DSD+FL Bandscope

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DeaconHarry16

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Having fun with DSD+FL...Is there some information on the FMP24 "band scope" traces?
Grey Trace = signal strength?, Green trace = ? Grey area in the center where green trace is higher?
Some frequency bands are higher overall masking signals...noise floor?
Just curious...
Thanks
 

CanesFan95

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The scope has always been sort-of confusing. Look at this photo and notice how the actual frequency tuned as shown in the title bar is 464.5750. This is the narrow white wave with the grey vertical line over it. But when you however your mouse pointer over the wider green wave, it shows 465.175. But that's not what the green wave is showing you!

That green wave is actually showing you the same frequency as the little white wave of 464.5750. It's just that the green wave is not centered to line up with the white wave. They're off-center from each other, totally confusing.

So they both show the same signal strength / noise floor.

1624582120116.png
 

DeaconHarry16

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Interesting that the selected frequency and the green peak are 600khz offset.
Still a mystery...
Harry
 

AM909

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@DeaconHarry16: The green trace is a zoomed-in and re-centered version of the portion of the white trace surrounding the frequency of interest (464.575 here).

The white trace is centered where the SDR tuner is actually centered (apparently 465.175 here) and zoomed to display the full bandwidth of the SDR (2.4 MHz). The green trace is centered on the frequency of interest (464.575 here) and zoomed in so you can see the characteristics of that particular signal.

In case the DSD+ folks are reading: It would be nice to have an option to display two separate windows instead. I would rarely need to see the green trace more than about 3x the signal bandwidth (~25 kHz in this example), so the window could be much narrower, even at the zoom shown (about 16:1 – 150 kHz total displayed in the example).

The gray area in the center shows the selected bandwidth (7.8 kHz in this example) and is related to the green trace. The white trace has a similar band shown around the 464.575 peak, but it's hard to see because it is 1/16th the width of the center one. I think the light- vs. darker-gray shows the -6 dB bandwidth vs. about the -20 dB bandwidth – the ratio between them being controlled by the -t (standard/tight rolloff) option.

The frequency tooltip that follows the cursor apparently applies to the white trace's scale.

An alternative to two windows would be to show two horizontal scales – one across the bottom in green for the green trace (464.500–464.650 range) and another across the top for the white trace (463.975–466.375). The tooltip could also have a green (464.575) and white (465.175) value.
 

CanesFan95

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Well, I believe the tool tip (showing 465.175 in the photo) is telling you what frequency you would tune to if you click the mouse on that spot. But that's a different frequency than what the white peak with the grey line is actually tuned to. Again, I've always thought it's confusing.
 

GTR8000

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It's really not that confusing or complicated. The white is the entire spectrum that the dongle is looking at (2.4 MHz for an RTL dongle), and the green overlay shows a closeup view of the tuned frequency. The tooltip showing the tuned frequency only applies to the white range, not green, that's why it's showing an incorrect frequency in your screenshot.
 

DeaconHarry16

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That explanation helps...so we are seeing two related traces superimposed but of different scale.
What practical use does the green trace have other than a detail of the selected frequency?
Thanks
 

AM909

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That explanation helps...so we are seeing two related traces superimposed but of different scale.
What practical use does the green trace have other than a detail of the selected frequency?
Thanks
That's the use – the detail of the particular signal of interest and how it relates to the selected bandwidth and immediately adjacent channels.
 

DeaconHarry16

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So it could give me an idea of the suitability of the bandwidth I have selected and whether or not an adjacent signal was close enough to interact with my desired signal.
 
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