Ideal RTTY filter.

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Ideal RTTY filter.

alsopb
This comes from June 2013 QST page 59.

According to W7AY:

The ideal RTTY filter is 280 Hz wide.  Narrowing it further by 60 Hz
doubles the error rate.

The article references:
http://www.w7ay.net/site/Technical/RTTY%20Transmit%20Filters/index.html

Which doesn't come out and say the above!  It's talking about transmit
filters.  W7AY doesn't like uneven power in transmit tones either.

Anyhow this may confirm what has been said on this reflector. The 350 Hz
(AKA 250 Hz) filter is probably the narrowest practical choice for RTTY.

73 de Brian/K3KO



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Re: Ideal RTTY filter.

Joe Subich, W4TV-4

> Anyhow this may confirm what has been said on this reflector. The 350
> Hz (AKA 250 Hz) filter is probably the narrowest practical choice for
> RTTY.

This is a point that can not be emphasized too often.  The "250 Hz"
filter has a very "rounded" top that is being pushed hard to reach
Chen's "270 Hz within a fraction of a dB" criteria.  Further, because
of the significant "rounding," the filter is not completely phase
linear - although it is better than an alternative design that might
be absolutely flat for 350 Hz and transition from passband (flat) to
stopband (skirts) very suddenly over a 20 to 20 Hz (e.g. 300 Hz at
-1 dB and 350 Hz at -6dB).

Except for issues of AGC pumping (blocking) and in band IMD, one would
probably be better served by using a 400, 500 or 1000 Hz "roofing"
filter with a 300 or 350 Hz DSP filter setting.  The difference in
IMD3 between 400 Hz and 1000 Hz roofing filters is very small in the
context of RTTY - the incremental distance from center to cutoff can
not accommodate much more than one additional signal on each skirt and
the chance of two very strong signals or more than two strong signals
having the right frequency relationship within even a 1 KHz (@ -6dB)
bandwidth to create interfering IMD3 is quite small.

With modern DSP based RTTY software, the "goal" should be sufficient
"roofing" filter selectivity to prevent blocking and IMD3 along with
DSP filtering that is "good enough" to reduce the number of signals
to the point that the instantaneous peak does not cause distortion in
the audio stages or overflow the A/D converter in the sound card.
*Beyond that point,* so long as the "sound card" does not have an
excessively high noise floor and/or limited dynamic range (as exhibited
by some "inexpensive" ham products), RTTY performance will be
determined almost entirely by the performance of the DSP "resonators"
and the ability of the demodulator algorithm to deal with multipath,
and selective fading (ATC).

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV


On 5/17/2013 1:07 PM, Brian Alsop wrote:

> This comes from June 2013 QST page 59.
>
> According to W7AY:
>
> The ideal RTTY filter is 280 Hz wide.  Narrowing it further by 60 Hz
> doubles the error rate.
>
> The article references:
> http://www.w7ay.net/site/Technical/RTTY%20Transmit%20Filters/index.html
>
> Which doesn't come out and say the above!  It's talking about transmit
> filters.  W7AY doesn't like uneven power in transmit tones either.
>
> Anyhow this may confirm what has been said on this reflector. The 350 Hz
> (AKA 250 Hz) filter is probably the narrowest practical choice for RTTY.
>
> 73 de Brian/K3KO
>
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3162/5830 - Release Date: 05/16/13
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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Re: Ideal RTTY filter.

Ed Muns, W0YK
In reply to this post by alsopb


Brian K3KO wrote:

This comes from June 2013 QST page 59.
First of all, Chen's article is about transmit filtering which is not
directly translatable to optimal receive filtering.  Second, the cascade
effect of the K3 crystal filter and DSP filter must be considered in
determining the net receive bandwidth.  So very different net receiver
bandwidths result depending on what DSP bandwidth is used with the engaged
crystal filter bandwidth, e.g., KFLA250 which is really a 370 Hz filter.
Third, the ideal receive bandwidth for optimal decoding is not the same as
the transmit bandwidth for minimum QRM.  Depending on the decoder, a
receiver bandwidth of around 400 Hz is optimum ... unless there is such a
heavy QRM situation that a better overall system trade-off is obtained with
narrower, e.g., 250 Hz, net IF bandwidth.  A transmit filter of 280 Hz is an
optimum trade-off between minimizing QRM to neighboring QSOs and maintaining
signal integrity for the intended receiver.  Finally, this transmit filter
can be implemented in either the radio or the encoder.  MMTTY, for example,
provides a number of transmit filter bandwidths and the default 48-tap TX
bandwidth for AFSK meets Chen's proposal.


