Anyone using the transverter solution from Rene, PE1CMO?

  • G4NRT ... you say the cliff is 50 ft high (ca. 17m). Suppose you need 27 degrees elevation, then when you place the dish ca. 34m in front of the cliff (on the ground, higher would be handier, read: then the 34m distance decreases) you should be able to see the satellite (perhaps with some losses). I don't have any clue how your possibilities are in front of your house, but perhaps this may be a way of thinking?

  • PA3FYM Not so easy! On top of the fifty foot cliff are another forty or so feet of trees which are never trimmed or cut down and I have no access to them.

    I can 'see' the satellite from across the road in front of the house but it is public land and would mean power and radio cables crossing a public road.

    I cannot get far enough back inside the front garden to get the direction. My neighbour's house is in the way ...

    Believe me, I have tried every possible way to approach the solution. I need to move houses but it not quite that simple!

  • Hi All - Update


    I had issues to connect the Leo Bodnar (Port 2) with my new SDRPlay RSP2Pro.


    The special coax cable with a BNC T-piece and the 50 Ohm resistor from SDR Kits which was recommend to buy with the Leo Bodnar was not working.

    https://www.sdr-kits.net/GPSDO-RSP2-Ext-Clock-Cable


    Each time I connected the SDRPlay to the Leo Bodnar Port 2 (24 MHz), the SDRPlay crashed!


    So I had to modify the cable according the manual from SDRPlay (attached).


    And now you ask, why I'm using a SDRPlay with my PE1CMPO and IC-9700 setup?


    The anwer is in the next post :)


    73 de HB9RYZ

    Wolfgang

  • Hi All - Update PE1CMO and IC-9700

    The Full-Duplex Mode with the Transverter from PE1CMO and with the new ICOM IC-9700 in the SAT-Mode is working great so far.


    But if activate the Scope on the IC-9700 during the SAT-Mode, the scope is so small, that you see almost nothing.


    So I decided to find a soution with my SDRPlay RSP2Pro so called panadapter solution. The 144 MHz Down-Link output of the Transverter goes in to a splitter and from the splitter one signal goes still to the IC-9700 (2m) and the other signal goes to the SDRPlay RSP2Pro.


    So now I'm using the SDR Radio Console v3.0.9 to have a big Scope on my PC. The IC-9700 is connected over Omnirig v1.18 to the SDR Radio Console v3 and the MIC of the Heil Hedaset is connected to the IC-9700 and the Headset itself to the PC with the sound-output of the SDR Radio Console v3.


    No I can close my QO-100 Project successfully :) and can enjoy to talk over the nice satellite QO-100 :) :)


    If you have any questions regarding my solution, please write me an eMail or ask in this forum.


    73 de HB9RYZ

    Wolfgang

  • Hi All

    If've got now another issue with the IC-9700 and omnirig using the SAT Mode.


    I was able to modify (change the CI-V address 94 --> 2A) the Omnirig INI-File in order to use the IC-9700 with omnirig an other software such as Log4OM, SDR Console, SDR Uno, etc. (the ini file is attached, Just rename the IC-9700.txt to IC-97090.ini)


    But as soon I go into the SAT-Mode, the comminication with omnirig is not working anymore.


    Perhaps someone has an idea why?

    I wrote an E-Mail to ICOM Europe and I will see whats going to be happen.


    73 de HB9RYZ

    Wolfgang

  • Hi All

    I've got now my final "one" Dish solution with the PE1CMO Transverter.

    Pictures and Blueprint on my website www.hb9ryz.ch/sat


    It's now a complete full-duplex SAT Solution for the new ICOM Transceiver IC-9700 incl. panadapter with SDRPlay RSP2Pro and the SDR Radio Console 3.x in order to see the whole down-link 144MHz QO-100 Scope on big screen incl. VFO synch. with Omnirig :)


    73 de HB9RYZ

    Wolfgang

  • The 144 MHz Down-Link output of the Transverter goes in to a splitter and from the splitter one signal goes still to the IC-9700 (2m) and the other signal goes to the SDRPlay RSP2Pro.

    I am confused over this. Does SDRplay look continuously over 144.500 to 144.800 (a little more though) and superimpose a marker from the transmit chain of the 9700 ?


    I would be very, very interested if you could tell me how to do this, or point me in the right direction. I will be using a different Icom but with a CAT interface.


    Thanks Dave

    Dave Cawley | Ex G8EAO & G6ANG/T |
    (when you had to have a separate TV license !)

