[Skimmertalk] Skimmer in CQWW and CPU Utilization Problem

[W3OA]

Hi Pete - Thank you for your response.

I preferred the Skimmer spots over Cluster spots.  I found myself 
running my cursor down the N1MM band map and just clicking on the spots 
that showed they had come from Skimmer.  I think the Paranoid mode makes 
the spots pretty accurate.

I wanted to keep the Cluster spots in my feed to N1MM so I would be 
aware of what was happening on the bands I wasn't operating on i.e. I 
could be on 20 and the Cluster spots might show some activity on 10 I 
would want to be aware of.

73 - Dick, W3OA

>
> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:35:44 -0500
> From: Pete Smith <n4zr at contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [Skimmertalk] Skimmer in CQWW and CPU Utilization Problem
> To: Skimmertalk at contesting.com
> Message-ID: <6.2.0.14.2.20081202093014.16b106b0 at mail.comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> At 09:20 AM 12/2/2008, W3OA wrote:
>   
>> Skimmer was on a dedicated computer, a 3.2 Ghz Pentium 4 with 2 gigs of
>> RAM.  I noticed a couple of times (like the bottom 96 kHz of 40 during
>> the first hour and 20 on Saturday morning) the CPU utilization was
>> bouncing up to 100 percent and "Decoders" showed something like 600 of
>> 1000 or 500 of 1300.  During these times the number of spots put out
>> seemed to drop dramatically.  I wonder if this is normal operation?  I'm
>> thinking a way to get around this is to use 48 kHz sampling rate and
>> switch between band segments every so often, maybe ever 5 minutes.  I'd
>> appreciate hearing comments from others on this.
>>     
>
>
> Hi Dick - thanks for the report.  Very useful.
>
> There are a few things you can do.  One is to set up your Skimmer band plan 
> a little more restrictively and tell Skimmer not to decode outside the CW 
> segment.  For example, I tell it to cut off at 7040 on 40M, because I know 
> from experience that it tries to decode the sidebands of SW broadcast 
> stations, spawning hundreds of additional decoders.  You can also use a 
> lower sampling rate, as you suggest, or you can also uncheck "Adaptive" and 
> tell Skimmer not to exceed a fixed number of decoders, though that 
> shouldn't really be necessary with a CPU like yours.
>
> How did you feel the Skimmer spots compared in accuracy and utility with 
> cluster spots?
>
> 73, Pete  
>
>   
>