Questions tagged [panadapter-and-waterfall]

Questions about panadapters, waterfall displays, band scopes, or any other equipment that displays a plot of RF power vs. frequency. For test equipment, use the specific tag [spectrum-analyzer].

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Signal Patterns on Waterfall are not Same for Two RTL-SDRs

I have two RTL-SDR Blog v3 dongles which are connected to same antenna with an antenna splitter. Steps that I follow: Connect them to a PC and run two gqrx instances Set 2.4Msps sample rate for both ...
mob's user avatar
  • 13
1 vote
1 answer
84 views

How do you hide the waterfall scope in an Icom IC-705 and display just the meters?

I've seen the display in that mode but I'm failing to reproduce it. Any ideas how to hide the waterfall scope entirely (not just make it smaller)?
Pablo Fernandez's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
382 views

How do I set the spectrum scope gain on the Icom IC-7300?

I have an IC-7300. When observing weak signals, the spectrum scope has signal peaks that are way too small. Just now I was listening to a clearly audible CW signal that was easily heard but hardly ...
Xunie's user avatar
  • 214
0 votes
1 answer
223 views

Why does my transmitter spam the SDR waterfall with this strange pattern?

I was recently playing with a combination of SDR and a Baofeng using two separate antennas and I noticed something strange when I transmit using the Baofeng: I heard that it's normal to observe ...
d33tah's user avatar
  • 111
0 votes
3 answers
179 views

How can the waterfall still be displayed during transmission

I noticed that on some higher-end transceivers, the panadapter/waterfall is still being displayed during transmission. How is this possible? If the panadapter is part of the receiver, it should be ...
ITChap's user avatar
  • 209
2 votes
3 answers
928 views

What replaces the T/R switch in modern transceiver

I have been watching and reading about the time when receiver/transmitter were separated and T/R switches were used. Current transceivers are still sharing a single antenna to transmit and receive. ...
ITChap's user avatar
  • 209
0 votes
1 answer
231 views

What determines the bandwidth of an FM signal?

With an FM signal, it takes up more room in the radio spectrum presumedly because the carrier frequency is changed. On average what's the width of the FM sidebands? Does the deviation from the center ...
natevw - AF7TB's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
681 views

What causes the light and dark bands (of background noise) in an HF waterfall display?

While monitoring the 40-meter band (among others) throughout a typical day/night as propagation changes I have noticed there are often bands of very low noise (black area) and others with much higher ...
Josh's user avatar
  • 138
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is this burst transmission sequence across the entire band?

Fairly regularly on the 40m band I hear a quick blip of a tone, and when I look at the waterfall I see these brief transmissions all across the band that look like little dots. What is causing that?
SandPiper's user avatar
  • 777
2 votes
2 answers
452 views

Why is the band scope called panadapter?

This feature that some radios have seem to have various names: band scope spectrum scope water fall panadapter I understand the first three names, but not panadapter. Where does it come from?
Pablo Fernandez's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
239 views

FM spectral amplitudes during silence

General setting I'm playing around with an RTL-SDR and recently captured some FM spectrum in Hannover, Germany. I want to undersand what's going on, so I've read a lot about FM and its spectra, but I ...
Hemanti's user avatar
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8 votes
3 answers
8k views

What is a panadapter?

To what does the term "panadapter" refer? (Physical hardware or software?) How did the term "panadapter" originate as related to radios or electronics? How is the term "panadapter" different from ...
hotpaw2's user avatar
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