I received the kit and I try to use it

Yes, I understand that it is not “technically” correct, but correct in technical terms and what is observable in practical terms can sometime be different.
If a nubie sees a number that is less than -100db in the rssi and has no lock, then the first place to look (IMHO) is for a source of serious noise.
I still stand that my advice was correct. :slight_smile: Note I DID say that it “kind of” represents noise level.
Believe me I do understand all of this ( I have had a “full call” Amateur license since 1978! ) but I also have done serious technical support for people who are not technical at all!
In this case , if he turned off the air conditioner that the antenna is sitting on ( for example) and the rssi went down, then we know that is a source of noise, maybe then the SNR would go up enough for the device to stop scanning and get a lock, (my experience is that happens at about 2db SNR ) then we will be in the ball park :slight_smile:
I am not trying to be argumentative here, but there are two ways of determining how many teeth a donkey has… You can measure the jaw and a tooth and then use complex maths to calculate the number, or you can hold it’s mouth open & count it’s teeth LOL!

Neil…

The tuner snapshot I posted a few posts back showing a SNR of 2.65dB with RSSI of -122.73 was taken a couple months ago when I was playing with the small cardboard and foil patch that was modeled after a what I could discern from a web snapshot of the Outernet patch.

This tuner snapshot is the same receiver setup with the antenna disconnected:

Now, let’s do some math… The difference between the antenna connected and the antenna disconnected is 3dB, which is approximately the SNR with the antenna connected, considering how much SNR jumps around. So, the assertion that a lower RSSI means better signal is false. In this case, lower RSSI means no antenna.

For comparison, the Outernet patch, today, a few minutes ago, is here:

Now, the SNR is 8.37 with RSSI of -112.87, for a difference of approximately 13dB from no antenna reading of -125.74. Where’s the missing SNR??? It’s noise. Or is it?

Let’s put the cardboard patch back on…

Now, the difference in RSSI of the cardboard patch compared to the RSSI of the Outernet patch is 4.34dB, while the SNR of the cardboard patch is 6.77dB compared to 8.37dB of the Outernet Patch, a difference of 1.6dB (I’m quite proud of that, BTW)

As you can see, the SNR/RSSI is not necessarily directly related. The SNR is the most important figure. I’ll let you stew on that…

Ah yes… The Lee DeForest method. Works great for cardboard patch antenna design!

Nothing to stew on here, I agree with you, you are 100% correct, and I know that :slight_smile:
Bottom line is, for all practical purposes, for the purposes of turning on an outernet rx for the fist time & trying to get it to work, if you have a large (less negative) rssi and a tiny SNR and no lock, then you have more noise than signal, for whatever reason.
That is the reason for my original advice :slight_smile:
I have no argument, I was just giving practical advice, based upon my experience not any form of technical lesson. It was based upon the (possibly incorrect) assumption that the person needing support didn’t have any technical background.

https://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/horse.htm :slight_smile:

Good discussion - - just the kind of results I experienced. In my case, thou, I was not changing antennas, but rather city locations with my know performing Lantern package. Ken

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Here is my tuner status a while ago.
Outernet patch antenna in Thessaloniki, Greece pointed to Alphasat.
More than 2M packets with less than 7 ppm error rate.
http://94.68.84.170/

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I just received the kit and tried to use it too. And I have a different problem. Has anyone experienced this. When you open the tuner, you get an API error and wont let you change satellite. I am in the US and need to change to 98W. This happens regardless of the computer( tried 3, and not tablets) or browsers (tried them all). I know the receiver and antenna works, I can run it in a virtual machine. Is this a known bug, It’s the got to be in the Skylark ver. 4.4 in the CHIP. . I also re-flashed it and no change. This the new shipment, I wasn’t expecting it until May. I might be one of the first to shake it out.

Are you logged in with the outernet user or guest? It may also help if you provided the full error message or a screenshot.

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Duh, I didn’t notice the default was guest. Switched and got all permissions back.
Will try it out and see hoe it works when I get home.

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