DATV equipment capability

This page attempts to document the capabilities of common DATV transmit and receive equipment. It will be continually updated as improvements are made to equipment and software.

Portsdown transmit system

The following describes the system capability but will require the correct level of Portsdown software and SDR firmware.

Portsdown 4

Portsdown system hosted on Raspberry Pi4 running xxxx OS

Lime Mini SDR

• Frequency coverage 30 and 3500 MHz.

• Output level with standard Lime 1.30 Firmware: 71 – 1300 MHz adjustable around +10 dBm. 2400 MHz +4 dBm, 3400 MHz -11 dBm.

• Output level with 1.30 and the LimeDVB overlay is -6dB but allows higher SRs and also has a much cleaner output spectrum.

• DVB-S and DVB-S2 (MPEG-2 and H264) only.

Note - Watch for high power calibration spike at start of transmissions. More info at https://wiki.batc.org.uk/Using_LimeSDR_with_Portsdown

Pluto SDR

• Frequency coverage 70 MHz and 4100 MHz (for DATV – will work up to 6 GHz for narrowband and SigGen).

• DVB-S and DVB-S2 plus DVB-T

• Expected Output levels for DVB-S2 = 71 MHz -3 dBm. 146 MHz 0 dBm. 437 MHz +3 dBm. 1255 MHz +2 dBm. 2400 MHz 0 dBm. 3400 MHz -1 dBm.

Firmware notes:

• Requires range extension and dual core hack before use. https://wiki.analog.com/university/tools/pluto/users/customizing also https://www.ph4x.com/pluto-sdr-hack-2nd-cpu-core/

• Analog Devices firmware version V31 or V32 are OK for narrowband and DVB-T: https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/plutosdr-fw/releases/tag/v0.32

• For DVB-S and DVB-S2, specific firmware is required (F5OEO’s FIRM2101RC of 5 February 2020: https://wiki.batc.org.uk/Portsdown_4_Pluto#Suitable_Pluto_Firmware ). This also works for DVB-T.

DATVexpress hardware

• DVB - S only, covers 70 MHz to 2450 MHz. More info here https://www.datv-express.com/

• Output level approx +10 dBm over full frequency range.