My experience with panadapters extends into the distant, dusty,
past, with Heathkit and earlier analog versions. They are indeed useful,
but the coverage needed clearly depends upon the type of operation one
does...
HF SSB ops probably want a much wider frequency coverage than CW
ops. I can't imagine wanting/needing anything like 200 kHz coverage when
operating 20 meter CW, especially when trying to unravel a pile-up.
Digital modes (other than CW) probably want even less...PSK and
RTTY ops confine their operations to relatively narrow band segments.
Lately my own operation has often been with PSK31/63 or one of the other
FLDIGI-supported digital modes. Typically I use either the panoramic
views provided by FLDIGI, or SpectraVue with my SignaLink-USB, and these
are quite adequate with the 2 to 5 kHz coverage they provide. I have
also used a PM-SDR with its antenna switching add-on and my high end
sound card (192k), which gives a much wider view of the band.
When 6 meters is open, as it has been much of this summer, wider
coverage is needed. Typically USB operation is above 50.125 and CW
operation is below 50.100, and it would be nice to be able to keep an
eye spread across this whole part of the spectrum, since many operators
taking advantage of these openings use both voice and CW modes. For
similar reasons, wider coverage is desirable on VHF and UHF.
To summarize, I believe that wide-band coverage is particularly
useful on 10 meters and higher (for obvious reasons). It seems to me it
adds little for HF use below 28 MHz, and probably is even a bit
distracting or disadvantageous. Thus the key factor one is looking for
is the ability to control the sampling rate/bandwidth, missing from
programs such as FLDIGI. PM-SDR and WinRad does provide this control,
but not in any very convenient way, and SpectraVue also has this
capability, but the P3 seems to provide it as well. The secondary
advantage (?) of the P3 is that it removes the computer from the set-up.
If one is running an old computer (inadequate shielding, slow sampling
rate in the sound card, etc) this may well be an important advantage.
John Ragle -- W1ZI
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