[Lowfer] VE7BDQ in OPERA-32 tonite for OPDS test

[Andy - KU4XR]

Hi Garry and all:

Well I do know now that opds does work on my setup.. My results were not as 
good as yours Garry, but to see decodes made me feel that the effort is worth it..
I ran OPDS with Spec Lab and OPERA 1.4.9 at the same time.. Interestingly,
I had NO decodes from OPERA, but 3 from OPDS:

Path not found41355.txt 2013-10-24 13:36:26 to 14:14:29  12 > 8 peaks found
peak  8   137500.863Hz  0.3dB   2mHz


   date          time       call      distance   frequency    bandwidth    snr       correlation
2013-10-24 08:22:06 VO1NA   2871km 137554.996Hz   4mHz -45.8dBOp 100% 17.3dB
2013-10-24 07:49:10 VO1NA   2871km 137554.997Hz   3mHz -48.3dBOp  98% 15.4dB
2013-10-24 04:31:37 VO1NA   2871km 137555.014Hz   4mHz -47.3dBOp 100% 16.7dB

It is evident that I do have some drift, but better stability than I expected.. I have my
VCTCXO, I just need to push myself to set aside the time to install it..
I was a bit surprised to not see anything from John, but I don't control propagation..
I'm looking forward to a heavy usage weekend, and hopefully stable conditions..
It would be a thrill to get some TA decodes from other stations besides Stefan only..
Here's to hoping anyway.. I don't know if Joe reads the lowFER list or not, and I don't
have an email for him..
Thanks John for powering up last night.. Maybe we'll have better luck another night..

73:

Andy - KU4XR

--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 10/24/13, Garry Hess <k3siw at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

 Subject: Re: VE7BDQ in OPERA-32 tonite for OPDS test
 To: "W1VD, Jay" <jrusgrove at comcast.net>, "KU4XR, Andy" <ku4xr at yahoo.com>
 Date: Thursday, October 24, 2013, 8:43 AM
 
 Jay and Andy,
 
 Don't think the lowfer mailing list is working right yet so
 am sending this direct.
 
 Looked for John last night but didn't see even a hint of
 signal. However, despite the loop being aimed at BC I did
 get several decodes of VO1NA (55 degrees different in
 heading). According to http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~jcraig/lfex.html he fired up at
 0040Z on the 24th. I also ran an e-probe off a second
 receiver and it decoded VO1NA too, but not much stronger in
 indicated SNR and it missed the 0822Z detection:
 
 DF6NM JN59NJ Opera-32 correlation http://df6nm.bplaced.net/opera/opds.zip
 
    date     
 time   call   distance 
 frequency bandwidth  snr correlation
 
 sdr-iq1, loop aimed at VE7BDQ
 2013-10-24 08:22:05 VO1NA   2836km
 137554.986Hz   2mHz -43.7dBOp  91%
 16.7dB
 2013-10-24 07:49:11 VO1NA   2836km
 137554.986Hz   4mHz -44.8dBOp  94%
 17.7dB
 2013-10-24 07:16:15 VO1NA   2836km
 137554.986Hz   4mHz -43.8dBOp 100% 17.4dB
 2013-10-24 06:43:19 VO1NA   2836km
 137554.986Hz   1mHz -41.2dBOp  95%
 18.7dB
 
 sdr-iq2, eprobe2
 2013-10-24 07:49:10 VO1NA   2836km
 306039.960Hz   1mHz -39.9dBOp  87%
 18.9dB
 2013-10-24 07:16:14 VO1NA   2836km
 306039.960Hz   3mHz -40.5dBOp  96%
 19.0dB
 2013-10-24 06:43:20 VO1NA   2836km
 306039.961Hz   2mHz -37.7dBOp 100% 19.1dB
 
 I know Jay copied VE7BDQ off the back of his directive
 antenna recently with opds. Don't know if he made any
 decodes with an omni or his array aimed at BC to quantify
 the SNR difference. From what I read at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/rsgb_lf_group/message/3213
 the opds SNR may be suspect. Based on how well VO1NA showed
 up in ARGO QRSS30 it sure seems the SNR was better than -40
 dB. I assume that's referenced to something like 2500 Hz
 bandwidth as in WSPR.
 
 I should change my opds and spec lab settings from 2050 Hz
 to 1550 Hz so I can run the regular opera code
 simultaneously with opds to see how the SNRs compare.
 -- 73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL