FunCube dongle and RIGCTLD setup

Hi,

I am just setting the IQ1RY G/S remotely. Everything is OK, except that I think it is not so straightforward to configure the Funcube Dongle Pro. I read some posts, where at the end is not explained how to configure things. With RIGCLTD I can control it (it seems working), but I do not know how to set the rest (in practice to acquire the I/Q sample from sound-card).
Is there a way to use it, or is it still under development? If someone is working on this, I may help, if needed. If RIGCTLD is working fine, acquiring samples from sound-card is not a big issue.
Unfortunately, I cannot change the dongle to something different, since I am operating the station remotely.

Tnx!
Alberto

As far as I know funcube is supported by osmosdr which satnogs uses for the rf. However I think no one has tried it before, so it may needs some changes in the gr-satnogs code before make it work.

@surligas or @nkaramolegos could provide more details on that.

Hey,

i do not have access to a FunCube, so can you pprovide me the sampling rates that operates? I can push a fix for that.

I don’t think fcd will work: the sampling rate is - as far as I recall - fixed to 192 kHz.

Funcube Dongle Pro is 96 kHz
Funcube Dongle Pro+ is 192 kHz

Even if you make it work with the current SatNOGS code, they require DC removal and I/Q balancing to work well.

Thanks all for the replies. From data interface point of view, funcube dongle is seens as a normal sound-card, so it should have the typical soundcard sample rates (11.025, 22.5, 44.1, 96 and 192kHz) but I should verify this. Is this an issue having fixed sample rate?
Concerning the DC and I/Q imbalance, I know it is a problem to perfectly compensate. In fact, what has to be done is to tune the VCO slightly out of frequency and receive your signal not in the center, to avoid the 0Hz spike. But, I understoond, this is not the way SatNogs setting are (may be it can be adapted).
My main point is how to configure SatNogs client to work with the funcube. I know I can use it under gnu-radio and I am doing this already. But I do not know exactly what SatNogs is doing, I mean, what are the script that are launched and where I can play to see if funcube is working. In the basic satnogs-setup I can change the receiver type, but what are the options here? I could not find a list, and I wanted to have a look into the code, but I do not know how is the SW structure/architecture. It will take a while to understand myself alone.

Tnx and sorry for long e-mail.

The problem is that the way the scripts are written today assumes an initial sample rate over 200khz which neither funcube dongle reaches. (someone could go into the gr scripts and change it everywhere but then you’d have a one-off setup)

My personal recommendation would be to get an rtlsdr. They are quite inexpensive.

Moved to the RTL dongle. It is less “sensitive” in terms of absolute power level, but in terms of SNR (with pre) it should be the same. And the system is now working.
Thanks!

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