Airspy Mini

[DSheirer]

DHL delivered the new Airspy Mini today. I plugged it in and since it uses the same USB VIDID as the original airspy, it was immediately recognized by sdrtrunk. Sample rate options are 3, 6 and 10 MHz as advertised. At 10 MHz, there is noticable roll-off of about 1 to 1.25 MHz on either end -- roughly 7.5 to 8 MHz of usable spectrum.

When I initially read the pre-order description a few weeks ago, I was specifically looking for 'TCXO' but it wasn't listed. It did list the oscillator as:

0.5 ppm high precision, low phase noise clock

It appears that the mini doesn't have quite the same frequency accuracy as the original airspy. My local NOAA (162.55) is registering at about 162.67, indicating an error of ~120 kHz. This could possibly be attributed to sdrtrunk ... I'm not sure yet.

Did anyone else get their mini yet? Is the frequency PPM accurate out of the box?

Denny

 

[Bmacs]

My Airspy mini is sitting about 200 kHz lower than expected. I am using the latest SDR#

FYI - I cannot get it to work with Unitrunker or DSDPlus so far....

Thanks,

Bill

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

I would check if there is a PPM correction setting from a previous device. 0.5 PPM would mean an error of up to 81 Hz on a 162.55 MHz signal, basically a PPM correction of 0.

73 Eric

 

[KE5MC]

Denny,
I can't help directly as I have an Airspy R2 recently purchased. My Airspy on 162.4 needs a shift of 300 to bring it on frequency. Is your original Airspy similar to mine for shift to bring it on frequency?

Is it possible you are not on the weather frequency you think you are on? I can receive two different ones in my area and sometimes three, but all of varying strength.

Eric,
I agree at 162 MHz 81 Hz relates to a .5ppm. However looking at the PCB for the R2 there is a part marked 12.00MHz and likely the processor clock and another device marked 25.00 with other letter markings that did not get me to a data sheet. I am assuming it is the 25.00MHz TCXO. I am not sure how in the Airspy device & SDR# software works to get from 25MHz to 162MHz. In a more traditional radio multiplying the master/base frequency multiplies the error. So I don't believe .5ppm applies at 162 MHz.

What I have found looking at three frequencies on my Airspy of approximately 162, 460 and 853MHz the shift needs to increase as the frequency goes up but stays very close to 2ppm for all three. Unfortunately the Airspy does not support ppm correction like the FunCubePro+ does. With the FunCubePro+ a 1.6ppm correction keeps received frequency and selected matched. All three of the frequencies are commercial and I have rounded them for simplicity as well as the calculated ppm error.

I have an a more detailed email to Airspy.us asking if my shift values are typical. Nothing heard back yet. Likely that for now I don't have a defective device, just that they are using shift values in SDR# and not ppm correction in the hardware. Hopefully the capability is present in the hardware of the Airspy like the FunCubePro+, but just not implemented. On the other hand different silicon and maybe it can't be implemented.

Mike

 

[mancow]

Is there a way to run both and airspy and airspy mini on the same PC? I don't see a drop down for the mini.

EDIT: never mind, it "just works". That's a nice change for once.

 

[mancow]

I just got my mini at Dayton and just now got a chance to use it. So far it appears to be spot on freq and DSD is working fine (manual DSD in SDR#).

 

[airwolfbell222]

mancow, does the mini search at warp speed with the sdr scanner plugin like airspy in the video you posted awhile back?

 

[mancow]

It has 6MHz bandwidth instead of a usable 8 like the regular one so it's a bit slower but yes it does.

 

[dave3825]

mancow, does the mini search at warp speed with the sdr scanner plugin like airspy in the video you posted awhile back?

It has 6MHz bandwidth instead of a usable 8 like the regular one so it's a bit slower but yes it does.

What happens if you lower the sample rate? I mean I dont have an airspy so my window is only 2.5 but I have mine set to scan the 225 380 in about 4 to 6 seconds once all the bs is locked out. I also scan 162 173 and 400 to 420 in about 3 seconds. It also depends on what you set the detect ms value to. If I only want strong close by signals, I usually set to 60ms. If I am looking for distant, I go around 140. Still playing with that feature...