Olivia MFSK Ver.1  

              (Olivia by SP9VRC - VK2DSG)

New hybrid MFSK & FEC; Signal sounds like bubbles under the water; Signal looks like Dots on a waterfall

                                                            

Olivia MFSK with Walsh FEC mode was developed for ionosphere made distortions and weak signal.

Digital mode approval: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/techchar/

 

Hardware:

      A RIGblaster (1ea), Soundcard speaker cables: Radio Shack-42 2387 (3ea).

 

RIGblaster:

      Strap P1 to match your radio's Microphone. (i.e. RJ45 IC706 page 9). Set Audio Level

      Control full clockwise. Swith VOX/AUTO to AUTO, apply power. Cable RIGblaster to

      radio and computer, as shown in RIGblaster manual’s hookup diagram; (PC Speaker Out to Rigblaster In; PC Aux. In

      to Rigblaster Out). The RIGblaster interface will allow computer speakers to continue to operate for music etc.

 Note: Don't use low impedance un-amplified speakers.

 

Computer Downloads: http://n1su.com/olivia/

      OliviaAid-8-jan-05.zip

      OliviaAid 13-jan-05.zip

      Olivia-Aidhelp.doc

 

Install to Olivia folder: Program Files/OliviaAid

      1. Unzip OliviaAid  8-jan

      2. Unzip OliviaAid 13-jan

      3. In the Olivia\CYGFIX folder:

      4. Click on CYGWIN.zip and unzip to C:\

      5. Click on CYGWIN.REG and register - YES.

Create a shortcut Icon

 

Download and Install:  WinDRM 18-dec-06 zip into WinDRM folder OR the

                                    Spectrogram  (gram v517.zip) into Gram folder and unzip.

Reboot computer

 

Windows Sound card setup:

      Master Volume: Master Volume to 1/3 of the way up - Balance slider to the center

                     Wave Volume   to 1/3 of the way up - Balance slider to the center

                     Line In Volume to 2/3 of the way up - Balance slider to the center

                     Microphone Volume to 1/3 of the way up

                     PC Speaker Volume to 2/3 of the way up

      Recording Controls: Line In SELECT - Volume to 1/3 of the way up - Balance slider to the center

 Note: Turn the computer speaker volume control knob most of the way, but not all of the way down.

 

Radio setup:

     Set the IF Filter to 2.7KHz

     Set Audio RF to MAX

     Set VFO to: 14107.5  

     Set Transmitter output power to ¼ manufacturer’s rated RF power output, 25 watts or

        less is a good operating setup for a 100 watt transmitter, to provide linear performance.

     Set Mode to USB

     Set Processor to OFF and SWR ON

     Speak into Mic. Adjusting Mic. Gain so that ALC doesn’t occur above the ALC Zone indicator.

     Adjust Tuner for 1:1

     Set ALC to ON and SWR OFF

     ALC can remain (on) to control drive limit.

 

     Click on TX button (transmission starts).

 

     Adjust RIGblaster Audio Level Control, stopping as transmitter output power reaches MAX

      (ie. 25 watts) keep an eye on your ALC so that ALC does not occur; run with NO ALC

      indicating occurring; any ALC indicating, results in your TX Signal being distorted,

      and causing harmonics.

     Stop TX (Ctrl+R)

 

 Note: The RIGblaster Audio Level Control is the most precise way to adjust the

        Soundcard output voltage into the radio. The Microsoft Volume controls were

        designed to vary the voltage, through a range of reasonable outputs for Speakers;

        They were not designed to be adjusted so precisely as to be reliable set to

        5 millivolts.

 

  Recommended frequencies:  USB

    KHz      KHz        Tone   Hz

    1.838   1.838.5      8       500

    1.838   1.838.5    16       500    

    1.840   1.840.5    16       500

    1.840   1.840.5    32     1000

    3.584 (Net 02:00 UTC)

    3.582   3.583.5  3.586.5 

    7038.5   7072.5 

    10136.5  10137.5  10138.5

    14.104.5 14107.5   14108.5  14111.5

    18102.5  18103.5    18104.5  21129.5

      Clusters: 14.070  14.105.5  14.106.5  14.108.5

 

The European bandplan.
Frequencies   Should be the same in 
USA except for 40M.
Standard Frequency and Parameters
KHz         KHZ       Tone                   Hz
7038,5    7039        16/32            500/1000 
10138.5 10139      16/32             500/1000
14108,5 14109      32                    1000  Call Frequency
14107,5 14108      32                    1000
14106,5 14107      32                    1000
14106,5 14106      32                    1000
14076,5 14077      8/16               250/500 Alternative DX Channel
14090,5 14091      8                       250  Narrow Band - Frequency
21129,5 21130     32                     1000

   

 

 

To Setup:

      Click on OlivaAid Icon

      Modes:

      Set Number of Tones to: T32 (default) or (T2 T4 T8 T16 T64 T128 T256 (spaced by 31.25Hz)

          (32 Tones spaced by 31.25 Hz at a rate of 31.25 Baud results in 1000Hz of Band Width).

