SDR w/ 2 ports and antennas

SatNOGS Software
1

Hi!

I am building a station using a SDRPlay RSPdx (https://www.sdrplay.com/rspdx/). It has three antenna inputs and a single tuner. Antenna inputs can be selected by software. Here’s the info I get from SoapySDR:

----------------------------------------------------
-- Device identification
----------------------------------------------------
  driver=SDRplay
  hardware=RSPdx
  sdrplay_api_api_version=3.150000
  sdrplay_api_hw_version=4

----------------------------------------------------
-- Peripheral summary
----------------------------------------------------
  Channels: 1 Rx, 0 Tx
  Timestamps: NO
  Other Settings:
     * RF Gain Select - RF Gain Select
       [key=rfgain_sel, default=4, type=string, options=(0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)]
     * IQ Correction - IQ Correction Control
       [key=iqcorr_ctrl, default=true, type=bool]
     * AGC Setpoint - AGC Setpoint (dBfs)
       [key=agc_setpoint, default=-30, type=int, range=[-60, 0]]
     * BiasT Enable - BiasT Control
       [key=biasT_ctrl, default=true, type=bool]
     * RfNotch Enable - RF Notch Filter Control
       [key=rfnotch_ctrl, default=true, type=bool]
     * DabNotch Enable - DAB Notch Filter Control
       [key=dabnotch_ctrl, default=true, type=bool]
     * HDR Enable - RSPdx HDR Control
       [key=hdr_ctrl, default=true, type=bool]

----------------------------------------------------
-- RX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Full-duplex: YES
  Supports AGC: YES
  Stream formats: CS16, CF32
  Native format: CS16 [full-scale=32767]
  Antennas: Antenna A, Antenna B, Antenna C
  Corrections: DC removal
  Full gain range: [0, 66] dB
    IFGR gain range: [20, 59] dB
    RFGR gain range: [0, 27] dB
  Full freq range: [0.001, 2000] MHz
    RF freq range: [0.001, 2000] MHz
    CORR freq range:  MHz
  Sample rates: 0.0625, 0.096, 0.125, 0.192, 0.25, 0.384, 0.5, 0.768, 1, [2, 10.66] MSps
  Filter bandwidths: 0.2, 0.3, 0.6, 1.536, 5, 6, 7, 8 MHz

Question: Can I configure satnogs client to use different input for each band (VHF, UHF) by specifying two different SATNOGS_ANTENNA values, one for each band?

2

The short answer, no you can only select one SATNOGS_ANTENNA value.

On the other hand, this is an interesting question and raises a lot challenges.

For example:

The satnogs network needs to know what antenna value is active to determine what observation can be run on the client.

Jan | PE0SAT

3

satnogs networks already knows what antennas are installed and their bands. What is left is to associate an SATNOGS_ANTENNA value to each and pass it on when scheduling an observation. Or it can be done on the client, based on the requested frequency.

Maybe interesting for future development.

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4

Then there needs to be an relation between the settings Antennas config

image
image899×547 18.4 KB

And the SDR used and the antenna’s connected.

Jan | PE0SAT

5

Right. But because antenna setting is SDR-specific, it might be better to set on the client anyway. Something like replacing the SATNOGS_ANTENNA with, or adding SATNOGS_ANTENNA_VHF/SATNOGS_ANTENNA_UHF/etc.

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