I am considering setting up a Kiwi SDR in a quiet location for SOTA chasing. A lot of the existing ones seem to be in very noisy locations and are thus a bit pointless. Has anyone here used a Kiwi SDR for chasing? Any pitfalls? How does the latency work out?
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Wasn’t there an issue with these whereby the proprietor could access any kiwi sdr device remotely?
If I’m wrong, let me know and I’ll delete this!
Incidentally, the current SDRs are listed here: http://kiwisdr.com/public/
And this list is in order of some sort of s/n metric: KiwiSDR signal-to-noise scores
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Not KiwiSDR but I use OpenWebRX on my remote SDR (various types supported - Soapy abstracts this). I have these running on Pi4 (with acceptable performance) and an older ultra-small-form-factor Dell (good performance). Latency is of the order 0.5 s which is not a big deal. The detected power display is near enough real time, so if I watch that I can key up and start waffling whilst the last couple of words of the over are still coming in!
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This is something that I’ve considered doing at my field (which is reasonably quiet from an RF point of view).
The only reason that I haven’t done it is down to cost & the security concern. I had some solar panels stolen the last time I tried to do something similar!
Even with a decent quality, high-z vertical it would be better than my home station. I’m guessing that it could be hidden fairly discretely too…might be worth having another look at it.
Would be interested to hear how you get on with this project.
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Huh… What a great idea… I run a WISP (Wireless internet service provider) and I have towers with enclosures all over the Southeast US with internet and back up power. I might could have them open to SOTAers as well. The Kiwi is a great radio, but a tad expensive. The RSPPlay is cheaper and a dandy radio. I set a port number to the radio and bam we are rocking.
Presently running a Flex 6300 remotely without issue. Guess it all depends on the internet connection you have.
Kent K9EZ
Hi @G3CWI Richard, I hope your keeping well! I have a kiwiSDR set in a location that is 1650ft ASL in the Welsh mountains. I run it purely on solar power with a 4G router and SIM card. It seems to work a treat with zero noise! I’m usually in the top 20 kiwi’s for signal to noise ratio! I don’t use it myself to be honest, but it’s there for everyone to help there self’s. Please find link below to access it and have a play! Just note, we had heavy snow here today, to if there is some noise on the receive, that will be snow on the antenna. The kiwiSDR covers 1.6MHz to 30MHz. Enjoy!
sdrmark.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073
73, GW4BML. Ben
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Maybe its pilot error on my part but this link seems to go nowhere that resembles a web SDR!
Apologies @W6PNG Paul, I have it on a timer, so it switches off between 01:00 and 04:00 BST. I will change it in the next week so it operates 24/7, in that way everyone can use it all over the world. It works fine for me now, I’ve just tested it.
73, GW4BML. Ben
Just been on the KiwiSDR and worked OK for me. No idea what half the stuff is though…
Thanks Ben. That’s the sort of setup our Club envisages. Solar powered. I hope to run my digipeater up there full time too.
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Your very welcome. I have my digipeater in a different location, but I’m about to install a wind turbine at the SDR site, if this creates more power, I will look to move the digipeater. If you need any help on setting the kiwiSDR up, just PM me.
73, GW4BML. Ben