      Set Band Width Hz: BW1000 (default) or BW125 BW250 BW500 BW2000  

                        32/1000 for Bad Conditions   8/500 16/500 for bad conditions

      Set Tune Tolerance Hz: M16 (default) (for T32 & BW1000 ONLY Set: 2 4 8 16 32 64 128)

                        M20 = 32/1000  M30 = 8/500

     

      Right Click on TX and type in COMM a Port number

      Click on RX (RX window turns green, is activated, ready to RX)

        S/N: 3.0 is not good; very good is S/N: >6,

        Freq: +78.1/125.0 Hz  (receiver is tuned 78Hz too high; but margin is 125Hz, you are still safe)

        Time: 0.224/2.048 sec. (time offset between transmitter & receiver soundcard sampling)

 

Locate an Olivia Signal with the downloaded Spectogram program

 

To Operate

To Transmit:

      Click TX (TX window is activated)

      (Olivia starts transmission)

      Type your message in TX window

      Click Ctrl + R (Olivia goes into RX) to end transmission

 

      To Type ahead from Buffer window:

      Right Click on “T” to bring up Buffer window

      Type your message in Buffer window

      Click SEND READY FOR TX

      Click TX (TX window activates and Buffer file is transmitted)

      TX window deactivates when Buffer in empty.

 

      TX a File ie CQ CQ CQ from Buffer:

      Right Click on "T" to bring up Buffer window

      Select: LOAD - Select a file (ie.  CQ file)

      Click OPEN

      Click SEND READY FOR TX

      Click TX (File is transmitted)  

      Click ENTER  to end transmission

      Click X to Exit buffer

 

      TX a Message from Buffer:

      Right Click on "T" to bring up Buffer window

      Type your message in Buffer window

      Click SEND READY FOR TX ("M" turns pink)

      Click TX (message is sent)

      Click ENTER to stop transmission

      Click X to Exit buffer    

 

Find Olivia Stations: DX-SPOT

      Connect to Internet with the Olivia MFSK Online Finder page

      http://n1su.com/olivia_online.html 

      to see Stations on Olivia, & show others you are operating Olivia.

      type: Call - Freq. - Locator - Text ie. T32 BW1000 M16 - Click Submit

      Other Stations will answer on Online Table over Internet with their: Call, Freq,

      location and text message.

      Use the Update Form Data Text message window to pass-on any additional information:

       before, during or after QSO.

 

MUF Charts:  http://www.arrl.org/qst/propcharts/

DX Summit:    http://oh2aq.kolumbus.com/dxs/

DX Spots:        http://hamcall.net/dxspots  (input from DX Summit)

DX-Telnet v5.2 http://www.golist.net

DX Spot: http://www.ng3k.com/misc/cqc2005.html

DX Scape: http://www.dxscape.com/ww.html

DX ers: http://www.dxers.info/index.php

Reflector:       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oliviadata/ 

TQSLCert v1.11 ARRL.632 © 2001-2005 TrustedQSL Library v2.0 wxWindows 2.4.2

SACMan Cabrillo manual log v2.11

 

 

Characteristics:

     Doesn't tollerate coherant interferance & non-uniform freq.response.

     Good with weak signals

     S/N: Decodes signals that are 10db below noise (w/1000Hz bandwidth).

     MFSK 15 wpm  FEC: Welsh 64 point, to represent 7-bit ASCII

     Tones: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 (increase for bad propagation)

     Bandwidth set: 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000

     M (auto-tune): 2 (+/- 31.2 Hz) , 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 156

     For the Signal to Noise performance, transmissions can still be

     decoded when the signal is 10 db below the Noise, where the Noise

     power is measured within the 1000Hz bandwidth.