  • G4IUG: Yes, I have the full 2m spectrum of the sat on my SDRPlay. SDR Radio Console is supporting Omnirig. So you can connect every Transceiver with a CAT with Omnirig so far.


    1. connect your transceiver over USB or serial port to your PC

    2. Download and install Omnirig from http://www.dxatlas.com/OmniRig/

    3. Choose your transceiver, COM Port and Baudrate

    4. Start Radio SDR Console and enable "external Radio"


    73 de HB9RYZ

    Wolfgang

  • Please have patience with me ! How many programs run ? Is it two ? Omnirig and SDR Console ? Do you pay for them ?


    So far I have only used the software that came with SDRplay.


    Many thanks Dave

    Dave Cawley | Ex G8EAO & G6ANG/T |
    (when you had to have a separate TV license !)

  • I have got rather used to sdrplay now, I quite like sdr-console but I've got into the sdrplay way of doing things.


    I run omnirig with sdrplay to control a flex1500 on another PC which appears as a TS2000 - but it could be a standard rig of any type.


    It is pretty simple to set up.

    Download omnirig and install - it is very painless, just a couple of clicks.


    Run omnirig and enter the rig type, com port and speed on the rig1 tab to match your rig.


    Then on the vrx receiver, choose settings and go to the omni tab and set rig 1 and then what you want to sync to what.


    I set VRX>rig and rig<VRX. I also set the offset on the sdrplay so that the frequency on the VRX matched the frequency on the rig.


    So If i click on a signal on the SDR play, the transceiver changes to that frequency, Likewise if I move the tuning dial on my flex it moves the sdrplay frequency to match.


    The only one drawback is that if you have RIG>VRX set so you can use the tuning dial on the rig, during TX the SDR if is attenuated by 60dB - so you can still see your signal in the SP1 waterfall, but the audio is suppressed.

  • Hello Wolfgang,


    thank you for the numbers you show in your test.


    Did you adjust the position of the POTY (distance to the dish). In your pictures the "entry" of the waveguide seem to be very close to the dish compared to "entry" of a normal LNB.


    Your figures show that the Nylon lense is 2dB worse than even no lens at all. That's a point to think about.


    73 de Johannes

  • does anybody know where at the receiving chain (before the receiving mixer) a sdr rx can be connected in parallel to the transverter solution from Rene?

    The schematic shows ("EVT 739 TP") but at least the unit I have doesn't have that point provided at the exterior box.


    But, not to worry: if you insert a 3dB-splitter between the LNB and the LNB input of the CMO-box, you can make your own SDR output. The LNB has plenty of gain and unless you use a very loooooong cable, it is OK to steal 3dB antenna signal.


    Two things to consider. Several things are called "splitter", I have good results with something like this, available from the typical hardware shop:

    Keep in mind that, to have these work for "us", they must pass DC, 25/27 Mhz, and the 739 MHz signal. If you use a multimeter to measure between ports, you will see that all three ports are DC-connected and have a low resistance between them.

    If your unit has 75 or 150 ohms DC resistance between the ports, then it uses resistors instead of a transformer -> in the bin

    And the much nicer ones with F-connectors don't pass DC either so -> in the bin.

    You can get adapters between F and belling-lee, which is what this splitter uses.


    If you open one of these you will see that you can also make one of these yourself using a ferrite bead and some windings. But, as cheap as these are you can't go wrong.

    Make sure the IN port goes to the LNB, the OUT ports go to CMO-box and the SDR. Isolation between OUT ports is 30dB!


    And please make sure you put a DC-blocker (capacitor, 100p-1n) on the port going to the SDR so that the 5V DC doesn't get shorted out in the SDR receiver.


    Tip: the NB-transponder uses vertical polarisation. According to lyngsat.com, the 10818 transponder (22000-5/6) carrying BBC news also has vertical polarisation. Before I modified my SR3602 duo LNB (see elsewhere on this forum) so I could use the 2nd port for a sat receiver, I used a sat TV receiver tuned to BBC news on this transponder to adjust the dish - QO100 is just a little more south.

    If you do this, it is VITAL to use a DC blocker because the LNB from Rene has been modified for 5Vdc and the typical sat receiver supplies 13-18V on the LNB port.


    EDIT: After posting this, I realised that you are in Germany and the British 28.2 sat position may not work for you depending where you are. The splitter still works, whether you can receive 28.2 depends on how far west you are.

  • Thanks !!!!!

    I am so stupid.....Who can read has clearly an advantage....In the manual of pe1cmo is described how this connection can be made. At the lnb input only a dc blocking capacitor and a 470 R resistor in series have to be connected. From there you can connect a sdr rx. Thats all!