Nothern Utah WebSDR Logo - A skep with a Yagi Northern Utah WebSDR
Technical Info

This WebSDR server is located near the town of Corinne, Utah, U.S.A., about 60 miles (94km) north of Salt Lake City at an old HF research site.  The antenna used for the HF and MF bands is a TCI model 530, an omnidirectional Log-Periodic antenna feeding a custom-built receiver multi-coupler array that, in turn, distributes RF to a number of receivers.  For detailed technical information about the gear itself see the "RX Equipment" page.

A quick overview of amateur and shortwave broadcast bands covered by the Northern Utah WebSDR WebSDR system:
 The Northern Utah WebSDR has another receive site located in the foothills of the mountains south and east of downtown Salt Lake City, covering the Salt Lake metro area and nearby mountain top repeaters that offers coverage on both 2 meters and 70cm:

Here's more information about the Northern Utah WebSDR servers and how they are covered:

Server #1 (Yellow) covers the following frequency ranges.
Server #2 (Green) covers the following frequency ranges.
 
 Server #3 (Blue) covers the following frequency ranges.


 Server #4 (Magenta) covers the following frequency ranges.

To distinguish the band names on this server from the others, they are named with a "-E" suffix indicating the use of an East-pointing antenna for reception.
 Server #5 (Teal) covers the following frequency ranges.

To distinguish the band names on this server from the others, they are named with a "-NW" suffix indicating the use of an NORTHWEST-pointing antenna for reception.
 The "Salt Lake Metro" server (Peach) covers the following frequency ranges:

S-Meter Calibration:

For all frequency bands other than the "AM-160M-120M" band the signal meter is calibrated to a nominal +/- 2dB of the actual signal level in dBm at the system's antenna input at the mid frequency of each amateur band.  The S-meter itself is calibrated to the IARU Region 1, Technical recommendation R.1 standard  where an S-9 signal is equal to 50 microvolts (-73dBm) in a 50 ohm system.  This calibration does not take into account the antenna gain or feedline losses nor does it currently take into account the slight roll-off that is present at the band-edges of the "SoftRock" type receiver+Sound card signal path.  At the input of the system is a -20dB tap where known signals are inserted when the system is active to allow calibration of the signal level metering without otherwise interrupting system operation.

On WebSDR #4, the S-meter is calibrated to the level at the antenna terminals and does not take into account the antenna pattern and gain.

Exceptions:

 
About the receive system:

The "Softrock" converters:

Many of the "High Performance" receivers use "Softrock" converters based on the QSDs (Quadrature Sampling Detectors) that uses analog switching chips as mixers with the resulting baseband (audio) being fed to an analog-digital converter (e.g. computer sound card.)  While simple, these devices - when coupled with a good-quality sound card and properly configured in terms of gain balancing and RF filtering - can have excellent performance.  The front-end circuitry of these devices is very similar to that of several current radios, including the Elecraft KX2, KX3 and K3, and they can have better dynamic range and noise properties (e.g. "NPR" - Noise Power Ratio) superior to many "direct sampling" radios such as the Icom IC-7300 and the KiwiSDR while giving high-end radios such as the Icom 7610 a run for their money.

This system uses the SoftRock kits sold at the "FiveDash" web site (link) - both the synthesized "SoftRock II Ensemble" and the crystal-controlled "SoftRock Lite II".  As far as the signal path goes, both of these receiver types are pretty much identical, aside from differences in input RF filtering:  Because all receivers on this system are preceded by a bandpass-type multi-coupler, this difference in front-end filtering is largely irrelevant as the multi-coupler itself has much "stronger" filtering than the receiver modules - or even most amateur band radios.

Go to the SoftRock receiver page for more information about these devices and how they are used.

Sound cards:

The "SoftRock" receivers (above) output baseband audio on two channels (e.g. I and Q) to produce a receive bandwidth that is about the same as the overall sample rate.  Because of this it's desirable to have the highest sample rate practical and the most common, high sample rate sound cards that are available operate at 192 ksps permitting the simultaneous reception of a similar RF bandwidth.  Finding reasonably-priced sound cards that also "play nice" with the somewhat limited driver support on Linux is a bit of a challenge,  but here are a few known examples that "play nice" with Ubuntu and ALSA:
For sound cards other than those listed above I have no experience and can make no recommendation either for or against.

