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MICROWAVELENGTHS  PAUL WADE, W1GHZ, W1GHZ ARRL.  ORG BANDSCOPES,
WATERFALLS, AND SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIOS  PANORAMIC FREQUENCY DISPLAYS, LIKE
PANADAPTERS, ARE USEFUL FOR MONITORING BAND ACTIVITY, PARTICULARLY DURING
OPENINGS AND CONTESTS.  IN THE OCTOBER 2013 MICROWAVELENGTHS COLUMN, FIGURE
3 SHOWED A DISPLAY OF ACTIVITY DURING THE 2012 ARRL EME CONTEST.  FOR
MICROWAVE OPERATION, SIMILAR DISPLAYS ARE ALSO USEFUL, PARTICULARLY FOR
FINDING AND COPYING VERY WEAK SIGNALS.  THE OLDER PANADAPTERS WERE ANALOG
DISPLAYS, USUALLY PAIRED WITH A SPECIFIC RECEIVER.  SOME RECENT
TRANSCEIVERS INCLUDE A SMALL PANADAPTER DISPLAY ON THE LCD FRONT PANEL.
BUT MODERN SDR TOOLS PROVIDE A SIMPLE AND INEXPENSIVE WAY TO BOOST YOUR
WEAK SIGNAL WORK.  THE ADVENT OF SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIOS SDR BRINGS ENOUGH
COMPUTING POWER TO THE RECEIVER FOR MUCH MORE SOPHISTICATED AND CAPABLE
BANDSCOPE DISPLAYS.  EVEN BETTER, WE CAN REALIZE THE BENEFITS OF AN SDR
WITHOUT HAVING TO BUY A WHOLE NEW RADIO.  AN EXAMPLE OF AN SDR WITH A
TRADITIONAL PANORAMIC FREQUENCY DISPLAY IS SHOWN IN FIGURE 1, USING THE
HDSDR WWW. HDSDR. DE PROGRAM.  A 10 GHZ BEACON SIGNAL FROM MT MANSFIELD IN
VERMONT STANDS OUT IN THE MAIN DISPLAY, WHICH COVERS 80 KHZ THE SIGNAL WAS
SO STRONG THAT IT CAUSED SOME SPURIOUS RESPONSES IN MY RECEIVER.  IN THE
LOWER RIGHT IS THE SSB PASSBAND, SHOWING THE FILTER SHAPE AND ALSO A
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