[hpsdr] Penelope vs: PennyLane - final IMD? Mercury diversity?

[Joe Martin K5SO]

Hi Tom,

Congratulations and welcome to the group!  FB on your plans.  With  
reference to your diversity receive questions:

1) As you may already know, information concerning the use of dual  
Mercury boards for diversity operation is given on the HPSDR Wiki page  
for "Multi-Receiver" :

http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/index.php?title=Multi-Receiver

Additionally, I have an HPSDR download page on my website,

http://k5so.com/HPSDR_downloads.html

where you may find additional information regarding configuration  
details for dual Mercury boards for simultaneous use on the Atlas bus  
implementing diversity reception.  Also the latest diversity software  
(for Windows) is on that webpage for download, including instructions  
and photos showing the necessary jumper configurations for the Mercury  
boards.

2)  I would be happy to assist you in any way I can to get you up and  
running, so if you need more detailed assistance than what is  
contained above or below please don't hesitate to contact me directly  
at the email address shown above for me.

3)  As for a demonstration of diversity, Jeff K2SDR recently posted to  
this reflector a a couple of URLs that point to short demonstrations  
of how the Diversity Control (radar screen) works in a "locked gain"  
configuration and how well it can null signals with his system.  That  
particular URL is

http://mysite.verizon.net/jkelly/hpsdr/div_1.wmv

He also points to a demonstration showing how he was able to null out  
a pulsed interfering noise signal to enhance reception of a DX  
station, using the Diversity Control in a variable gain/variable phase  
mode, I believe.

Both demos are impressive, in my view.

4)  As George commented, it is not likely that Hermes and Mercury can  
be used together for diversity receive, for several reasons in fact,  
so I wouldn't plan on that particular combination to be available for  
diversity receive if I were you, unless you wish to undertake the  
coding/interfacing challenges yourself, of course.  It would be a  
significant effort certainly and personally I don't see how one would  
even approach doing it.  There are too many serious disadvantages to  
overcome for that, I think, to be a practical approach.

5) During the past several days I've been working on putting three  
Mercury boards on the Atlas bus with the goal of providing dual gain  
and phase controls to enable even better directional nulling/ 
enhancement over a dual Mercury board setup.  As of this afternoon, I  
currently have three Mercury boards providing independent IQ streams  
through Ozy (or Magister, presumably) to a modified version of the  
PowerSDR diversity program.  Each interleaved IQ stream may be  
independently selected from the front panel display with diversity  
operation with two of the streams available.  In the next several days  
I expect to complete coding of an enhanced Diversity Control to allow  
independent phasing involving all three IQ streams for superior  
directional control of a three-antenna array (e.g., 3 verticals, or  
any combination of other 3 antennas that you may have available for a  
single frequency).  Of course, I will post a notification on this  
reflector when I get the Diversity Control programming done for this  
enhance diversity program, or at least make progress to such a stage  
that makes the triple-Mercury arrangement a practical mode to  
implement even if the Diversity Control scheme isn't quite yet  
optimal.  It's difficult to know ahead of time how best to arrange  
user interface for such a triple-IQ-stream control.  Testers are  
needed, hihi, to give me feedback as to how useful a modified "radar  
screen, user interface" will be in such a mode.

None of this HPSDR hardware/firmware/software is plug and play, of  
course, so don't think that.  Nevertheless, if you're willing to get  
in there and learn (with help, of course! ) there is sufficient  
hardware and software available even today to provide an experimenter  
ample resources to put together a superb HPSDR system.  My own HPSDR  
system, for example, runs full legal power on HF, 70cm EME, and 23cm  
EME by using modules and components from spare analog transceivers,  
external transverters, amplifiers, etc and it absolutely out performs  
any of the current high dollar commercial rigs you would pay thousands  
of dollars to obtain.

  You need not be an expert in any aspect of SDR to be successful.   
Inexperienced operators are generally quite successful at putting  
together an HPSDR system and running it and, of course, keep in mind  
that everyone was a newbie once.  No question is a silly question if  
you don't know the answer, so feel free to ask; someone on here will  
likely be able to help you get a satisfactory answer.

Welcome to the party!

Vy 73,

Joe K5SO


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