Waiting for waterfall, audio, data for all passes

Satellites & Observations Observations
1

Observation 8996318: XW-2D (40907)
Regarding Observation 8996318 …

Hi friends, my Ground Station was working all Ok in past. But for last 2 weeks it is not showing any waterfall or audio or data.

Check these screenshots:

Screenshot_20240206_081940_Chrome
Screenshot_20240206_081940_Chrome1080×2195 196 KB

Screenshot_20240206_081955_Chrome
Screenshot_20240206_081955_Chrome1080×2195 193 KB

Screenshot_20240206_082013_Chrome
Screenshot_20240206_082013_Chrome1080×2195 195 KB

For all observations it keeps on saying: waiting for waterfall, data, audio. But nothing more happens.
I have run the setup again but no luck.
I have separately run the Cubic SDR and have seen local terrestrial signals on waterfall and it runs without any issues.

My setup is a Raspberry Pi, E4000 RTL SDR, Egg Beater antenna, Mast Head amplifier.

Can you please help in trouble shooting?

Thanks & regards.
VU2UUU, Kaustav.

2

Hi, I reviewed the Metadata from one of your failed obs, I see a line

other-settings: “IF1=6,IF2=9,IF3=3,IF4=2,IF5=3,IF6=3,TUNER=39”,

and gain: “42.0” as setting.

From my memory I don’t recall the other-settings being valid for an rtl / e4000 tuner ?

Can you clear the other-settings and try again ?

Ben

3

Hi Ben,

Ok Noted.
I have now changed to OVERALL
and cleared the Other-Settings.
I am scheduling few pass this night to understand if the issue is resolved or not.
I will revert back in few hours.
Thanks PE2BZ for the quick response.

VU2UUU, Kaustav

4

@vu2uuu If the issue continues check also this troubleshooting guide.

5

Correct me if I am wrong.

So if I set:
OPTION-1

  • gain-mode: “Overall”,
    THEN ONLY I HAVE TO SET
  • gain: “42.0”,

OPTION-2
IF I SET:

  • gain-mode: “Settings Field”,
    THEN ONLY I HAVE TO SET
  • gain: “IF1=6,IF2=9,IF3=3,IF4=2,IF5=3,IF6=3,TUNER=39”,

So, either I choose OPTION 1 (OVERALL) or OPTION 2 (SETTINGS FIELD).
And not BOTH TOGETHER.

Is that a ROGER ?

6

Just had a look at SatNOG’s SDR Wiki page E4000 Tuner Gain Settings.

The option gain-mode: “Overall” uses gain to set the value.

gain-mode: “Settings Field” doesn’t use the gain option but SATNOGS_OTHER_SETTINGS="IF1=6,IF2=9,IF3=3,IF4=2,IF5=3,IF6=3,TUNER=39"

7

SoapySDRUtil --probe=“driver=rtlsdr”
######################################################

Soapy SDR – the SDR abstraction library

######################################################

Probe device driver=rtlsdr
Found Elonics E4000 tuner
[INFO] Opening Generic RTL2832U OEM :: …
Found Elonics E4000 tuner

– Device identification

driver=RTLSDR
hardware=E4000
index=0
origin=GitHub - pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR: SoapySDR RTL-SDR Support Module

– Peripheral summary

Channels: 1 Rx, 0 Tx
Timestamps: YES
Time sources: sw_ticks
Other Settings:
* Direct Sampling - RTL-SDR Direct Sampling Mode
[key=direct_samp, default=0, type=string, options=(0, 1, 2)]
* Offset Tune - RTL-SDR Offset Tuning Mode
[key=offset_tune, default=false, type=bool]
* I/Q Swap - RTL-SDR I/Q Swap Mode
[key=iq_swap, default=false, type=bool]
* Digital AGC - RTL-SDR digital AGC Mode
[key=digital_agc, default=false, type=bool]
* Bias Tee - RTL-SDR Blog V.3 Bias-Tee Mode
[key=biastee, default=false, type=bool]

– RX Channel 0

Full-duplex: NO
Supports AGC: YES
Stream formats: CS8, CS16, CF32
Native format: CS8 [full-scale=128]
Stream args:
* Buffer Size - Number of bytes per buffer, multiples of 512 only.
[key=bufflen, units=bytes, default=262144, type=int]
* Ring buffers - Number of buffers in the ring.
[key=buffers, units=buffers, default=15, type=int]
* Async buffers - Number of async usb buffers (advanced).
[key=asyncBuffs, units=buffers, default=0, type=int]
Antennas: RX
Full gain range: [0, 96] dB
IF1 gain range: [-3, 6] dB
IF2 gain range: [0, 9] dB
IF3 gain range: [0, 9] dB
IF4 gain range: [0, 2] dB
IF5 gain range: [3, 15] dB
IF6 gain range: [3, 15] dB
TUNER gain range: [-1, 42] dB
Full freq range: [51.999, 2200] MHz
RF freq range: [52, 2200] MHz
CORR freq range: [-0.001, 0.001] MHz
Sample rates: 0.25, 1.024, 1.536, 1.792, 1.92, 2.048, 2.16, 2.56, 2.88, 3.2 MSps
Filter bandwidths: [0, 8] MHz

This is the output.

Can you suggest what should I choose ?

OVERALL = 96
or
SETINGS FIELD= “IF1=6,IF2=9,IF3=9,IF4=2,IF5=3,IF6=3,TUNER=42”?

8

SATNOGS_GAIN_MODE="Settings Field"
SATNOGS_OTHER_SETTINGS="IF1=6,IF2=9,IF3=9,IF4=2,IF5=3,IF6=3,TUNER=42"

And remove the SATNOGS_RF_GAIN="xx" value

9

@PE0SAT @pe2bz @fredy

Hi,
So after running the setup for sometime with these settings:

  • gain: null,
  • gain-mode: “Settings Field”,
  • other-settings: “IF1=6,IF2=9,IF3=3,IF4=2,IF5=3,IF6=3,TUNER=34”,

this following observation was received and the software automatically marked it as “Good”,
https://network.satnogs.org/observations/9004029/

However the APT DATA map of NOAA 18, is not seen.

Please check and confirm if things are all right.

10

Might have been a matter of time ? I now see something like an image, however the waterfall shows clear to no APT like signals so it makes sense there is only mostly noise in the image.

This is an example of what to expect with good antenna and gain settings:
SatNOGS Network - Observation 9006363

Can you try your antenna / sdr with any SDR software ?

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