FM – DAB+: my logblog!

Sjef Verhoeven is well-known a.o. in the FMDX community for his work with the famous TEF6686 chip.
I’ve been paying attention to his Facebook TEF profile, his website and articles about the TEF on fmdx.org.
Some intriguing videos about the TEF6686 radio handling weak signals next to a strong transmitter in eye sight attracted my attention.

Why buying a TEF6686 radio set? What about my own set-up? I’m using a Körner 15.11 FM antenna and SDR Console software with an Airspy R2, a RSP1a and a RSPdx SDRs for fmdx.
Performance with all the hardware is great, especially during es.
However tropo is problematic towards the SSW (Brussels): both the RSPs and the Airspy tend to overload and they need a lot of gain fiddling to get it right. It is really never optimum.
Time to buy a TEF6686 radio and find out if these sets are really that great.
As most owners do I purchased a unit at AliExpress. Which one? On fmdx.org a guide will help you.
I went for the Deepelec DP-666 TEF6686. Do have a look at the Deepelec website.
You can check out the manual and videos. A great help for first time TEF users as it can be a bit overwhelming initially! Be careful not to set the language to Chinese if you cannot read it.

How does the unit perform when hooking it up to the Körner 15.11 antenna?
As shown in the videos like the one above sensitivity and selectivity are indeed superior.
There are tons of bandwidth settings but AUTOBW does a great job choosing the best bandwidth.

My set has the 2.0.0 Megatron firmware. The lastest firmware is 2.11.
How to upgrade is explained in this video. I haven’t tried it myself (yet).
Update November 27 2024: now running 2.11.5.

First impressions comparing the Körner 15.11 connected to the Airspy R2 and to the DP-666 with a splitter are great.
Performance between both set-ups is on par, but the overload problem to the SSW isn’t there on the DP-666.
Moreover only once Airpsy R2 and SDR Console detected a correct RDS PI code which DP-666 did not notice at all. On the other hand DP-666 could detect a RDS PI a dozen times when SDR Console and Airspy R2 could not.
The DP-666 passed the test with flying colours.

The DP-666 TEF6686 (and other sets with the TEF6686) with superb sensitivity and selectivity is excellent for portable use. It takes a while to check and optimise the settings to your liking.
Deepelec provide a nice set: the radio unit, a pouch, a whip antenna and a USB-A to C data cable to connect the device to a computer.
All perfect when you are on the go.

Connecting a TEF6686 to a pc is easy with the provided cable.
You could try XDR-GTK software. Unzip the software to a folder and run it.
In the settings you need to choose the correct COM which can be found in the Device Manager (Ports – USB-SERIAL CH340 (COM…).

Installing a webserver offers a lot more options, settings and plugins.
It can also be a public server like the ones on this fmdx.org page. At the moment of writing I’m running the private server option, not sharing my receiver via the internet. This might change of course.

How to get started?
1. Install node js from this website. Do this carefully.
2. Download the webserver zip (fm-dx-webserver-main.zip) from this page.
By default you can unzip to C:\fm-dx-webserver-main. I preferred to unzip then files to C:\Webserver.
3. Open your command prompt and go to C:\fm-dx-webserver-main (in my set-up C:\Webserver).
The run this command: npm install . So C:\fm-dx-webserver-main\npm install .
If asked for an admin password, do so.
The start the server by running npm run webserver .
4. Open your brower and navigate to http:/localhost:8080
Not running? Check the COM port in your device manager and then by logging in as admin (wheel at the top right) to the webserver on localhost:8080.

How to start again after closing the browser and webserver?
Again open the command prompt and type C:\. Then C:\fm-dx-webserver-main and npm run webserver .
You could write a .bat file saved on your desktop to make it easier.
It should contain 1 line: node . –debug

Do have a look at the video below before installing node and setting up the webserver!

There are quite a few interesting plugins available on this plugin page.
I love the RDS-LOGGER, STREAM and LIVEMAP. With the LIVEMAP you can upload logs to the fmlist.org!

Having installed the LIVEMAP you can then double click on the PI code in the main screen.
Then a new browser tab is opened with tons of possibilities!

More info needed? Questions to be asked?
Have a look at the fm-dx-webserver DISCORD OpenRadio Community.