Ed W0YK


According to W7AY:

The ideal RTTY filter is 280 Hz wide.  Narrowing it further by 60 Hz
doubles the error rate.

The article references:
http://www.w7ay.net/site/Technical/RTTY%20Transmit%20Filters/index.html

Which doesn't come out and say the above!  It's talking about transmit
filters.  W7AY doesn't like uneven power in transmit tones either.

Anyhow this may confirm what has been said on this reflector. The 350 Hz
(AKA 250 Hz) filter is probably the narrowest practical choice for RTTY.

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Re: Ideal RTTY filter.

alsopb
Ed et al,

As I said in my posting the receive filter info came from a quote
attributed to Chen in the QST article.  I pointed out that the link
supplied by QST was not for receive.

So we either have to accept the quote of Chen on the receive side
(additional data exists that Chen has?) or the QST author got it wrong.

Nothing at all was said about dual peak filtering which is used by many
of us in conjunction with a 400 or "250" filter.

It would be nice to someday finally nail this whole RTTY filter issue
down.  Also it would be nice to find a set of optimum AGC settings for
RTTY.  I suspect there are parameters or a formulation that would
produce less spurious clicks.  AGC off is definitely not a practical
solution.

73 de Brian/K3KO

On 5/18/2013 04:17, Ed Muns wrote:

>
>
> Brian K3KO wrote:
>
> This comes from June 2013 QST page 59.
> First of all, Chen's article is about transmit filtering which is not
> directly translatable to optimal receive filtering.  Second, the cascade
> effect of the K3 crystal filter and DSP filter must be considered in
> determining the net receive bandwidth.  So very different net receiver
> bandwidths result depending on what DSP bandwidth is used with the engaged
> crystal filter bandwidth, e.g., KFLA250 which is really a 370 Hz filter.
> Third, the ideal receive bandwidth for optimal decoding is not the same as
> the transmit bandwidth for minimum QRM.  Depending on the decoder, a
> receiver bandwidth of around 400 Hz is optimum ... unless there is such a
> heavy QRM situation that a better overall system trade-off is obtained with
> narrower, e.g., 250 Hz, net IF bandwidth.  A transmit filter of 280 Hz is an
> optimum trade-off between minimizing QRM to neighboring QSOs and maintaining
> signal integrity for the intended receiver.  Finally, this transmit filter
> can be implemented in either the radio or the encoder.  MMTTY, for example,
> provides a number of transmit filter bandwidths and the default 48-tap TX
> bandwidth for AFSK meets Chen's proposal.
>
>
> Ed W0YK
>
>
> According to W7AY:
>
> The ideal RTTY filter is 280 Hz wide.  Narrowing it further by 60 Hz
> doubles the error rate.
>
> The article references:
> http://www.w7ay.net/site/Technical/RTTY%20Transmit%20Filters/index.html
>
> Which doesn't come out and say the above!  It's talking about transmit
> filters.  W7AY doesn't like uneven power in transmit tones either.
>
> Anyhow this may confirm what has been said on this reflector. The 350 Hz
> (AKA 250 Hz) filter is probably the narrowest practical choice for RTTY.
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3162/5835 - Release Date: 05/18/13
>
>



-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3162/5835 - Release Date: 05/18/13

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Re: Ideal RTTY filter.

Jack Smith-6
Back in ye olde days of RTTY when we used mechanical printers, the
thinking was that the minimum bandwidth required was that sufficient to
pass the 3rd keying sideband without too much attenuation or time shift.
(This was way before measuring group delay was something that could be
done other than in a well equipped lab, but if you looked at the output
of the modem detector after the low pass filter and before the slicer,
an oscilloscope clearly showed the changes resulting from changing the
tone filter and low pass filter bandwidths.

60 WPM Baudot RTTY has a data rate of 22 Hz*, so the 3rd keying
sidebands would be ±66 Hz from the tone. With 170 Hz shift, and a single
passband filter, the outer (upper and lower) keying sidebands would be
at 66 Hz above and below. Hence the target filter bandwidth would be 302
Hz.

A more technical explanation is that the tone filters, post-detection
low pass filter and slicer work to restore the transmitted waveform and
that waveform reconstruction becomes more difficult and less accurate
the more keying sidebands are removed. A Fourier analysis of a square
wave will show this as you increase the number of terms (harmonics of
the keying waveform) in the reconstruction.

