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-
- #: 80458 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 25-Aug-88 17:01:04
- Sb: #80382-Rick's UID
- Fm: Barry McLarnon VE3JF 71470,3651
- To: Rick Hambly WB2TNL 72117,3530
-
- Duly noted. Thanks Rick. Seldom send any messages, eh? Time to set some bait
- then! How about some thoughts from you on what principles we should be
- following in designing DSP modems for HF? How would you do 300 bps and
- (especially) what about 1200 or higher?
-
- Barry
-
- PS: How are things at ARINC these days? Is HF ACARS still alive and kicking?
-
- #: 80551 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 27-Aug-88 00:58:22
- Sb: Hardware Progress
- Fm: Lyle Johnson, WA7GXD 76246,565
- To: DSPers
-
- We are busily working out systems level issues on the hardware design. Chuck
- is finishng s detail on the PACSAT CPU, then will do layout in earnest for the
- DSP 1.
-
- We are designing around the Ten Tec B series all metal cabinet. We plan on a
- PC board on the rear panel to do all I/O and translate all levels to CMOS and
- -5/+5 analog. Connectors planned are (2) DA-15S for radio I/O (PTT, Tx Audio,
- Rx Audio, RFDCD, GND, UP to +5v, UP to GND, DOWN to +5V, DOWN to GND, another
- GND, two CMOS outputs from the DSP board, two CMOS outputs from the GPP board,
- one spare -- the UP and DOWN are for microphone tuning ala the PSK modem); (2)
- DC-37S (one for 16 bit high speed DSP input, one for 16 bit high speed DSP
- output); (1) DB25S for Centronics printer output (same pinout as IBM PC printer
- port); (1) DE9S for RS232 serial I/O (same connector as IBM PC/AT); (1) DIN
- 8-pin for modem disconnect that corresponds to PSK modem; (4) RCA phono
- connectors - 2 for speaker inputs (radio 1 and radio 2) one for CW output + to
- GND, one for CW output - grid block keying; (1) power connector like TNC 2.
-
- If you think we need any other I/O on this thing for the first pass, let us kno
- ASAP! The I/O board getslayed out first!
-
- We are also planning a front panel PC board. Will have several LEDs, some
- predefined some undefined, a 16-position thumbwhhel switch for application
- selection; reset, power and maybe a couple undefined switches.
-
- Comments?
-
- #: 80591 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 27-Aug-88 23:11:15
- Sb: PIII.ASM
- Fm: John Conner WD0FHG 72165,743
- To: Bob McGwier N4HY 74615,1366
-
- Bob;
-
- Had a call this afternoon (also yesterday but not at home) from Junior
- DeCastro, PY2BJO. He received his disk ok and seemed quite pleased with them.
- A couple of other hams were in the background playing with Phil's most
- important contribution to ham radio |->.
-
- His big question was how do you use PIII.ASM. I told him I'd send you a message
- asking for more info. I gather he is on AMSAT Telemail, send any thing you
- have there (and copy it here).
-
- I am having Andy send him the current PSR if he is not on the TAPR list (we'll
- check the mailing list for others).
-
- Guess you are on the way home from what Andy said. I'll be in Montreal for the
- next two weeks. Will try to check in here. Won't be as easy late next spring,
- looks like I'll be spending two to three MONTHS in Beijing and at least two
- weeks in India. (If I can get all of the 10 year old digital filters to run on
- the new machines.)
-
- Do you know Parks or Burris by any chance???
-
- John
-
- #: 80704 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 30-Aug-88 02:00:09
- Sb: microsat reset PROM
- Fm: Franklin Antonio, N6NKF 76337,1365
- To: Lyle Johnson 76246,565
-
- I finished a C program to generate the microsat reset PROM contents tonite, &
- shipped it (electronically) to WB6HHV. He will check it for sanity, then burn
- a PROM & test it.
-
- One thing we noted tonite, while looking over the latest schematics.. We're
- concerned about the level-sensitive use of the reset output of the reset PROM.
- It is intended that the PROM get its clock & data input directly from the
- manchester decoder chip. This means that depending on the design of the modem,
- or whether the modem is working there may not be a clock to the PROM. So, in a
- case like this, the PROM might just sit in the state where the reset output is
- low (true). One simple solution would be to capacitively couple the reset
- output of the PROM to the reset input of 555 watchdog. This adds only 1
- capacitor, and i think it fixes all cases.
-
- #: 80748 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 30-Aug-88 21:28:13
- Sb: #80591-PIII.ASM
- Fm: Bob McGwier N4HY 74615,1366
- To: John Conner WD0FHG 72165,743
-
- No I don't know either one of them. Wish I did. The PARK-BURRUS algorithms
- for the TMS320C10 are what I am adapting to the Model 10. They need two
- things: TBLW and TBLR to program memory rather than the I/O read to memory and
- we need one half more butterfly to do a half size complex FFT (N/2) to do a
- size N FFT on real data. That is taking work to get it efficient. I have let
- it slide while a lot of PACSAT software goes on.
