My headless TEF has been built and will soon be on its way to Sydney from the Netherlands. I will use it to replace my TVCL2 TEF as, apparently, it’s a bit more sensitive than the Chinese-made TEFs. The TEF currently on TVCL2 will move to TVCL3 which will resolve the audio quality issues on TVCL3.
With the leftover TEF, I’ll probably either use it as a portable tuner or maybe set up a TVCL4 TEF server .
Hopefully the headless TEF will arrive before I leave for overseas in early December :. Otherwise I won’t be able to switch it over until when I get back a month later in January.
Enjoy your trip @tvcl. Just some advice, if the headless TEF for TVCL2 comes before you leave, make sure to take the one from TVCL3 with you on your overseas trip, as you could pick up some radio stations from wherever you go on it.
Hey, possible solution for “inverted phase” audio and therefore no need to buy a new radio!
I myself never noticed as I prefer using modules instead of radios, but someone else has pointed out the cause to be MPX mode. I tested it on my blue TEF radio and indeed one channel did become inverted. Maybe it’s automatic depending on impedance input, or maybe it was on MPX the whole time? I don’t know but apparently some have a habit of switching to MPX.
Anyway, go into the Audio menu and change MPX to Stereo.
Thanks for forwarding this info. This should bring some great relief to a couple (or more) of our users with that problem or any others in future experiencing this issue.
Thanks for that! Mine was already set to stereo but I toggled it to MPX and back again in case that makes a difference. I think it sounds better? I’m not sure – I can’t check the waveform right now.
Server #3 wasn’t it? Looks and sounds good now. I don’t think it’s (completely) human error, something is causing it to switch, we just don’t know exactly what it is yet.
Yep. TVCL3. I think it sounds better also. I guess that’s probably what all the small wobbles in the waveform on the right channel were (the audio above 16 kHz showing up as interference <16 kHz).
So it seems even when it says it’s in stereo mode, it might still be in MPX mode. Hopefully it’ll stay in stereo mode now.
Well @tvcl is getting a new headless TEF to replace the one currently on TVCL2 because it’s believed to be more sensitive (to allow for better and potentially longer-range FM DXing) than the Chinese-made TEFs. As for the TEF currently on TVCL2, looks like that will either be part of a new TVCL4 FM webserver or will simply become a portable receiver, or it could still make the move over to TVCL3 as advertised.
Possible change of plan. Since I’ll soon have 4 TEFs, I’ve acquired another three FM yagis to supplement the one I currently have for a total of 4 FM yagis.
The hard part will be finding an installer willing to do a custom install and for a price I can afford. Ideally, what I’d like to do is to put up a 3-metre mast. Also, I live in a duplex, so only have half the roof – so not sure about whether there’s enough space for the guy wires.
The plan is to have four antennas spaced ~50cm apart vertically (hopefully that’s enough for them not to interfere with one another). The antennas will be pointed roughly:
North: For Gosford/Newcastle, North Coast tropo and Queensland E-skip
East: For New Zealand E-skip
West: For Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange, and tropo from Parkes, Dubbo and Mudgee
South: For Wollongong/Nowra and South Coast tropo; maybe also Goulburn and Canberra tropo (perhaps orienting this one half way between Wollongong and Goulburn? There’s about 25 degrees’ difference between them at my location)
They’ll probably have to be mounted horizontally since they’ll all be on the same pole. Not sure how well the vertical stations from Gosford will come in with the antenna in horizontal polarisation though (Coast, Rhema, Today’s Country, Easy FM). Maybe the north-facing one should be vertically polarised?
I also got another UHF antenna so I’m tempted to put it up on the pole as well to try to catch Newcastle TV, even if it’s not a permanent thing.
In any case, if this happens at all, it won’t happen until next year when I get back from overseas.
Perhaps if guy wires are an issue on a shared roof, maybe consider a small winch mast on a small lattice mast base mast mounted on solid concrete base & wind up when dx around when there’s no wind, but keep down whenever you’re away or when winds are around. Or a telescopic mast when no winds around or maybe consider paying your neighbour for rental of roof space for guy wires or offer to mow their lawns for use of the roof for guy wires. Just a few thoughts
Overnight it switched itself back to MPX mode :/. I won’t be able to keep flipping it back manually since I’ll be heading overseas. Is it possible to send a command over the COM port to toggle it?
I’m not sure the neighbour would be happy with how a 3m antenna mast + 4 FM yagis would look on the roof so I don’t think I’d want to bug them about it in the first place .
Good question, I don’t know if there is currently a command for that. I see you’re in discord so hopefully you get some answers there. I’m thinking there could be a solution the dev guy could code.
Currently have the TEF plugged into my old yuloop / magnetic loop setup originally for my RTL-SDR module. The name / callsign is just an imaginary one, but easy to to pick it out.
Its not public just yet as I need to figure out the technical legwork behind getting it publicly accessible, as my ISP uses CG-NAT port forwarding isn’t an option sadly.
My only suggestion, whether or not you want to go down this path, is free, but does require your credit card. But, as long as you stick to the Free Tier, you should never have to pay a cent.
And that involves using Oracle Cloud. There are local servers in Melbourne and Sydney. There’s a “pinned” pdf guide in the FMDX Discord under the quick-support channel.
Thanks for the tip, I’m in the discord so I’ll have a look at that guide. The good thing is I already have a VPS running in Melbourne so I can just utilise that
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