Improved Spectrum Lab Conditional Actions for Meteor Observing

[IanL]

It will be an issue with the specific version of SL. I previously posted in the SL group and the author confirmed that a particular internal variable disappeared in a later version  due to a bug. Can't remember if it was this one or something else sorry.

Try updating to the current version or regress to an earlier one, or ask for help in the SL group.

[johnb]

thanks for that working now, reference i was using 2.94 b2 and now using 2.93 b8

Another newbie question my dongle  is not perfect and before i used this script I used to set the VFO at -2265 to compensate for the dongle, this script of course sets it to 143048, so where can i add my offset ?

 

John

[Stub Mandrel]

Grrr... my home network has lost my laptop again -(

So tomorrow I will switch off, stick all 2,500-ish captures on a128-gig SD card and  copy across the data files and see what I can do.

 

[johnb]

Hi

 So my last post made no sense (apologies) Im using the updated conditional actions and the MetScat_Comprehensive_v7.usr file

Using the test beacon which is set to 144428000 you can see in the attached screen shot im getting a decent signal (there is some local interference but I guess I will have to live with that for the time being)

I have used the Offset Up/ Down to line the blue frequency  marker with the actual tone displayed on the waterfall and whilst that does seem to work I was hoping to move the waterfall down rather than the marker up – does that make sense

Also given the beacon is at 14443000 and the tone on the waterfall is at 14440400 my dongle is out by some 2600 (not sure if that’s a positive or negative) and that value seems to be consistent, can I just put that value in the offset box in the settings, after which I would simply have to get the waterfall down 

Advice appreciated

Regards

John B

 

[IanL]

The offset up and down buttons change the offset, the display up and down buttons change the frequency scale by nudging the VFO, so you can use both to get the right combination for your dongle.

Once you are happy, right-click the Tune to Graves button to amend the VFO value it tunes to permanently and save your settings. If I recall the chosen offset will remain set in the config file until you change it.

I'm away from my equipment so recollection may be faulty here!

[johnb]

Thanks will give it a try tonight. John B

[johnb]

worked a treat thanks

John B

[johnb]

So thinking a little more I need to tweak the offset and display buttons a little more to move it further down the screen as the captures are right at the top of the screen. Maybe then I can reduce the SP to zoom in on the captures. 

 

John B

[johnb]

So thinking a little more I need to tweak the offset and display buttons a little more to move it further down the screen as the captures are right at the top of the screen. Maybe then I can reduce the SP to zoom in on the captures. 

 

John B

[johnb]

So more success after tweaking the offset and display buttons I now have capture I can see, so can I enhance the captures in anyway ideally can I zoom in  

Suggestions appreciated

Regards

John B

 

 

 

[IanL]

Regarding "Zooming in", up to a point it's purely a display issue (i.e. adjusting FC to show a smaller frequency range), but after that point zooming further just increases the height of each frequency bin without actually gaining resolution, same as for a digital image once the individual pixels become visible. To understand more I'd suggest you read this:

https://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/speclab/fftinfo.htm

The basic idea is that at some point, you will have to start trading off resolution in frequency vs. resolution in time. To decrease the size of the frequency bins (i.e. the span of frequencies covered by one waterfall line) the FFT process needs to collect a larger block of samples, which takes a longer time, thus increasing the time span covered by each waterfall update. The point at which this becomes an issue is a function of the sampling rate of your dongle and the processing power of your PC, but once you reach it you have to make that trade off.

The settings that control this are mostly here:

https://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/speclab/settings.htm#fft_settings

Don't be afraid to play about with a copy of your working configuration - you might find it easier to tune in to the test beacon or an FM radio station to see the effects of each tweak rather than waiting for meteors.

Edited August 30, 2019 by IanL

[9A4GE]

Hello.

I am newbie here and having some problems with Spectrum Lab and RMOB Colorgramme.

In Colorgramme, there is option to grab 'live' data from RMOB file with extension '.dat' , But after doing that, noticed that sometimes it counts correctly hourly activity, sometimes just produce zero result. Why is that?

Also, total meteor counter is not reset hourly. Not sure about daily because just started logging it. 

Here is screenshot of my setup:

Also, right now it is in live stream of mine (Milan, 9A4GE, Loc: JN95JG, Croatia): 

 

Is there a problem in the script that I am using from this page? https://www.blackwaterskies.co.uk/2019/01/radio-meteor-scatter-improved-spectrum-lab-conditional-actions/

 

Thank you in advance,

milan

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