Mastodawn

Another good day to stay inside here in snowy EN52 (Chicagoland) and while catching up with a few work tasks have been running a simple frequency stability test on my Analog Devices ADALM Pluto SDR (Rev B). Can clearly see the effects of the HVAC system cycling on and off while keeping the QTH warm today. SATSAGEN control software makes setting up and running these tests very easy. No programming required… #HamRadio #SDR #SATSAGEN

Gary @N8DMT Nov 6

Getting the lab organized a-bit more: Printed out a data sheet for a pair of Narda RF couplers. Have both couplers back in the same storage package again. What is the RF Geek equivalent of the old hammer-nail saying?

When all you have are RF couplers, everything looks like a return loss measurement…

#HamRadio #TestEquipment #PlutoSDR #SATSAGEN

Gary @N8DMT Aug 21, 2025

Time for some ADALM Pluto SDR firmware updates. Was asked what version FW I was running on the two Pluto SDR here. Didn’t know - had not reviewed in some time. Was running v0.32, checked and found v0.39 was available. These are REALLY EASY to update (just copy a FW file onto the SDR onboard folder and eject media to update FW). Results: Both Pluto SDR now running v0.39 and verified functional using SATSAGEN software on my WIN11 test equipment PC.
#HamRadio #SATSAGEN #SoftwareDefinedRadio

Gary @N8DMT Aug 9, 2025

Finished the third blog posting on the new noise-based amplifier gain and noise figure measurement setup. TLDR: it works!
3/3

Details at: https://qsl.net/n8dmt/rf-noise-source-part-3/index.html

#HamRadio #NoiseFigure #SATSAGEN

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Gary @N8DMT Jul 9, 2025

@ChuckMcManis Thanks — this is an excellent point. Am still learning how the TinySA-Ultra is different compared to previous SA (Agilent 8561E). Might setup a RF sweeper (continuous) and reverse sweep it against the TinySA-Ultra to see how it behaves with short-presence signals. Have both continuous and stepped sweepers to experiment with. Maybe two sweepers in the scanned band at once? (Have not done that before.) Lots to learn and more RF fun ahead! #SATSAGEN #PlutoSDR #Wavetek2001 #HamRadio