-
- On PIII.ASM, it needs a PC based program that recognizes sync vectors, idles,
- and then decodes data blocks. Phil has just such a beast but it has too much
- dangerous information in it. I will attempt to get that stuff going without
- the dangerous stuff in it and then it will be easy to use it with the AO-13
- beacon.
-
- I want to reiterate that all of this stuff is going to slide until the PACSAT
- obligations are fulfilled.
-
- Bob
-
-
-
-
- #: 80751 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 30-Aug-88 21:28:50
- Sb: back on
- Fm: Bob McGwier N4HY 74615,1366
- To: All
-
- I am back on from NJ Bob
-
-
-
-
- #: 80752 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 30-Aug-88 21:42:05
- Sb: #80704-#microsat reset PROM
- Fm: Lyle Johnson, WA7GXD 76246,565
- To: Franklin Antonio, N6NKF 76337,1365 (X)
-
- Franklin,
-
- Yes, I agree that we should couple this capacitively. Will we need any gating
- to add two or three reset proms rather than only one? I think there was some
- concern expressed in Boulder that one is great but two or three are wonderful
- in case a receiver channel goes out and the spacecraft goes berserk...
-
- Anyway, sounds like good progress. We need to get the schematic to Jim, WA4ONG
- so he can include it on the PC board layout.
-
- Cheers,
-
- Lyle
-
- *** There is a reply: 80760
-
- *** More ***
-
- #: 80760 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 30-Aug-88 23:43:33
- Sb: #80752-microsat reset PROM
- Fm: Franklin Antonio, N6NKF 76337,1365
- To: Lyle Johnson, WA7GXD 76246,565
-
- We agree that it's a good idea to have reset proms on 2 channels. Haven't
- given thought to problem of oring the reset signals tgether. My offhand guess
- is that we need a gate. I keep thinking there ought to be a way to do it with
- a 2nd capacitor instead of a gate, but i don't see how to make that work yet.
-
-
- #: 80756 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 30-Aug-88 22:28:51
- Sb: #Rick's UID
- Fm: Rick Hambly WB2TNL 72117,3530
- To: Barry McLarnon VE3JF 71470,3651 (X)
-
- Just a quick reply to let you know I'mm relly here. No HF ACARS is not alive
- and well, but I hope it's only dormant. There is E-ACARS (enhanced VHF) and
- I-ACARS (International i.e.: Satcom). Long story.
-
- I designed an HF modem for Harris Corp. a few years ago. The "right way" is
- either "serial" or "Parallel". Serial modem is single tone with 8-phase + AM
- modulation (or variant) with real-time adaptive equalization. Not practical
- for anyone much less hams ($50K per modem). "Parallel" uses many tones in 3KHz
- bandwidth. Optimum baud rate is 40 to 100. The modem I did was 44.44 baud,
- QPSK, 39 tones, which gives 44.44 * 2 * 39 = 3466 bps. With appropriate FEC
- this gave 2400 bps effective user throughput with near perfec copy in the worst
- of conditions. However, the training sequence (preamble) was long and the FEC
- and interleaving (at lower rates) caused delays which were not compatible with
- our concept of "packet radio". The problems are much like satellite link
- delays only worse.
-
- Tom had an interesting and potentially inexpensive way to get some of the
- benefits without all the cost. The efficiency (data rate/BW) was not as good,
- but it might be far better than what we have available and at a cost which the
- DSP project can handle. I don't want to steal his thunder so I'll leave that
- idea for him to describe for now.
-
- For a variety of reasons I am particularly interested in any work (HF or VHF)
- using MSK modulation.
-
- Rick.
-
-
-
- *** There is a reply: 80761
-
- *** More ***
-
- #: 80761 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 30-Aug-88 23:51:07
- Sb: #80756-Rick's UID
- Fm: Franklin Antonio, N6NKF 76337,1365
- To: Rick Hambly WB2TNL 72117,3530
-
- Hello Rick. My concern with "parallel" modems for amateur radio use has always
- been the high peak-to-average power ratio of the multitone signal. The typical
- ham HF rig is peak power limited. If we generate a signal with 20:1
- peak-to-average power ratio, then the average power out of the xmitter has to
- be backed off at least 13db. Any comments on this issue?
-
- #: 80806 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 01-Sep-88 01:38:38
- Sb: #80748-PIII.ASM
- Fm: Paul Williamson, KB5MU/6 75265,367
- To: Bob McGwier N4HY 74615,1366
-
- Do we need somebody who knows Parks and Burrus? I was a student of Parks and
- had some extracurricular contact with Burrus, both at Rice. They might even
- remember me!
