I went into the contest with the goal of testing the performance of the HL2+ in crowded CW conditions.
Rather than writing a dry narrative of "How I spent my weekend" (actually only four hours of it), I'll just sum it all up in bullet points:
- I used the HL2+ on Saturday; the Anan-10E on Sunday. Same mini-PC, same antenna and same 100W Neptune amp. And Thetis SDR software for both.
- The two radios are indistinguishable from each other in terms of receiver performance - and that performance is good. Very good. Nearby S9+20dB stations have no effect on weaker stations just a few 10's of Hertz away. Dial in a narrow filter, and, amazingly, no QRM, no thumping. How does such performance come in such a small package - and inexpensively, in the case of the HL2+. (Answer: Thetis).
- Both rigs were dialed down to 2-4 watts to drive the Neptune amp to 100 watts.
- Operating speed was 28 wpm. I detected no issues with latency, that favorite word of SDR naysayers.
- The amp was a different story. The leading dit of my callsign was sometimes omitted no matter what setting I dialed in for 'PTT/RF delay'. I know this from listening to myself on a remote receiver.
If I'm gonna use an amp with any radio and high-speed CW, it needs to NOT be the NeptuneUPDATE: See comments, below). It's a great amp for phone and FT8 but can't keep up with contest-speed CW. I compensated often by sending my callsign twice, without giving the amp's relay time to switch over to receive between the callsign transmissions. - The entire contest for me was search-and-pounce. This is awkward with a single PC monitor that alternately had to display Thetis and my logging program. I tuned around the band with Thetis up, then keyed via N3FJP logging software with that program (screen) active. Back & forth I went. Inefficient to the max but my purpose was to test the radios, not win a gold metal with contest points!
- I ended up operating way more than I thought I would. The activity drew me in, seducing me with the tonic of Morse in my headphones.
- 21 zones, 74 countries and 180 total contacts. Oh, and the antenna was a 17-foot telescoping whip with one radial - my POTA antenna. Three bands: 10, 15 and 20 meters.
- I worked Franki OQ5M on all three bands, ZL7IO (Chatham Islands), VK9DX (Norfolk Island) and 3B8M (Mauritius). 3B8M was super-loud, as anti-podal stations often are. "Loud with a hint of flutter" to be poetic about it.
- When I was a teen, a beat-up, ugly looking car with a souped-up, modified engine was called a "sleeper". Looked normal and unassuming but ran the 1/4-mile like a bat outta hell. The Hermes Lite 2 is a sleeper. Punches above its weight. I've had a K3 - I know how a receiver is supposed to behave on a crowded band. The HL2 and Thetis (that's important) are the best bang for the $$$ in this weird hobby.
Thanks much to those who divined me from yon ether. It is to their credit that I worked as much DX as I did with such a mediocre antenna. It saddens me that the CW sub-bands will now return to their previous state of disuse as so many CW ops return to FT8, me among them (but only on 6 and 12 meters).
And now back to POTA-ing and motorcycling...and combining the two.
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Thank you for reporting on the performance of the station as a whole from the perspective of a higher speed CW operator.
ReplyDeleteThis has me wondering how other amplifiers would behave. The HobbyPCB line has me curious.
Jim KF9VV
Hi Jim, I think the Hardrock 50 would work perfectly as long as the QSK option was installed into the amp. Part of the Plus mod to the HL2 includes a serial jack for band data being shared with the Hardrock. Elecraft's KXPA100 would probably perform well too.
Delete73,
John
Interesting John, I never operated a SDR like you have. Yes the IC-7300 is a SDR but it looks like a normal radio. The SDRs you use are really depending on the computer. It's a whole different style of operating and probably the future. I was operating 80m QRP and had other things to do during daylight. Although I spend some time 20, 15 and 10 to chase friends and DX for fun. Worked Franki on 10m, not expected. Thanks for your cqww / SDR test wrap up. 73, Bas
ReplyDeleteGM Bas - I searched for your callsign on the DX Cluster a few times during the contest but I guess you didn't operate at all (or only S&P, like me). I was hoping to work you again on CW.
