This evening, I did the ‘EasyFix1’ on my V1.2 LimeSDR - - the same fix that @sdr_research suggested TWO DAYS AGO - - which was REALLY EASY to do - removing ONE SMT coil (MN18) from the board at the RX1_L Port that was in parallel with the matching transformer. The results WERE ASTOUNDING!!! Here are the BEFORE and AFTER pictures on the 40m Band this evening:
So, Ladies and Gentlemen…GO HEAT UP YOUR SOLDERING IRONS AND REMOVE THAT MN18 COIL!! It will make your LimeSDR work like a CHARM on HF and you can even receive the US AM Radio Band, too…!!
Obviously I need to do more refined testing, but I’m here to tell you - - THE LIME LIVES ON HF!!!
25mhz of bandwidth, limit on my laptop, but so far so good, one little coil removed and voila…im a little happier now… Just now to mess with the gains to see what’s best…
Nope, just for testing, using an 80ft longwire into a 9:1 balun for coax feed, will try on the big antenna’s tomorrow, 4el HF 6 band beam and a 1500ft loop
I WANT to give credit where credit is due…@sdr_research is the man responsible for fixing the issue with the MN18 Coil. @sdr_research suggested this fix WELL before the LimeSDR crew did and this fix is what has been fixing EVERYBODYS board tonight that has implemented it. I was the first to try it on my V1.2 hardware and I will fix my V1.4 hardware similarly. But I want to give credit to @sdr_research for suggesting this fix FIRST and giving us all a new lease on life with our LimeSDRs.
…I’m just sick that some people bailed out and got their refunds…They’ll be sick to know that ONE COIL is all that was needed to fix the LimeSDR for HF…ONE COIL, and I cannot say enough that @sdr_research was the FIRST ONE to suggest this fix. BRAVO TO @sdr_research!!!
I wouldn’t discount a software problem yet. Though SDR Console is working well under Windows, the latest code from github for limesuite on Linux is still deaf. I can barely hear some RTTY on 40 at 7.070150 whereas on SDR Console the whole band is booming by comparison.
Bravo… @sdr_research and to you too @martywittrock, thanks for the call tonight, it’s a night and day fix, totally different radio, and paired with @SimonG4ELI software, it’s the complete package, with TX coming later in the year, this will be the go to piece of kit, it was so disappointing when we first turned it on… So onwards and upwards… Time to play…
…And for those who MIGHT freak out about losing the upper frequencies ( >100 MHz ), forget it…THEY LOOK GREAT, TOO, ON THE SAME PORT WE MODIFIED FOR HF (Rx1_L)…!! Here is what the weather band looks like tonight at Cedar Rapids, Iowa (162.475 MHz) as well as other weather stations in the region…THEY’VE NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD NOW!! Here is a screenshot:
Get ready to smile, Bernard…@sdr_research fixed the issue by his suggestion two days ago…! See all the posts in this thread, but your LimeSDR can look the same as all the others by making that one small change (MN18 coil). Again, see the pictures posted tonight - at least THREE Hams have confirmed this change tonight that I did based on @sdr_research suggestion.
The LimeSDR Lives on HF, @Bernard…!! Happy Days are here again…!!
I think everyone will happy with this fix and I really think LimeSDR is a valuable tool for SDR . In next release I hope Lime team will fix it on board and think about design a input board with filters controled from software as option for LimeSDR . @Benard : If you want to use at 100KHz you just modify input a little more it will be work well
The lowest frequency of T3 transformer spec. is 4.5MHz but it work well till 1MHZ . With 100KHz it still can work but with some loss . If you want to go to 100KHz you need to replace T3 with a lower frequency transformer and change coupling capacitor MN17 and MN20 to around .47nF
