuate that displayed noise so that the signals are nice a clear?
Thanks,
Andy, K2OO  
thall@thall.net

Tim - W4TME

Noise is a real signal too. A screen shot of what you are seeing would help.  As they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words.

Andrew Thall

Jim Jerzycke

The noise level appears to be about -120dB.

Looks "normal" to me.

You can change the display to push the level towards the bottom of the screen, but I'm not sure if that's what you'd like to do.....

73, Jim

Greg N8GD

At -120 db average noise floor on your display, that looks fairly average.  It appears there aren't any signals on 20M to hear in this screen shot.  Possible antenna/feedline problems?

Greg - N8GD

Paul Bradbeer

I'm not a Flex 5000 user (so not familiar with PowerSDR) but that display looks completely normal to me: 20m band noise is about right, and there are signs of CW signals clearly visible in the waterfall...  Paul M0CVX

Andrew Thall

Thanks.  I'll just have to get used to it.  My old panadaptor that I used with my Yaesu had a clearer waterfall. Cheers!

Greg N8GD

I'm not familiar with PowerSDR either (a Flex 6300 owner), but I presume there is a way to change the gain of the waterfall to differentiate between signals and noise as there is in SSDR.  Yes, I see CW signals, too; they just look awfully weak on the waterfall, and the snapshot of the instantaneous signals on the pan don't tell me much in this screen shot.

Greg - N8GD

Jim Jerzycke

Which panadaptor were you using?

I had the Kenwood SM-230 that I used with my TS-950SDX, and while you could call it a "panadptor", it was less than a toy compared to what PowerSDR and my 5000A showed!

Jim

Mike W1BFA in Maine

Try mashing that "AVG" button Andrew...   that should smooth things out so you can see the signals more clearly.  You can tweak settings on that as you learn.  Be patient and you will grow to love the 5000.   Good luck   Mike W1BFA

WX7Y

Also under the "Setup" tab, click on "Display"  then in the "refresh Rate area you will see "Fill Panadapter" button, Click this OFF and see if that is better for you, it makes the Panadapter much easier on my old eyes instead of having ALL the **** underneath the noise floor showing on the Panadapter for normal operation that your not trying to see what is under the noise floor.

Hope this helps 
Bret
WX7Y

Andrew Thall

Thanks again to all who took time to reply.  
73
Andy, K2OO

Patrick Greenlee

Your previous radio was probably less sensitive and or had less resolution on the panadapter which may help explain the different appearance.  I second the motion re using average.  Persistent signals will be recognizable and noise which is of more random nature becomes less visually important.   Experiment with the buttons and find what combo works best for how you like the info displayed.

Patrick        NJ5G  5000A owner/user but  N O T  guru.

Ken - NM9P

This totally a matter of personal preference, but when I ran a rig with PowerSDR, I turned the "fill under trace" option OFF on the pan adapter. It used more processing power, and it always seemed more cluttered to me. Other operators LOVE to have it filled. Try it each way and see how you like it. Also, as others have mentioned, you can turn AVG on, and you can also adjust the fps rate (frames per second). I liked it better at about 15 fps. It seemed less busy. For the waterfall, ther are adjustments in the setup tabs that you can change the depth of the noise, and the sensitivity of the display to help show the detail you want. You can also set a level at which the color shifts from blue to red with signal strength. Btw these adjustments are remembered independently for each band in PowerSDR. The key is to experiment with one parameter at a time and see what it does. Then add another layer with a different parameter. You can eventually fine tune it to your liking. But only change one thing at a time until you become familiar with what they all do, or you may get confused and get it all out of whack and not know how to get back! (Well, there IS a "reset to factory defaults" option somewhere, I think.) There is nothing to fear...just pay attention and learn as you experiment. Have fun! Ken - NM9P