The clipping level on my SDR is +4 Dbm yeah its a crazy high number. The receiver has an ADC clip warning that would go on if that happens, which I have yet to see the warning come up. its a tough receiver.
I think you mean the clipping level of your SDR is -8 dBm (you do have the FDM-S2, don’t you)?
+4dbm with the attenuator, -8dbm with it off. I used both settings to see.
I believe the more-or-less standard is to quote the clipping value without preamplifier or attenuator, or to include the fact that such stages were engaged. That is why the maker of your receiver advertises it as -8 dBm on their web page, and not at +4 dBm, and that is why I asked if it was -8 dBm, to make sure I understood which receiver you had. Otherwise the “best” number would go to whatever manufacturer was willing to install the largest attenuator value, for example someone could build a crap DDC receiver with clipping at -40 dBm, install a selectable 70 dB attenuator, and call it a +30 dBm clipping point. And at these low power levels it cost about the same to build a 70 dB pad as it does a 12 dB unit.
Examples would be the Perseus SDR and RF Space devices.
The Perseus advertises a clipping level of -3 dBm with Preamp off (measured levels are along those lines, I have measured -4 dBm on mine), but the radio includes 0, 10, 20, and 30 dB attenuators, so the manufacturer could claim +27 dBm clipping, if they wanted to “fudge” the numbers. At these power levels (+27 dBm is half a Watt) the power is still easy to handle, you just have to spec the parts for the power, and I have no idea if Microtelicom did that or not.
The RFSpace SDR-IQ does not have an attenuator, but does have a couple stages of variable gain, at the RF and the IF levels. The advertised number of -9 dBm clipping is expressed as at “Max Gain”, my measurements show about -11 dBm. Turning down the gain in the RF Gain settings section of the control panel would result in them being able to advertise clipping in excess of +10 dBm, again if they wanted to “fudge” the numbers. The NetSDR does have a front end attenuator and does not advertise a clipping number at all that I can find, however I have measured it as about -5 dBm. Using the selectable 0, 10, 20, and 30 dB attenuators they would be able to claim +25 dBm, if they wanted to just go for numbers and make sure the pads could handle the power.
I have not found an advertised clipping level for the WinRadio G31DDC or G33DDC, however I have measured both of them myself. My G33DDC clips at about -6 dBm, and the radio includes an adjustable attenuator with up to 21 dB of attenuation, so they could claim +15 dBm if they wanted to cook the books.
My point is, all of the SDRs listed above fall in the range of -11 to -3 dBm clipping, unless you add the attenuators, then the spread becomes much wider. Receiver front end attenuator values are, realistically, only hardware performance limitations by choice (do you really want to have to dissipate all that heat if you allow a +50 dBm input level?), not by technology limitations.
This guy was running a big *** amplifier to push that hard. but he sounded like **** though, terrible modulation.
Yes, that was why I said if this was real and did not involve a reaction by your receiver that this was simple over modulation. You find these people on or around 27025 kHz all the time. Some really do have decent modulation, others are simply bad.
T!