nicFW900 V4.00.10
Added 2025-05-14 02:19:06 +0000 UTCJust a maintenance release.
Fixes activity scan.
Changed AM AGC such that it stops seeking the gain after a short time, enough time to stabilize the signal, but not continuously any more as this introduces noise. A setting of around 100 is recommended, this reduces all signals above S7 down to around S7 which is enough to eliminate any distortion from strong signals. Squelch needs to be used with this setting as squelch closing is what resets the gain.
SPI App updated to include new and missing settings.
A reduction in the Squelch Noise Trigger (Menu #1) is recommended, down to 38. This is not default in this release but will be in future releases. High values in this setting are asking for trouble.
A reminder that Squelch Level 1 is a special setting, it is NOISE ONLY and has no hysteresis. It is meant for special situations involving weak signals and is prone to erratic behaviour. For general use, squelch settings of 2 and above are recommended. When squelch is 2 or above, the noise trigger AND signal level must be triggered, for Squelch 2, a signal level of S1 must be heard, for Squelch 3, an S2 signal must be heard. So it goes without saying that if you have a noise floor on a channel of S2, a squelch setting of 1 or 2 is going to be useless and essentially noise only.
There is still no resolution to the "frequency shift" and "squelch stutter" issues that manifest rarely. I am still collecting data, but getting them to actually happen is difficult and I've yet to get anything really back in feedback. All I have is reports of it happening but nothing useful giving me any clues as to why, this is currently consuming most of my time.
Comments
Nice work, I hope this is the problem. Although I am a little skeptical as I have had it happen to me once and I never use dual watch myself. But I will test with it on for a while and see. Thanks again.
Marcus Dudley
2025-05-16 16:48:44 +0000 UTCYeah it's still to be fine tuned. The signal floor on the RT-900 is a mess. It's going to take more than a rolling mean for the auto floor system, I'm going to need to code a rolling median. Everything about RT-900 is a problem. I'm hoping to god the 880 isn't this bad. The way it's supposed to work is by keeping a mean average of the fast scan signal floors to use as a signal trigger, but the floor is so variable it throws the mean off radically.
Marcus Dudley
2025-05-16 16:45:28 +0000 UTCI bought the wrong version few weeks ago. So i returned it. Tomorrow im getting the non bluetooth version hopefully ill get to enjoy the new firmware
Patricio Ruiz-Tagle
2025-05-16 16:12:08 +0000 UTCI've been testing this release for a while now with Dual Watch OFF. I keep two frequencies set throughout the day, and I've also tried scanning in VFO mode. Surprisingly, I haven’t noticed any frequency drift so far. The only thing that puzzles me is the Ultra Scan function. On the H3, with the right Ultra Scan settings, the LED would blink very rapidly. On the RT900, the range is from 1 to 20, but with none of the settings does the LED blink quickly. It starts off blinking fairly fast, but after 2–3 seconds it slows down to about once or twice per second. How should I properly set this up?
Jake M. Wolf
2025-05-15 20:34:28 +0000 UTCI believe and hope to have found the cause of the problem of deaf reception and frequency shift that afflicts us, if I deactivate the dual watch these problems do not occur, if I activate the dual watch, after a few minutes of alternating listening VFO A and VFO B or changing memory bank the problem occurred. I'm using last version with menu 1 set to 38 and squelch set to 2.
Salvatore Todaro
2025-05-15 12:53:38 +0000 UTC