Integrated sound card and receiver:

Some of the bands use the German-made FiFiSDR receiver.  This is a self-contained USB-based device that contains both a sound card and receiver with switchable RF filtering - and currently (January, 2020) it costs just $110 U.S. including shipping - about the same as a new 192 kHz-capable USB sound card.  Internally this receiver is a "SoftRock" design, complete with a frequency synthesizer for the local oscillator.  Note:  This receiver is no longer offered by its manufacturerer.

This receiver has been used successfully by several WebSDR systems - including the KFS WebSDR in Half Moon Bay, CA, which has used it exclusively for several years.

 Additional comments:

SDRPlay RSP receivers:

As of November, 2022 we added to the suite of "high performance" receivers, the "RSP" line produced by SDRPlay - namely the RSP1a.  With a cost of approximately US$120 at the time of writing, they are about the same price as the FiFiSDRs when those devices were available.  While typically used with the 8-bit "RTL-SDR" interface, with the work of several volunteers, we (at the Northern Utah WebSDR)have been able to produce drivers that allow these to be used with the 16 bit audio interface up to 192 kHz, providing an alternative to a "sound card+softrock" type of receiver.  Emperical testing indicates that the signal dynamics are on par with a typical "softrock+sound card" receiver - plus they have the added advantage of having an available AGC to better-accommodate both weak and strong-signal conditions.

Additional modificiations to some drivers/programs in the Linux operating system has permitted these same devices to operate at 384 and 768 kHz which means that most HF bands can be covered with a single receiver with the 16 bit interface.  This permits WebSDRs that had used several 192 kHz wide receivers to cover some of the bands (e.g. 80, 40, 20, 15) to, instead, use a single receiver:  With the "8 band" limit of the WebSDR, this means that some systems may be able to add more bands without sacrificing coverage or bit depth/receiver performance.

We have also tested the driver with (now-discontinued) RSP2 receivers and other than slightly different gain and LNA parameters, they work just fine.

Special USB Requirements for SDRPlay RSP receivers:

These receivers - at least when using the SDRPlay API - use a particular transfer mode that is only supported in limited fashion by any USB interface that we have tried:  Only ONE RSP receiver may be connected to any USB hub device.  What this means is that you may find that only one RSP receiver will work when two or more are plugged into adjacent USB ports.  Many computers have several clusters of four USB ports each - some on the back panel and some via plug-in interfaces on the motherboard and you may be able to operate one RSP device from each cluster.

For the most part, we are using plug-in boards that provide four USB ports, each using their own USB hub chip and the device that we have found to work reliably (so far!) is the "RocketU 1144" series.  So far, we have used the 1144B, 1144C and 1144D with good results - but we have not tried other in this series.  These cards require a full-height PCIE 2.0x4 slot, so you much check your computer's capabilities beforehand.

There IS a caution with using these cards:  There are versions that are described as being for RAID devices on MacIntosh computers and these have incompatible firmware on them and cannot be used as USB 3.0 interfaces - and we have not found any way to re-flash them to make them usable as USB devices:  Be wary of this if you buy these cards surplus.

See the "RX Equipment" page for more information about these receivers and their implementation on a WebSDR.


RTL-SDR dongles:

RTL-SDR dongles and similar devices are attractive in that they are inexpensive ($5-$30 for the basic device - more for those like the "Fun Cube Dongle" with additional filtering/amplification) and with their built-in frequency synthesizers and A/D converters, they do not need to use a sound card, they have very broad frequency coverage (typically a few hundred kHz in "direct sampling" mode to hundreds of MHz in normal "I/Q" mode - with a few gaps) and can reliably cover up to 2048 kHz of RF bandwidth via a USB 2.0 port - but the down side is that their dynamic range and noise properties are limited by the fact that they use A/D converters with only 8 bits of resolution.  What this means is that when used in situations where signal dynamics can vary widely (e.g. both very weak and very strong signals are present within the passband) their performance can be rather mediocre.  Despite this, they can be made to work "pretty well" over fairly wide bandwidths if appropriate gain balancing and filtering techniques (e.g. appropriate attenuation/gain, the notching of frequencies with very strong signals, judicious selection of sample rate, etc.) are used.