If you want to tinker a bit, there's an on-line Fourier simulator at
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/mastascu/elessonsHTML/Freq/Freq4FourierSeriesSimulators.htm 
-- select the square wave and run it with 1, 3, 5, 7 etc. harmonics and
you will see that passing just the 3rd harmonic yields a not that bad
appearing square wave.

Where things get a bit more complicated is that these simple rules and
the Fourier simulator assume the harmonics are passed without
significant time (or phase if you prefer to think of it that way) shift.
Depending on the tone filter design, there may well be significant time
shift between the tone frequency and the keying sidebands. A filter with
uniform time delay, such as a Bessel will be much better in this regard
than the same order Chebyshev, for example, but for the same filter
order and -3 dB bandwidth, the Bessel will demonstrate much wider
skirts. At least in the days when we built filters from 88mH loading
coils, there was always tension between designing a filter with a
picture perfect square sided response but with gross time distortion and
one with a rounded nose and gentle flank selectivity and low  time
distortion. A Butterworth filter was used in most modem designs of that
era as a compromise between time distortion and flank response and also
the ability to design and implement the filter. DSP based filters are a
huge improvement over those LC filters and permit good time delay
performance and skirt selectivity.

Jack K8ZOA ... my first piece of RTTY gear was a model 15 page printer
acquired surplus in the late 1960's from Michigan Bell Telephone through
their ham radio - RTTY program.

* 60 WPM Baudo = 368 operations per minute, 7.42 length code = 45.5
baud, or 22.7 Hz.

On 5/18/2013 8:18 AM, Brian Alsop wrote:

> Ed et al,
>
> As I said in my posting the receive filter info came from a quote
> attributed to Chen in the QST article.  I pointed out that the link
> supplied by QST was not for receive.
>
> So we either have to accept the quote of Chen on the receive side
> (additional data exists that Chen has?) or the QST author got it wrong.
>
> Nothing at all was said about dual peak filtering which is used by
> many of us in conjunction with a 400 or "250" filter.
>
> It would be nice to someday finally nail this whole RTTY filter issue
> down.  Also it would be nice to find a set of optimum AGC settings for
> RTTY.  I suspect there are parameters or a formulation that would
> produce less spurious clicks.  AGC off is definitely not a practical
> solution.
>
> 73 de Brian/K3KO
>
> On 5/18/2013 04:17, Ed Muns wrote:
>>
>>
>> Brian K3KO wrote:
>>
>> This comes from June 2013 QST page 59.
>> First of all, Chen's article is about transmit filtering which is not
>> directly translatable to optimal receive filtering.  Second, the cascade
>> effect of the K3 crystal filter and DSP filter must be considered in
>> determining the net receive bandwidth.  So very different net receiver
>> bandwidths result depending on what DSP bandwidth is used with the
>> engaged
>> crystal filter bandwidth, e.g., KFLA250 which is really a 370 Hz filter.
>> Third, the ideal receive bandwidth for optimal decoding is not the
>> same as
>> the transmit bandwidth for minimum QRM.  Depending on the decoder, a
>> receiver bandwidth of around 400 Hz is optimum ... unless there is
>> such a
>> heavy QRM situation that a better overall system trade-off is
>> obtained with
>> narrower, e.g., 250 Hz, net IF bandwidth.  A transmit filter of 280
>> Hz is an
>> optimum trade-off between minimizing QRM to neighboring QSOs and
>> maintaining
>> signal integrity for the intended receiver.  Finally, this transmit
>> filter
>> can be implemented in either the radio or the encoder.  MMTTY, for
>> example,
>> provides a number of transmit filter bandwidths and the default
>> 48-tap TX
>> bandwidth for AFSK meets Chen's proposal.
>>
>>
>> Ed W0YK
>>
>>
>> According to W7AY:
>>
>> The ideal RTTY filter is 280 Hz wide.  Narrowing it further by 60 Hz
>> doubles the error rate.
>>
>> The article references:
>> http://www.w7ay.net/site/Technical/RTTY%20Transmit%20Filters/index.html
>>
>> Which doesn't come out and say the above!  It's talking about transmit
>> filters.  W7AY doesn't like uneven power in transmit tones either.
>>
>> Anyhow this may confirm what has been said on this reflector. The 350 Hz
>> (AKA 250 Hz) filter is probably the narrowest practical choice for RTTY.
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>>
>> -----
>> No virus found in this message.
>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>> Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3162/5835 - Release Date:
>> 05/18/13
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3162/5835 - Release Date: 05/18/13
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

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Re: Ideal RTTY filter.

