[HBR] What would W6TC do?

[Shoppa, Tim]

In the eyes of an experience panadaptor user there was a lot that could be gleaned
from the spectrum. Mode, bandwidth, operating pattern, width of the pileup, where
the DX was listening, etc.

The Skimmer does more in that it also decodes - a huge advantage for finding unworked
stations in a contest - but the broad band awareness it gives is, you're correct, very
similar to a panadaptor.

Tim.
________________________________________
From: hbr-bounces at mailman.qth.net [hbr-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bill Cromwell [wrcromwell at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 3:06 PM
To: HBR Receiver List
Subject: Re: [HBR] What would W6TC do?

On Sun, 2011-02-06 at 14:23 -0500, Shoppa, Tim wrote:
> >>   e.g. http://www.reversebeacon.net/genn.php?a=skimmer
> > That CW skimmer is at least interesting. Two things jumped right out of
> > that article and bit me on the *ss. 1 - The CW skimmer is really still
> > under development (maybe like MS Windows <g>). 2 - It's not as good at
> > digging CW out of the noise as a "good" CW op (whatever a good CW op
> > might be).
>
> What's interesting about the Skimmer hooked to a Softrock SDR, is that
> the Softrock is not the best radio ever, and the Skimmer is not the best
> CW decoder ever (in fact both are primitive compared to an old but good radio
> and an old but good op), but the combination of the two is spectacular and does
> something that was not really imagined before. I mean on a good day I can listen
> with a wide filter and sort of understand there's a couple QSO's going on above
> me and a couple below, and that's a wonderful broad awareness that I like, but
> the Skimmer takes that to the 12th power and decodes and shows activity all
> up and down the band.
>
> It doesn't replace any op, but it augments an op in a marvelous way.
>
> Maybe the point is, to not try to make "the best" or "the ultimate" of anything,
> but to do something new and neat and interesting and new using off-the-shelf parts.
>
> Tim.
>
>

Hi Tim,

It occurred to me while I was typing in my previous post that skimmer is
a newfangled type of panadapter. The old tube based panadapters showed
the presence of other signals (or noise spikes) but aside from relative
amplitude, no other intelligence. Skimmer shows us what it reads as
decoded morse. Maybe it could also show us other digital information
like rtty.

73,

Bill  KU8H

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