GQRX, Airspy and AOR 8600 Mk2 -- Panadapter Setup Trouble

[MidNitRcr]

Hey everyone, need some help here...

I am attempting to setup my Airspy as a panadapter for my AOR 8600 and running into troubles. Here is my current setup:

AOR 8600 MK2 (in WFM mode) -> Airspy on 10.7mhz IF output -> GQRX on Mac OSX

The issue I'm running into is that I can't quite seem to get the settings correct in Gqrx for the airspy. When I tune to an FM channel on the radio itself I can see the waterfall display of the signal in GQRX, but it's for another station. I tried adjusting a half-a-dozen different "mhz" settings in the interface and eventually got one close, but the audio quality in GQRX was terrible. When I switched to another station on the Aor (NOAA WX, which uses NFM) almost everything disappeared from the display as if I wasn't even in the ballpark anymore with my GQRX settings.

Has anyone tried a similar setup and can shed some light? Or explain the 10.7mhz IF output on the Aor and how its supposed to work?

 

[KE5MC]

Not mentioned is an up converter for the Airspy such as the SpyVerter. Without an up converter Airspy will not receiver directly 10.7 MHz. Its been awhile since I used that combination but I recall 120MHz used in SDR# so the software knows how to correctly display the up converted frequency on the waterfall. Also turn the T-Bias on as that's how the SpyVerter gets it power to operate.

Also that 10.7MHz IF will likely be at a higher amplitude than what the typical input from an antenna is and easily overload the SDR input.

Good Luck
Mike

 

[MidNitRcr]

There is an option in GQRX called "no limits" that allows the *software* to tune below 30mhz, but I wasn't sure if this was outside the limits of the *hardware*

I *do* have a spyverter I can try. Assuming that is the issue, then with the spyverter hooked up, if I tune exactly to 10.7mhz - should I then be on nearly the same frequency as the 8600?

Thanks for the input.

 

[KE5MC]

Yes, you are going to need the SpyVerter. The side of the SpyVerter with the small usb connector is the output into the Airspy. Easy to get it mixed up which is input and output on the SpyVerter.

Not sure how the frequency of the AOR is going to be known by the GQRX unless there is CAT control between the AOR and GQRX. Without that GQRX only knows to show what the waterfall is around 10.7 MHz and not that the AOR is tuned to 7.2 MHz (example) and presenting that at the output IF frequency of 10.7 MHz.

I think you best answer is going to be on one of the forums that address the panadaptor configuration you are trying to use.

It might be that your will have to forgo frequency display on the waterfall of GQRX and just rely on the AOR for that. Really not sure... :-(

My panadaptor setup is similar to yours using a 10.7 MHz IF, but the display is the Elecraft P3 connected to a Elecraft K3 transceiver and all of what I wrote about above is handled by the interconnection and software. When I play around with SDR it always connected to an antenna (HF/VHF/UHF) so SDR# or SDRUno handles frequency directly.

Not much help about the frequency display, but hoping the connection setup gets it working better than you have had.

Mike

 

[MidNitRcr]

I got it working!

Thanks for the help and all the info, Mike!

A couple quick notes for anyone else that decides to try this:
- You must tell GQRX to enable the bias-T support. The string I used was "airspy,bias=1" (no spaces)
- Also, you must set the LNB LO to "-120.0Mhz" otherwise, when you tune to 10.7mhz in the software, its going to be off.

So far, so good.

 

[KE5MC]

Good to hear it’s working!