-
- #: 80839 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 01-Sep-88 22:58:44
- Sb: #80806-PIII.ASM
- Fm: Bob McGwier N4HY 74615,1366
- To: Paul Williamson, KB5MU/6 75265,367 (X)
-
- Don't know why John Connor asked. I am sure he will light up if you can be of
- help there.
-
- Bob
-
- #: 80974 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 04-Sep-88 14:13:27
- Sb: #Parallel Modems
- Fm: Rick Hambly WB2TNL 72117,3530
- To: Franklin Antonio, N6NKF 76337,1365 (X)
-
- I agree that the peak-to-average ratio of a parallel, muti-tone modem appears
- at first to be a serious problem. It takes a great deal of analysis, but for
- the 39-tone military modem I worked on we found that base band clipping of 10 -
- 15 db (if memory serves) generated so little distortion as to be of no concern.
- This left us with acceptable waveform. You don't think the problem was any less
- for a 10KW HF military transmitter? It becomes one of cubic $$$'s.
-
- Tom's idea is a one-of-many (e.g.: 1 of 16) scheme which avoids the
- peak-to-average problem, but lacks some of the modulation to data rate
- compression - 1 of 16 has a 4:1 rate comression which gives only 300 bps for 75
- baud. At least the 300bps would propagate on 80 meters which is more than it
- does now. A 16 tone QPSK waveform gives 32:1 rate compression which could
- support 2400bps with 100 baud and have room for FEC. But the peak-to-average
- power problem is back. Note the FEC - in part it helps overcome the errors due
- to amplitude clipping. There is an optimum balance between clipping which ups
- the average power and the use of FEC which provides coding gain.
-
-
-
- *** There are replies: 81034, 81050
-
- *** More ***
-
- #: 81034 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 05-Sep-88 11:25:59
- Sb: #80974-Parallel Modems
- Fm: Bob McGwier N4HY 74615,1366
- To: Rick Hambly WB2TNL 72117,3530
-
- Hiya Rick:
-
- Glad to see you on here. What's new? The HF modem work ought to move along
- after we get this PACSAT stuff behind us. It is gobbling valuable DSP time. If
- we could be guaranteed good SNR's, I could do the QPSK modem using several dB
- implementation loss versions of the modems. Clock recovery by zero crossings
- and not another PLL, and IIR filters with less than great group delay
- performance rather than FIR filters, etc. It just won't play if it doesn't
- OCCASIONALLY copy a weak signal anyway. Hams are super picky folks. I am
- already worrying about ONE of these signals occupying as much spectrum as 800
- Hz shift RTTY
-
- Bob
-
-
-
- *** More ***
-
- #: 81050 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 05-Sep-88 16:04:41
- Sb: #80974-Parallel Modems
- Fm: Franklin Antonio, N6NKF 76337,1365
- To: Rick Hambly WB2TNL 72117,3530
-
- I can see how the clipping can work with FEC, but i'm not sure i see how the
- clipping can work without FEC. Assuming you have lots of tones, the high peaks
- are low probability events, so the badness induced by clipping doesn't happen
- very often. ... but it still happens!
-
- Also, you mentioned "baseband" clipping. Unfortunately, unless the local
- oscillator is phase locked to whatever generated your baseband waveforms,
- baseband clipping does not imply that the RF waveform (frequency shifted
- version of the baseband waveform) is amplitude limited.
-
- #: 81161 S17/TAPR NNC/DSP
- 07-Sep-88 01:08:58
- Sb: #80974-Parallel Modems
- Fm: Tom Clark W3IWI 71260,3640
- To: Rick Hambly WB2TNL 72117,3530
-
- Hi Gang -- I've been over my head with PACSAT, work and getting ready for
- the networking conference (I'm sorta the local host, I guess, by default) so
- DSP has taken a back seat here too. At a work meeting last week when
- somebody tried to assign me a new task, my response was that it's going to
- be Thanksgiving before I have time to take a sh*t!
-
- Anyway on the HF modem thread -- another compromise idea that we bandied
- around a few months ago, which perhaps should be reconsidered: The 2- or 3-
- of N schemes compress more bits/baud and won't have as much problem with
- peak/avg power ratios. Good ole DTMF works pretty well with two one-of-four
- tones after all, and 4 bits/baud ain't that bad. Two one-of-6's would get
- 5 bits/baud, and two one-of-8's would get 6 bits/baud.
-
- Clearly for the HF world we want to shoot for a decent bit rate at a rate
- of 50 baud or less to get thru nasty old multi-path.
-
- 73, Tom