Wish List Item for New Version...

[Burt]

Bob,

We discussed this a while back, but I thought I'd bring it up again. I would like to see the vertical line (Data point cursor) remain at the same frequency where I set it in an original scan, for each re-scan when using the same "limits." As I recall, in earlier versions it used to work this way. When I'm adjusting a network or an antenna, I'll do a re-scan after each adjustment. As it is now, after each re-scan the cursor returns to the middle of the span and I need to re-position it back to the frequency of interest. Is there a setting to turn this feature on/off that I've missed seeing?

Thanks,

Burt, K6OQK

[Bob]

Hi Burt,
In the new version of the program, the cursor stays at the last position unless it was right against the left or right vertical axis. When it's against the axis, it's almost invisible, that's why it gets repositioned in that special case. Otherwise, it stays where you left it.

Note: the cursor can be always active and move when the mouse moves, or it can be stationary and moves only when the mouse button is pressed.
This option is selected on the Setup Menu.

When tuning an antenna, consider the Point Data mode. It updates the data much faster than a regular scan.
For multiband antennas, several Markers can defined for each band and you can watch the SWR gauges while making adjustments to see the interactions between bands.

The latest update of the program is almost ready for beta testing.  I'll let you know.

--73/Bob

[Burt]

Bob,

I'm familiar with the cursor setting. I prefer to have it want the left mouse button pushed to move it, that way I don't wind up dragging the cursor all over when I pass the mouse over the trace. The antenna systems I typically work with are AM and FM broadcast. I've used the Data Point Mode and will try it again.

Thanks,

Burt

[smokchsr]

Burt, as a side note, if you haven't tried using the "Point Data" and tune function you might want to give that a whirl. It allows you to see what you are doing as you are tuning. That way you just make the next scan to confirm what you did. While it doesn't give you the full display it does give a VSWR graph and the R & J values. It bounces a bit, but with a bit a mind interpolation you can generally hit the target pretty fast.

Now I see Bob, said about the same thing in the second portion of his post, but yes it does work.

Bob, It seems the point data may now be buffered a bit by the "Average" setting, if so that's a good thing, as it can get really bouncy when your working into a big stick.

[Burt]

Alan,

I played with the data points, recycling and different amounts of averaging. It does work quite nicely, and of course, depending on the particular situation, the desired amount of averaging will change.

Burt

[smokchsr]

Bob, while Burt is bringing up new things, a long time back we talked about a split screen function. That would be where you could scan as an example .75-.85 in one half of the screen and 1.21-1.31 in the other half. That would be quite helpful with working with diplexers and or duplexors (even up in 2M).

[Bob]

The split screen sounds interesting.
Please send me some screen shots marked up to show how this will look and describe the process how the user would enter the scanning parameters.

--73/Bob

[smokchsr]

For the split screen, where I currently have it is on my Spectrum Analyzer. What it does is simply squeeze two output screens side by side on the display.

I would think the best way to implement this would be to put a "Split" button on the limits entry page that would then allow the entry of 2 different set's of scan parameters.

Here you see a standard screen, it's a typical SA display.



In the split mode you see where I was adjusting two traps using the swept generator into the SA. With the split I was able to concentrate on the fine tuning of each notch simultaneously. I think you can see how that would be handy when tuning traps and Diplexors where each filter needs to have the pass and reject frequency set.