Joe Subich, W4TV-4
In reply to this post by alsopb

> So we either have to accept the quote of Chen on the receive side
> (additional data exists that Chen has?) or the QST author got it
> wrong.

Chen has written extensively on RTTY filtering both on his web site
as well as in his postings on the RTTY list.  In addition, Chen has
provided links to work by others (Hoff, Nyquist, etc.) in the field
- one can't take a single link in QST as the sum total of Chen's work.

 > It would be nice to someday finally nail this whole RTTY filter issue
 > down.

Read *all* of Chen's work and check out some of the bibliographical
information as well.  The information will make the concepts quite
clear (although the mathematics is a whole different matter).  One
does need to understand that filtering in the receiver and filtering
in the demodulator are two *entirely different issues* although they
must be considered together along with transmit filtering - because
all three "filters" are connected in series and any group delays
(filter induced multipath) additive.

 > Also it would be nice to find a set of optimum AGC settings for
 > RTTY.  I suspect there are parameters or a formulation that would
 > produce less spurious clicks.

"Key clicks" in RTTY are a result of improper FSK (or AFSK) generation
and the lack of appropriate transmit filtering/waveshaping as described
in Chen's link on transmit filters.  AGC has no effect on them.

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV


On 5/18/2013 8:18 AM, Brian Alsop wrote:

> Ed et al,
>
> As I said in my posting the receive filter info came from a quote
> attributed to Chen in the QST article.  I pointed out that the link
> supplied by QST was not for receive.
>
> So we either have to accept the quote of Chen on the receive side
> (additional data exists that Chen has?) or the QST author got it wrong.
>
> Nothing at all was said about dual peak filtering which is used by many
> of us in conjunction with a 400 or "250" filter.
>
> It would be nice to someday finally nail this whole RTTY filter issue
> down.  Also it would be nice to find a set of optimum AGC settings for
> RTTY.  I suspect there are parameters or a formulation that would
> produce less spurious clicks.  AGC off is definitely not a practical
> solution.
>
> 73 de Brian/K3KO
>
> On 5/18/2013 04:17, Ed Muns wrote:
>>
>>
>> Brian K3KO wrote:
>>
>> This comes from June 2013 QST page 59.
>> First of all, Chen's article is about transmit filtering which is not
>> directly translatable to optimal receive filtering.  Second, the cascade
>> effect of the K3 crystal filter and DSP filter must be considered in
>> determining the net receive bandwidth.  So very different net receiver
>> bandwidths result depending on what DSP bandwidth is used with the
>> engaged
>> crystal filter bandwidth, e.g., KFLA250 which is really a 370 Hz filter.
>> Third, the ideal receive bandwidth for optimal decoding is not the
>> same as
>> the transmit bandwidth for minimum QRM.  Depending on the decoder, a
>> receiver bandwidth of around 400 Hz is optimum ... unless there is such a
>> heavy QRM situation that a better overall system trade-off is obtained
>> with
>> narrower, e.g., 250 Hz, net IF bandwidth.  A transmit filter of 280 Hz
>> is an
>> optimum trade-off between minimizing QRM to neighboring QSOs and
>> maintaining
>> signal integrity for the intended receiver.  Finally, this transmit
>> filter
>> can be implemented in either the radio or the encoder.  MMTTY, for
>> example,
>> provides a number of transmit filter bandwidths and the default 48-tap TX
>> bandwidth for AFSK meets Chen's proposal.
>>
>>
>> Ed W0YK
>>
>>
>> According to W7AY:
>>
>> The ideal RTTY filter is 280 Hz wide.  Narrowing it further by 60 Hz
>> doubles the error rate.
>>
>> The article references:
>> http://www.w7ay.net/site/Technical/RTTY%20Transmit%20Filters/index.html
>>
>> Which doesn't come out and say the above!  It's talking about transmit
>> filters.  W7AY doesn't like uneven power in transmit tones either.
>>
>> Anyhow this may confirm what has been said on this reflector. The 350 Hz
>> (AKA 250 Hz) filter is probably the narrowest practical choice for RTTY.
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>>
>> -----
>> No virus found in this message.
>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>> Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3162/5835 - Release Date: 05/18/13
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3162/5835 - Release Date: 05/18/13
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
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