The RTL SDR dongles used on this system for wide-bandwidth (>2MHz) coverage are the "Version 3, Batch 2" units designed and sold by the "RTL-SDR Blog" folks.  While still subject to the same dynamic range limitations intrinsic to all devices based on RTL2832 chip, this particular design has been optimized as much as is practical to reduce internally-generated spurious signals.  This design also includes a 1 PPM TCXO frequency reference and an amplified and filtered "Direct sampling" signal path to allow continuous tuning from at below 500 kHz to 24 MHz (with a few caveats) in addition to the range from about 25 MHz to above 1700 MHz when its inboard frequency converter is used - all from a device costs only U.S.$20 or so.  For more information about where to get one of these device go to the RTL-SDR Blog "where to buy page" or, for a data sheet, go here.

If you are using any type of RTL-SDR dongle on HF:

It should be noted that if you wish to use any RTL-SDR type dongle of HF and you have some nearby transmitters on HF or in the AM broadcast band, care should be taken to prevent front-end overload.  If signals are very strong this overload can saturate the input signal path (possibly "peg" the A/D converter) - even at frequencies far removed where one is receiving.  What this means is that in many cases it will be required that a high pass filter designed to remove AM broadcast band signals (or better, a band-pass filter designed for the frequencies involved) should be used between the dongle and antenna.

Filtering on the RTL-SDR dongle RF inputs:

To optimize performance, a custom-built, adjustable AM broadcast band reject filter is used in front of the RTL-SDR dongles to reduce very strong signals in that area to prevent signal overload and make the most of their limited 8-bit A/D converter dynamic range.

This filter has an adjustable amount of "bypass" so that AM broadcast band signals aren't completely excluded, allowing reception of many signals within this frequency range as well as having several adjustable "notch" filters to reduce some of the very strong local signals down to levels that are in line with weaker, local stations.  By "flattening" the signal levels in the AM broadcast band to a narrower range of amplitudes best use may be made of these receivers' dynamics to allow the reception of a mix of the various signals within.  Signals outside the range of 500-1775 kHz are minimally affected, allowing sub-microvolt level signals outside the AM broadcast band to be received.  This filter is described in more detail on the "RX Equipment" page.

While higher performance QSDs-based devices such as the SoftRock receivers will (generally) be used for the busiest and most popular amateur bands covered by this WebSDR, RTL-SDR dongles may be employed on "new" bands to evaluate their popularity and usefulness prior to the (possible) addition of that amateur band using more expensive, higher-performance hardware - or as a cheap way to add some extra frequency coverage!

Recently (as of February, 2019) some of the bands using RTL-SDR dongles are using an integrated bandpass filter and AGC gain block to limit the maximum signal to the RTL dongle.  This unit allows a higher signal level to be applied to the dongle to improve weak-signal reception (particularly when the bands are "quiet") while preventing them from being overloaded if very strong signals are present - such as those of high-power shortwave broadcast stations.  At present these are being used on the "90-80M", "60M", "41-40M" and "30M" bands and they have allowed the RTL-SDR based signal chains work better than expected.  (A more technical description of this module will be posted in the future.)

Go to the RTL-SDR receiver page for more information about the RTL-SDR dongles and how they are used.

There are other web-accessible receivers on-site, namely the KiwiSDRs, that share the same antenna(s):  For more information about these receivers go to the KiwiSDR FAQ.

Do you want even more information about the receive system and its bits and pieces?

For more information than you probably wanted to know about the various components that make up the RF and receiver sub-systems, visit the RX Equipment page (Link).

The omnidirectional log periodic antenna at the Northern Utah WebSDR, at sunset in early April.  This is a view to the southeast with "Vees" of honking geese being visible in the sky.
Click on the image for a larger version.
The Omnidirectional log periodic antenna at the Northern Utah WebSDR

About the antenna(s):

The "main" antenna:

The antenna being used for reception on most of the bands by WebSDRs 1, 2 and 3 is a TCI Model 530 Omnidirectional Log Periodic antenna.  Centered about a 94 foot tower, this antenna consists of two separate broad-band (3-30 MHz) log-periodic arrays arranged 90 degrees apart from each other as viewed from above.  The result of this element arrangement is a pattern that is nearly omnidirectional toward the horizon with a main lobe providing up to 6dBi gain at relatively high take-off angles.  This antenna is more-or-less circularly-polarized over its design frequency range (at lower angles of radiation) which means that it is generally agnostic to the polarization of the signal being received.

