[hpsdr] ANAN-100 sometimes no TX after upgrade to 2.9b/3.0 and 3.2.19

[Mike Schwendeman]

Joe, I THANK YOU (!) very much for your fine and complete reply!!!
And, I now see that firmware 3.0 has restored the PTT output from the 
DB-25 connector.  I am not at all sure if this point was even a valid 
item for me, as I think I now have seen that this applied to the CW mode 
only.

On 10/31/14, 4:23 PM, hpsdr-request at lists.openhpsdr.org wrote:
> As you can see from the above, the external PTT input from the acc?y jack was fixed for Hermes on 9 Aug 2014 in v3.0.
>
> 73, Joe K5SO
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"As with previous releases, the HPSDR-released firmware will work fine 
with many ANAN-series 100 radios in all respects too. Some specific 
ANAN-series radios may exhibit a bit lower than max specified output TX 
power on one of the HF bands (10m if I recall correctly) if the 
Apache-Labs-modified version is not used, that?s all. This slight 
difference has been discussed at length previously and if your radio 
makes the required power output for you on the HF bands then there is 
certainly no reason to wait to load a modified v3.0 firmware on your 
ANAN-100 radio.

73, Joe K5SO"

OK on this, Joe; I need only 38% transmit power to satisfy my ALS-500 amp, so a slight power loss is a non-issue to me.  (Thank you for the extremely fine and highly appreciated detail!)

======

"Q1:  I don't recall anything that was intentionally done that would
change the RF characteristics between 2.5 and 2.9/3.0.  If you'd like,
send me a screen shot of your frequency spectrum.  Perhaps I can spot
something out of the ordinary.

Q2:  There are so many platforms and so many releases that, sorry, I
don't remember.  Perhaps someone else can comment.  Since I haven't been
doing firmware, I don't track the changes very carefully.

73,
Warren  NR0V"
---

Warren; -On Q1; The more I look, and the more that I RECALL, I think my reports of a too-wide transmitted RF signal might possibly stem from my incorrect settings on my PSDR!

Earlier, I was reading another user group, and there the guy was stressing the importance of the levels in the software.  In the past, I read that a LOT of the folks have said that it is OK to run the audio levels up to, and into the red.  -Over zero dB, in other words!  The point of these (previous) folk's comments was that all is OK and good, not to worry, etc.

Well, maybe not...  -The guy I was reading this morning had a different opinion.  I was beginning to think that maybe my issue is caused or enhanced (made WORSE) by my audio levels in the various areas that can be seen.

So, after looking at MY LEVELS, I see that my LEVELER is somewhat hot.  (-Looking at the LEVELER GAIN metering.)  -Not all that bad, but it is high to the point that if I reduce the level of the 10-band equalizer, the "LEVELER GAIN" meter indication was no longer decreasing at the audio peaks.  (This "decrease" is VERY slight, and only seen on some peaks.)  In this area, I have the EQ, the LEVELER and the LEVELER GAIN as just a few of the TX METER selection possibilities that I can look at, of course.

The LEVELER GAIN indication is normally resting at 5 dB, which is a preset in the setup menus.  If I have TOO MUCH AUDIO, the needle departs down from the 5 dB indication.  If I drop the audio level (preamp) setting in the EQ, the needle then stays right at 5 dB, never wiggling.  I had seen a YouTube video by a BRIT that had shown this same effect, some months back, I am now recalling!

I now have the EQ PREAMP at -9 dB.  The default is 0 dB.  (This is where I had been running it, at 0 dB!)

I now look at my "sampled RF output" in the panoramic display, and the skirts that were so predominant are largely gone.  But, as I had mentioned last night, this "RF sample" is assumed to be a VERY STRONG signal, as I am using the same radio to TX as well as RX the sampled signal.  I really do not know, of course; -This is just my guess, per the bits that I have half-heartedly gathered from past readings.

So, my over-the-air signal might look better NOW.  Is it worth it, I am still wondering???  -What am I loosing, if anything?

I ask this, as I now see that my AVERAGE POWER is way down, with the new -9 dB setting in the 10-band equalizer's PREAMP setting.  (This was set to zero dB originally.)  My PEAK POWER is also down, but not as dramatically.  I have not yet asked for on-air comparisons, but I will tonight.  I have made up transmit profiles with the different setting experiments.

On Q2; This (then PTT issue) has now been covered; -Thank you, Warren.

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73 to all!!!  My thanks to all who endure my errors.
-Mike-   K0JTA



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