Already owning two TEF6686 radios (1 – 2) I was fascinated by the concept of a ‘headless’ TEF: just a board and connectors.
It can be neatly tucked away and hooked up to a webserver or to XDR-GTK software.
I was able to order one from Mihail Popa (ROU) with a case, an audiohat (if you want the audio on separate speakers via a jack) and two FM antenna and one AM antenna rabbit ears plug.
Hooking it up is pretty easy especially if you already have a portable TEF connected to the same computer.
Mind you to connect the TEF668X audio in the audio configuration (W11 over here) to listen to this device and broadcast to the computer speakers to avoid audio feedback loops. Thanks Mihail for the advice.
You can then use the same usb cable as used with a portable to connect the headless TEF to your computer and feeding it with data and audio.
If you want to continuously scan and record you should change two lines in the scanner.json file in the plugins_configs directory of your webserver.
Make sure these two lines are set to false!
“Autoscan_PE5PVB_Mode”: false,
“Search_PE5PVB_Mode”: false,
My portable TEFs listen to COM3 while the headless TEF needs COM4 although both are connected to the same USB port (not simultaneously). You can easily change this in the webserver set-up tuner tab (device).
Updating the firmware is NOT like the updates on a portable TEF. You need this firmware and this bootloader from KKonrad.
I haven’t tried a firmware update yet as this headless is running the latest firmware.
What about the performance of a headless TEF? I compared it to my Deepelec DP-666 and found no difference at all. The headless TEF performs just as well.
A headless TEF is very often used by radio buffs who want to connect their TEF to a public FM-DX webserver.
You can find numerous public TEF FM-DX webservers here.