DeleteI don't know if the 'full SDR' way of contesting will catch on - it is awkward without having access to receiver controls with the logging/keying program up...but I know many stations have dual and triple monitors. I do like the fact that the radio is separate from the software that runs it though as there are advantages to that, even if contesting is not one of them.
73,
John
Good morning John and very nice run down of the radio in a contest situation. If you want to find out receiver preformance this is the play to get it done. That little SDR sure can hold it's own that is for sure. The only true SDR I had was the Sun SDR2 and at that time the software was being developed. I ended up selling the radio and jumped to Icom. To bad about the amp and dropping the "E" would for sure be a problem. If you were ever to zoom in on more CW contesting I am guessing the Elecraft amp would work but that is not a cheap option. I was on all weekend but did not run across you but then again my wet noddle station was running 90 percent of the time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the run down and you have sparked my interest in SDR again.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Yes, Mike, I remember both our experiences with Sun back then. The HL2 is as positive an experience as the other rig was negative. If you're tempted to give the HL2 a try and don't like it, you could probably sell it for very close to what you paid...but I'll bet you'd like it!
DeleteFeel free to email me with any questions you may have regarding set-up with Thetis. It's pretty simple, especially when compared to Sun or Flex.
After Thetis you may want to experiment with other platforms for various operating systems and maybe even incorporate your new interest in Python.
73,
John
John, I believe if you adjust the TXD setting in Thetis which I believe is called cw delay key-down on the options-1 page you will have no further problems with higher CW speeds using the Neptune Amp. I use piHPSDR so cannot speak directly to that option, but by adjusting the PTT delay in piHPSDR I have no missing digits up to 40 WPM which is fast I can copy. Prior to adjusting I also had the first digits truncated or missing starting around 28WPM. Nice work in CQWW.
ReplyDeleteEd
K1VP
Hello Ed,
DeleteYes, I did learn that CW has its own delay setting, separate from the other modes. Unfortunately, I could not find a setting that worked. Next week I'll be borrowing an oscope and going through it all again. I want to be able to see the result of changing that setting and a scope is the only way to do that (I think!).
Next time you open piHPSDR, can you look and tell me what your delay is set to?
I didn't mention it in the main posting but after a while, I unhooked the amp completely and just ran the 10E barefoot (15 watts) and still worked a good amount of DX with no worry about my callsign being truncated.
73,
John
Hello John,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your information on the blog and youtube, thank you very much.
You put much emphasis on the performance of Thetis.
Could you compare the HL2 performance using Thetis vs Linux piHPSDR?
I am considering to get an HL2 but have a Linux machine.
73
Luis
CU2IJ
Hello Luis, thank you.
DeleteNow that I have the Anan-10E, I do plan to use the HL2 to experiment with other platforms. I don't currently have a way to run piHPSDR but Ed K1VP (see comment above) may be able to answer your question. Otherwise, I should be running piHPSDR sometime soon after the New Year.
73 for now,
John
I have HL2, Brick2sdr and Neptune. I have had the same problem with CW. Now I am using PTT and CW from keyer and ucxlog (and pihpsdr). In ucxlog I have adjusted 50 ms PTT before CW. Problem is solved.
ReplyDelete73, mk
OK, I'm gonna re-look at the Neptune! Several here in the comments and a few more via email have told me that it works at 28wpm and higher. A friend is going to loan me an automotive oscope when he gets back in town, so I'll look at the PTT and RF Out sigs when I get the scope (yes, I have a crystal detector for the RF).
DeleteI've never used an "automotive" scope before but they are used to look at ECU and other sensor's timing signals in cars so that should work here since the detector should turn the RF into a DC signal. I'll report the results in January.
73,
John