This antenna is designed for "short-to-medium" range HF communications, but as a receive antenna it can still function well at greater distances, over a wider frequency range than its transmit design specifications:  It is, in fact, being used for reception on the 160 Meter (1800-2000 kHz) and 630 Meter (471-479 kHz) amateur bands with excellent results.   More information about this antenna may be found here (.PDF, 1.8 Meg.)

The log-periodic beams:

The log periodic beam antenna at the Northern Utah WebSDR.
This antenna is fixed on an 87° (true north) heading.
This picture was taken before the KLM antenna was installed.
Click on the image for a larger version.
The LP-1002 log periodic beam antenna at the Northern Utah WebSDR
THe LP-1002:

Atop the 82' tower there is a large, non-rotatable, log-periodic beam (Hy-Gain/U.S. Antenna Products LP-1002 - data here) that has a heading of 87° (true) - almost due east - and this is what is being used for WebSDR #4 as of 11 April, 2020.  This antenna is located 82 feet (25 meters) above ground level.

The heading of this antenna favors the Eastern United States and Canada and much of the Caribbean.  At greater distances, the main lobe is centered (more or less) on South Africa, although the extreme north edge of the pattern includes the middle east/Mediterranean at/near the "unity gain" points.  The front-to-back ratio of this antenna is nominally 10 dB meaning that in many portions of the pattern off the side and back, its gain may be roughly comparable to that of the "main" omnidirectional antenna - but operates at a lower elevation angle which may give it a slight advantage over the omni for DX stations.

Until approximately 2006, there was another, identical antenna that was pointed toward the north and west, but this fell in a storm due to failure of one of the guy wires:  Only the tower base remains.

TheKLM 10-30-7 Log periodic:

In August of 2022 another log periodic antenna was installed on the same tower as the LP-1002 at the 53 feet (16 meter) level.  This antenna covers 30 through 10 meters and is used for WebSDR #5 and has 7 elements on a 30' (9 meters) boom with its longest element being 43' (13 meters) long.  This antenna was donated to the Northern Utah WebSDR by the Ted Elliot Hartson trust, and we are very grateful to them.

VHF reception:

In July, 2022, both the 6 and 2 meter antennas were relocated to the 82' tower.  Having been previously located on the building, these antennas were moved to the tower with the log periodic beam - not only to increase their height above the ground, but also to move them away from the electronic noise caused by the servers, network gear and their power supplies.

2 Meters:

For 2 meter reception, a 5 element, vertically-polarized Yagi is used, located at about 33 feet (10 meters) on the 82' tower.  This antenna is pointed (mostly) south toward the Salt Lake Metro area as most of the local repeaters lie in that direction.

6 Meters:

For 6 meters, a Cushcraft AR-6 (Ringo Ranger) is used, its base located at around the 40 foot (12 meter) level on the 82' tower.  This antenna replaces a full-sized J-pole that had previously been used and like the KLM log periodic, it was donated to the Northern Utah WebSDR by the Ted Elliot Hartson Trust.
The KLM 30-10-7 Log Periodic beam - on a heading of 278 degrees (true) pointing toward the Pacific and Asia.  This antenna is used by WebSDR #5 and it covers 30 through 10 meters.
Click on the image for a larger version.
KLM Log Periodic Antenna

Reception below 400 kHz:

Below approximately 350 kHz, the TCI 530 ceases to be a viable receive antenna, so for reception below approximately 400 kHz - notably on both 2200 and 1750 meters (approx. 135-190 kHz) - a custom-built E-field whip antenna located at approximately 20 feet (6 meters) on the 82 foot tower is used.  The feedline for this antenna has, in several places, common-mode chokes to provide maximal isolation to prevent common-mode currents flowing which could seriously degrade reception, particularly at very low (<30 kHz) frequencies.

The output of this LF antenna is passed through a custom-built network that also provides power for the antenna's amplifier as well as adding fairly strong low-pass filtering and additional amplification - and the signal path is then split:  One path goes directly to the "2200M/1750M" receiver on the WebSDR and the other path goes to another network that combines the HF signals from the TCI 530 and is then fed to the KiwiSDR receiver stack to provide seamless coverage from VLF through HF with the "crossover" from the TCI 530 to the E-field antenna occurring over the range of 350-400 kHz.


Additional information:
 Back to the Northern Utah WebSDR landing page