 

The received signal parameters

S/N: is calculated by the Walsh function decoder: at the last stage, 64-bit Walsh functions are decoded into 7-bit characters (like in MT63). The decoder performs a fast Hadamard Transform on each vector and then picks up the strongest value – this is called signal. The RMS (Root Mean Square) of the other 63 values are the measure of the noise. Signal divided by (the RMS of) the noise makes the number that is displayed on the screen. Actually, signal and noise are being averaged over several characters for a fairer representation of the signal.

The important thing is that critical S/N is around 3: when you see 3.5-4 you are at the limit. But when you see 6 or more, (300+ is not uncommon) you are safe, the copy will most likely be perfect. Use the S/N indication to improve your reception setup: antenna, preamplifier, filter, notch, AGC, etc.

Frequency offset tells you the frequency difference between the transmitter and the receiver. The current code provides only a rough measure: to within half the tone spacing, that is 15 Hz for the default mode of 32 tones in 1000 Hz.

The mfsk_trx displays it this way: +78.1/125.0 Hz and this means: your receiver is tuned 78 Hz too high but the margin is 125 Hz thus you are still safe. But when you see +125 Hz/125Hz this means: you are 125 Hz up and at the limit, thus you may loose the transmission is your mistune increases for any reason. In such case you may try to tune your receiver down very slowly (like 1 Hz/second) but better retune your receiver quickly in a pause between transmissions or when you are switching between receive and transmit.

Time offset is there to monitor the timing stability that is basically whether the sampling rates of the transmitter or receiver soundcards are same. Observe this number for like 20-30 seconds and see by how much is moved. If it is same all the time, then your card has same sampling rate as the one at the transmitter. But if the number moves like by 30 ms during 30 seconds this means that your card is off by 30 ms/30 sec = 0.001 = 0.1% (actually it can be the other card that is off or both). You can the correct the sampling rate with the –R option.

For the default mode (32 tones, 1000 Hz) the difference like 0.1% is still OK, but 0.5-1.0% is already bad and it needs correction, otherwise you will see very bad S/N and lot of errors on receive. As well your correspondent(s) will see low S/N and receive errors on his screen. Soundcards can be very much off the nominal frequency: mine is like 8100 Hz !

 

References:

     http://n1su.us/olivia  (a how to)

     http://n1su.us/olivia_online.html (find others on Olivia)

     http://members.aol.com/f6cte/index_anglais.htm (Multipsk v3.9)

     http://www.hharc.org/amsftware.htm (test software)

     http://dx.qsl.net/propagation

     MixW v2.16b8.exe http://mixw.net/beta/beta8/MixW216b8.exe

     MixW Modes http://mixw.net/beta/modes.zip

     VK2DSG [email protected]   (ver. 1 Beta)

     Olivia/Multipsk v3.11: http://multipsk.eqth.org/index.html

     DominoEX http://www.qsl.net/zl1bpu/domino/index.htm

     US Packet: http://www.uspacket.org/plan_a.html

     Hamshack LINUX-Knoppix operating system 528MB CD $5.00 http://www.cheapbytes.com/  

 

Identify Digital Radio Sounds:

     http://www.wunclub.com/sounds

     http://det.biehu.es/~jtpjatae/sound.html

     http://home.teleport.com/~nb6z/audio.htm

 

 Signals Analysis/Decoding/Demodulation:

     Monteria http://www.montariallc.com/company.htm

     RFSPACE http://www.rfspace.com/sdr14.html

     HOKA Code300-32 http://www.hoka.com/

   

Test equipment software:

     WinDRM 18-dec-06 zip http://n1su.com/windrm/download.htm

    Audio Signal Analyser: SpectrumLab v2.4 b29 (speclab24b29.zip)  www.xs4all.nl/~nl9222/software.htm 

    Oscilloscope, Dual-trace: WinScope 2.51 ( osc251.zip)  www.electronicsaustralia.com.au/cgi-bin/downloads.pl?area=5

    Spectrogram v5.0.8  (gram517.zip)  http://neasmn.org/ben/software/software.htm 

    Spectrogram v4.2.6  (gram426.zip)

    GSpec v1.0 http://wwww.ozemail.com.au/~jwsamin

    Analyzer 2000 v5.04  (Pay for)      www.dxzone.com 

WinDRM setup:

      Click Setup – Display - Waterfall

Spectrogram setup:

      Click on GRAM4264 Icon (spectrogram window is activated)

      Click FILE

      Click F3 Scan Input (set Scan Input parameters)

      Click OK (view signals on frequency) set VFO that receive signal to start at 400Hz

      To Exit: Click STOP - FILE - EXIT

Joe AA3EU