SDRPlay RSP1A: CW Skimmer Install
Billy McFarland GM6DX explains how to combine a great SDR receiver and some excellent software to set up a really useful receiving capability.
Iwas looking at the idea of setting up a receive station at my home QTH, for the purpose of propagation studies. Knowing what band, what DXCC and at what time of the day I was able to receive that particular station at home would be useful data for working DX and general operating.
I had recently purchased an SDRPlay RSP1A receiver, which I had connected to my home-made loop, so this made the obvious choice for use in this new receive station. Being a regular user of the reverse beacon network (URL below) I decided to use CW as the receive mode, interfacing the station with reversebeacon.net telnet. www.reversebeacon.net Reversebeacon.net is a great website where stations from all over the world share their received data. The website allows you to search on a callsign, which then populates a list containing what stations are receiving you, at what CW speed, on what band, at what date and time and at what signal strength in dB. As well as this you can create a list of stations that you have received, so with all this information you can easily start to see how useful it can be.
In order to set up this basic CW Skimmer, I used:
• 1 x RSP1A Receiver
• 1 x antenna (I used a 1m diameter active loop available at: https://tinyurl.com/4pmfa8xv
• 1 x CW Skimmer Server software by DX Atlas
• 1 x Reversebeacon.net Aggregator software
• 1 x CW skimmer driver for RSP1A
• 1 x PC with internet connection Software for 3, 4, and 5 can be located on my one drive at: https://tinyurl.com/4yrjpzwy
Setting Up
Before I proceed to explain the setup you must have a basic understanding of how to operate your PC and you must have your RSP1A working with your PC and also connected to an antenna. There is plenty of information on the SDRPlay website on how to set up the RSP1A with your PC.
First step is to download and install CW Skimmer Server software by DX Atlas (note this is a paid product but available on a trial period) onto your PC’s hard drive. Make sure you know where the installed folder is located on the hard drive (usually something similar to C:\Program Files (x86)\Afreet).
Next step is to open up the files located in the SDRplayIntf.zip (two files, one of which is a .dll file), copy both files and paste them in the folder on your hard drive that CW Skimmer Server.exe file was installed into. When in that folder also delete the QS1R.dll file. See Fig. 1.
Start-up CW Skimmer Server software. On starting up you will see a few tabs going along the top. The skimmer tab is where you select the SDRPlay RSP1A from the dropdown menu and the bands that you want to decode on (three bands at 192kHz wide). The telnet tab is just a standard 7300 port, no password, and you can select for CQ only spots. The next tab is operator. Here you put in your callsign, first name and grid locator square information (6 figure grid square), Fig. 2.
If this is set up correctly and the software is seeing your RSP1A, then the status tab will be full of information as seen on Fig. 3.
The CW Skimmer Server software must run all the time, so leave it running in the background. Now open up Aggregator.exe (this is just an .exe file and doesn’t get installed onto the hard drive, so keep the folder in your documents or so and just create a short cut from the desktop to the aggregator. exe file).
Once the Aggregator.exe software is running again it has a few tabs across the top. Only a few tabs need our attention. First click on the tab that is called ‘Connections’. You will see the port is defaulted to 7300, that’s fine,along with an IP address (don’t worry about that) and a callsign which is n0call (just leave that callsign in there). Make sure you tick the remaining boxes relevant to your needs and then press ‘connect’. You will then see green writing informing you that it is connected to the RBN telnet, Fig. 4.
Now your RSP1A is decoding signals using the CW Skimmer Server software. This data is getting shared with the Aggregator software, which then shares this with the
reversebeacon.net service via your internet connection. You can see the status of the Aggregator software by looking at the status tab. From there you can see a list of your decoded stations and whether it is connected to the reversebeacon.net telnet or not, Fig. 5.
There are a few things you will need to take into account when doing this. Firstly, the antenna. I chose a loop. It is small, only 1m in diameter, and covers from 1.8MHz to 30MHz so it can cover any band I select on the CW Skimmer Server software, Fig. 6.
This install requires an internet connection and the PC running continuously. I have installed the PC in a plastic shed in the garden to keep it away from the main shack, Fig. 7.
The RSP1A only allows three bands to be selected for decode, where it will cycle through each band, for three minutes continuously. I am now running 2 x RSP1A receivers on two antennas so I can decode and receive up to six bands simultaneously.
There is an option in the connection tab on the Aggregator software that allows you to create a log file of all your received stations as seen in Fig. 8. This has got to be one of the best available features as you can search in the .TXT file for a particular prefix (when in the .TXT file hold Ctrl and F for the find tool) such as VK or ZL. It will take you through the list of callsigns received with that prefix. It will also show you at what time, day, band and signal strength you received them. With this ability you can create a spreadsheet with particular prefixes, allowing you to gather times and bands of where your home QTH is receiving that particular DXCC, which in my eyes is a great propagation tool.
Results
Using this setup I have so far received ZL, VK, JA, W6, PY, 3B8 on topband (160m) through to 15m (not had much 10m propagation yet for the higher bands) so provides a great tool in finding the right time and band for working that DX.
Should you have any queries or need help with setting this up at your own QTH, then I can be emailed at gm6dx@outlook.com