How are slices named, and can I change it's name value?

Bernie

I open SmartSDR and am operating with a single panadaptor and a single slice on 20-meters.  The slice is named "Slice B."  If I open the band-select window and choose 17-meters, a single panadaptor remains, but the slice is now named "Slice A."

Why isn't the single slice on 20-meters also named "Slice A?"

"Why do I care?" you ask.  Because I am using a macro command in DDUtil, DD6FIL which requires a "slice parameter" (0-7 e.g. A-H).  With a "slice parameter" = 0, the macro works on 17-meters, but not on 20-meters.  It would be helpful if a a single slice in a single panadaptor would be called "Slice A" with a "slice parameter" = 0.

Also, I don't know if it is possible for me to change the 20-meter slice from "B" to "A."  I have read the manual, but haven't found any method under my control to do this.

-73-
Bernie
W4BGH

Robert -- N5IKD

It is first come first serve. The each slice is given the lowest available slice letter.

Bernie

Since I just booted the computer and started SmartSDR, why was the first "slice of the day" called "Slice B?"

Scott AC8DE

Good question Bernie.  It shouldn't come up as slice B if it is your initial slice.  I too have had that bug happen... rarely.  It should come up in order A, B, C...

Is it still doing this, even after a radio cold reboot?

No, you can't rename them.

I think you are asking to have more than one slice "A";  ie - Have a slice "A" in 17M, a slice A on "20M", etc.  If that is what you are asking, then that would be pretty much impossible and would confuse things.  Keep in mind that a panadapter can open up to see more than one band at a time.  I suppose some programming could be done to accomplish what you ask, but it sounds tough from a logic point of view.

Robert -- N5IKD

I have tried to recreate this issue, but it the first slice is always A for me on any band. If restarting the radio doesn't fix it, then try resetting the radio by holding the OK button while you power on the radio.

I too would like to be able to swap the receiver slice designations. This could be implemented by dragging the A circle on top of another slice, then the two receivers would swap designations.

Scott AC8DE

From a operational standpoint, that sounds easy enough prima facie.  I'm not poo-pooing it, but I doubt it's easy for the Flex programmers. Swapping what DAX is looking at, the persistence "pecking order", and swapping all parameters from slice to slice/panadapter to panadapter, SmartCAT slice focus, etc. Woo Hoo!  Sounds like a month of troubleshooting minimum.  Maybe in the future Flex could do that.  Way future, after they get all the other functionality developed.

Bernie

Here's my current status:  I selected 17-meters which has Slice A.  I removed it by clicking the X-box.  Then I went back to 20-meters.  Now the active slice there is Slice A (not the original Slice .

Then I went back to 17-meters and created a new slice which was also labeled Slice A...so back to 20-meters.  Still Slice A.  Next I went to 40-meters and the slice there is labeled Slice A.  Not a "Slice B" in the bunch!  Waddya know!

Robert -- N5IKD

Can you attach a screenshot of multiple receiver slices labeled "A"?

Bernie

I think you misunderstand...there is only one panadapter with one slice open at a time.  I never opened more than one slice receiver at a time.  My original question was related to the slice naming when I switched bands within one panadaptor.

Robert -- N5IKD

So it looks like it is working properly, And you didn't have to reset the radio. There must have been an orphaned slice on 20 meters that was off the panadapter before.

Steve-N5AC

A little history for fun here: slices inside the radio are numbered starting with zero.  Whenever we go to create a new slice a routine looks through the list and gives us the first number not used.  We use numbers because computers like numbers more than letters.  On the client side, we use letters for two reasons:  first, in the olden days of knob radios and discrete oscillators, the oscillators were named with letters (VFO A, VFO so this seemed like a natural way to retain that style -- Slice A and Slice B.  But there is another reason.  We anticipate someday providing the capability to do multiple clients per radio.  So you might have a single radio on a tri-band antenna and three operators on that one radio, each with his own computer.  Each would be assigned a band to hunt for multipliers.  If they are working RTTY or a digital mode, they might like their digital mode software (which also only understands VFOA, VFO to talk to the computer.  So we anticipated that each of these three computers might have a VFO A (Slice A) and VFO B (Slice , but the radio would have slices 0-5.  We expected this translation to be done in the client when the time comes so it would know that it's slice A corresponds to slice 2 in the radio, for example.

Edit: also if you move between bands on a panadapter, the moving between bands will delete the slice on your source band and then create one on your target band.  This might make it look like there are multiple slice As