☞ In order to toggle USB or LSB mode in SSB mode you have to set the "BW" in channel filter cutoff control (9) to a positive (USB) or negative (LSB) value. The above screenshot shows a LSB setup. See the (8) to (10) paragraphs below for details.
☞ The channel marker in the main spectrum display shows the actual band received taking in channel filtering into account.
Use the wheels to adjust the frequency shift in Hz from the center frequency of reception. Left click on a digit sets the cursor position at this digit. Right click on a digit sets all digits on the right to zero. This effectively floors value at the digit position. Wheels are moved with the mousewheel while pointing at the wheel or by selecting the wheel with the left mouse click and using the keyboard arroews. Pressing shift simultanoeusly moves digit by 5 and pressing control moves it by 2.
Toggles between SSB (icon with one sideband signal) and DSB (icon with double sidebands signal). In SSB mode the shape of the icon represents LSB or USB operation.
The 48 kHz channel sample rate is further decimated by powers of two for the spectrum display and in channel filter limits. This effectively sets the total available bandwidth depending on the decimation:
- 1 (no decimation): 24 kHz (SSB) or 48 kHz (DSB)
- 2: 12 kHz (SSB) or 24 kHz (DSB)
- 4: 6 kHz (SSB) or 12 kHz (DSB)
- 8: 3 kHz (SSB) or 6 kHz (DSB)
- 16: 1.5 kHz (SSB) or 3 kHz (DSB)
The span value display is set as follows depending on the SSB or DSB mode:
- In SSB mode: the span goes from zero to the upper (USB: positive frequencies) or lower (LSB: negative frequencies) limit and the absolute value of the limit is displayed.
- In DSB mode: the span goes from the lower to the upper limit of same absolute value and ± the absolute value of the limit is displayed.
This is how the Span (8) and bandpass (9, 10) fitler controls look like in the 3 possible modes:
**DSB**:
- In SSB mode this is the upper (USB: positive frequencies) or lower (LSB: negative frequencies) cutoff of the in channel single side band bandpass filter. The value triggers LSB mode when negative and USB when positive
- In DSB mode this is half the bandwidth of the double side band in channel bandpass filter therefore the value is prefixed with the ± sign.
- In SSB mode this is the lower cutoff (USB: positive frequencies) or higher cutoff (LSB: negative frequencies) of the in channel signe side band bandpass filter.
- In DSB mode it is inactive and set to zero (double side band filter).
If you are into digging weak signals out of the noise you probably will not turn the AGC on. AGC is intended for medium and large signals and help accomodate the signal power variations from a station to another or due to QSB.
This AGC is based on the calculated magnitude (square root of power of the filtered signal as I² + Q²) and will try to adjust audio volume as if a -20dB power signal was received.
When on this clamps signal at the maximum amplitude. Normally this is not needed for most signals as the AGC amplitude order is quite conservative at 10% of the maximum. You may switch it on if you notice a loud click when a transmission starts.
This is the time window in milliseconds of the moving average used to calculate the signal power average. It can be varied in powers of two from 16 to 2048 ms that is: 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 and 2048 ms. The most practical values are between 128 and 512 ms.
<h4>11.4: Signal power threshold (squelch)</h4>
Active only in AGC mode.
This threshold acts as a squelch and will mute the sound below this average signal power. To prevent short transient drop outs the squelch gets active only if the power has been below the threshold for a period equal to the AGC time constant (11.3)
This feature is mostly useful when more than one SSB channel is active. When there is no transmission the level of noise rises at the level of a normal signal due to the AGC and adds to the noise of other channels. Therefore it is desirable to shut down the audio when there is no signal in the channel.
To turn off the squelch completely move the knob all the way down (left). Then "---" will display as the value and the squelch will be disabled.
The signal power is calculated as the moving average over the AGC time constant (11.3) of the power of the filtered signal as I² + Q².
<h4>11.5: Signal power threshold (squelch) gate</h4>
Active only in AGC mode with squelch enabled.
To avoid unwanted squelch opening on short transient bursts only signals wilth power above threshold during this period in milliseconds will open the squelch.It can be varied from 0 to 20 ms in 1 ms steps.
When the power threshold is close to the noise floor a few milliseconds help in preventing noise power wiggle to open the squelch.
This is the spectrum display of the demodulated signal (SSB) or translated signal (DSB). Controls on the bottom of the panel are identical to the ones of the main spectrum display.
