Another TEF6686 has arrived. Not a Deepelec DP-666 this time but a metal cased one. The Deepelec allows the user to tap in the frequency, but this one doesn’t. No small memory buttons either. The Deepelec has a plastic casing. The new TEF6686 came with an RDS sticker, a data cable and an antenna. No pouch.
TEF6686 delivery
Having a metal casing makes this devices look sturdier and of course it could allow for better shielding. However performances between both devices seem equal.
Metal cased TEF6686
Unfortunately this TEF came with very old firmware (v1.18) making it impossible to hook up the device to a webserver. Flashing the firmware is not too difficult. Do have a look a these instruction videos on Youtube (video 1 – video 2). Where to find the new firmware? Have a look at this Github page or check out the Discord page with latest (Beta) updates.
Qt-DAB-6.9 test release was published yesterday by Jan Van Katwijk You can download the new Qt-DAB and the manual on Jan’s Github releases page. Jan Van Katwijk appreciates your comments and feedback on his Qt-DAB Github issues page.
This is a TEST RELEASE as a first step towards porting from Qt 5 tot Qt 6. The old .ini won’t work and new .ini will be built and users will have to input coordinates and download the ‘load table’ again.
MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km 91.80 0733 F France Musique, Bourges/Neuvy-Collines du Sancerrois (18) 439km 94.90 0734 F France Inter, Bourges/Neuvy-Collines du Sancerrois (18) 439km 103.20 0735 F France Bleu Berry, Bourges/Neuvy-Collines du Sancerrois (18) ID 439km 95.00 0737 F France Inter, Mantes-la-Jolie/Maudétour 95 299km 95.30 0737 F France Inter, Troyes/les Riceys (10) 336km 96.30 0740 F France Inter, Sens/Gisy-les-Nobles (89) 316km 96.50 0740 F France Inter, Rouen/Grand-Couronne (76) 321km 97.10 0741 F France Musique, Mantes-la-Jolie/Maudétour 95 299km 97.90 0742 F France Culture, Troyes/les Riceys (10) 336km 100.30 0744 F France Inter, Maubeuge/Rousies (59) 95km 106.30 0746 F France Info, Verdun/Septsarges (55) 194km 89.80 0751 F Canal FM, Berlaimont/FPS Tower (59) 117km 93.30 0829 F France Musique, Chaumont-Langres/Chalindrey (52) 358km 96.30 1307 D BAYERN 3, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) 377km 100.30 1310 D planet radio, Eisenberg (Neuenstein) (hes) 336km 105.30 1317 D BR24, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) 377km 106.80 1319 D Hit Radio FFH, Driedorf/Höllberg (hes) 244km 87.90 1321 D MDR Kultur, Inselsberg (thü) 403km 90.10 1323 D Radio 90,1, Mönchengladbach/Pescher Str. (nrw) 123km
At 00:10 LT tonight WDR Regional on 9A came on air with a huge signal from Aachen/Stolberg. CNR (db) and MER (db) values are a lot higher than 9B and 9D from Aachen/Karlshöhe. Bye bye DAB from Saarland, Sachsen, Reims.
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…).
XDR-GTK softwareSetting COM in XDR-GTK
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!
Setting up the webserver – direct linkFM-DX WebserverDefault webserver localhost browser screenWebserver local host screen with admin settings and plugins
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!
Click on the LIVEMAP button (1) and then on the correct location tab (2) to upload. Make sure to have logged in to the fmlist.org in another brower tab.No RDS data – choose the correct location on the LIVEMAP and upload 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!
