PowerSDR ke9ns Revision T11 available for Download (Highly modified version of 2.7.2)

KE9NS

New Features added since my Last PowerSDR ke9ns Rev T9 posting:

NCDXF Beacon Scanner: Added to the Spotter window (Fast 3min, and Slow 15 min scan modes)

Antenna Beam Heading Rotor Control sends DX spot beam heading commands to your Rotor Control via virtual serial port connection to DDUtil. Left click on the Beam heading in the DX spotter window to send command to your rotor.

Memory Event Scheduler / Recorder (weekly or monthly): Sets mode/Freq based on a scheduled time and optionally records up to 2 hours

MP3 audio output option for both Memory Recorder and Quickaudio recordings. QuickAudio MP3 recordings go into there own sub folder

Larger VFOA and VFOB Frequency display

Improved SWL spotting, with added additional second SWL2.csv file containing additional frequencies for ALE, HFDL, Navtex, DSC, and NCDXF beacons.

VFOA Slider mode: In slider mode (click on word PAN: left side of display), VFOA (bandpass)  slides around the screen and the panadapter or PanaFall stays put.

Zoom mode for Panadapter (click on the word ZOOM: under the display)

Videos and Download at:   ke9ns.com/flexpage.html

Darrin ke9ns

William LaMontagne

I am delighted that somebody is adding features to my expensive radio that I love. Please know you have people like me , so greatfull that you are taking the time and effort.

John

Ditto from around the world. If you ever come over to London Darrin, I would be pleased to shake your hand.

Rick

And another big ditto!! I had lost hope for further PowerSDR enhancements until you came home. Sure glad a still have my bundled 5000! Thanks so much for keeping our legacy radios relevant.

KE9NS

New Feature Adds to PowerSDR Rev 111516T11:

NIST Time Sync Button (Spotter window) using internet connection to NIST, or optionally radio WWV time/date BCD decoder (needs a strong sub-carrier signal level).

Added VOACAP Propagation coverage algorithm:
Using Date, Time, SunSpot#, Frequency, and selecting your Lat & Long location using a Dipole @ 1500 watts, a dBm propagation map (expressed in S units) is created and presented onto the “Track”ing World Map. Dots represent the Signal strength of a person at that location, around or near the Dot(s), trying to Receive your Transmission. The map is calculated to be reciprocal

MUT button:  Right mouse click on MUT button to toggle between Muting all sources or Muting just the speaker (not the headphones, and not VAC1). “MUT” = standard mute, “MUTs” = mute speaker only.

Darrin  ke9ns.com

John

Juust when one thought it cannot get much better, Darrin pulls another add-on out of the bag. This is one glorious ride Darrin and from me and the rest of us, a big thank you.

G8ZPX

I am in love.

John

wot ! not again Steve. But who can really blame you. Dont forget to print that crib sheet out because you will want to try all the oldie mods again and again and again ................................

G8ZPX

I know I know....desperately trying not to criticise FRS, but why are they not paying Darrin a shed-load of cash to focus his effort on SSDR in this way ?

It's precisely this kind of feature rich stuff that the user base is desperate for. Its what will eventually morph the F6K "just a radio" (all be it a very clever radio) in to something we will **** over. People buy features and functions not just geek speak from the hardware spec.

Glad I never sold my 5000a, with Darrin plugged in on turbo-boost it makes me smile every day!

Andrew VK5CV

Darrin,
I was worried that my old dual core win 7 PC (got when I preordered my 1500) would go toes up with your version of PSDR.
T11 was just too tempting.
Runs fine with similar load to the standard 2.7.2.
Well done indeed.
Andrew de VK5CV

John

That makes two of us. Well we know the answer to that Steve, but Darrin is there if they want to use him for the later transceivers. This is my lot though, I wont be upgrading again. Enjoy the playground Steve.

KE9NS

Andrew,

Thanks. I run my Flex (and the code development) on a very old AMD quad core, but I did upgrade to a gamer quality video card years ago (which really helped keep my pc running smooth), so I could run dual HDMI monitors.

The only feature I have added to PowerSDR that is ON by default (and cannot be turned off) is the "Waterfall Move" in the Panafall mode, but everything else is OFF by default, so you really shouldn't see any cpu difference in the default condition anyway.

73's
Darrin ke9ns.com

Lionel

Each time I install Darrin's latest revisions I feel like I have a new radio.  My 5000 and I are enjoying Darrin's creativity and knowledge.

Kevin

As a 6500 owner I'm envious of those that can run PowerSDR. Not only does the constant addition of new features seem attractive but the interface looks well polished and functional. I like how things are out in the open instead  of hidden in flag buttons and menus. Very nice looking work.

Maybe it's a case of the grass being greener on the other side. I wish there were more discussions about current and future SSDR and wish Flex was a bit more open concerning future versions. It just feels like it's a take it or leave it proposition.

KE9NS

Kevin,

Totally off subject, but I'm a big fan of "The Jetsons". I don't take my iPhone anywhere without my Jetson's Doorbell, and the "Everybody back to work" Ringtones

Darrin ke9ns.com

John

I've got pinky and the brain theme song as a ringtone on my android cell phone, Pity it cannot do PSDR Darrin. :-(

Kevin

Hi Darrin... I'm a big fan of all those old cartoons. I selected Elroy to poke fun at the FRS designated "ELMER". My quiet protest.  

Darren G7DAZ

Hi all,
new to this community; found it while searching for stuff for my new 5000A. I had T11 on my 1500 and thought it was awesome....now i have dual receivers on my 5000 i'm blown away with the little "extra's" that i keep finding :-)  the dual PanaFall is the dog's danglies, the mute tick-boxes are handy, the pan-fill change colour is cool as well as the analog meter. The "Auto Wtr?Pan Lvl" button (wording rather than button) took me some time to work out; in a nutshell it was noticeable upon band-switching and saves me having to keep going into setup to use the "slider".

I'm still learning each day...love it. Totally in awe of Darrin's efforts.

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to give "feedback on a possible fault" but i can't seem to find the relevant section. I will email Darrin after posting in here as well.

Anyhow my problem was (no longer as i had to uninstall everything and start afresh) the "BAND-STACK" function; whilst experimenting with it i accidentally copied a 40m frequency into the 80m index; so instead of having 3 i now had 5 (3 80m+2 40m) and couldn't for the life of me delete the two 40m freq's....not a problem says i, i'll ask on here later...however when i clicked the blue band-change (80m) button later on it no longer worked, it was as if i was locked out of 80m, Panic mode ensued and i thought my radio was broke. Experimentation with the standard (non T11) interface showed the radio was ok. ....much head scratching later i   realised the "button lock-out" was due to the 2 extra index's in the Band-Stack-Register....clicking on the numbers shown would indeed take me to the relevant 80m frequency however if i tried clicking the blue 80m button it suddenly had no effect and the mouse pointer jumped to the 40m button instead.

This was all cured by uninstalling everything and re-installing. Surely there must be an easier way to remove/delete the extra 4 frequencies so it defaults back to the standard 3 ?

Not associated but i'll ask anyhow :- Why does going from a plain (Default 2012) skin to the World Map skin increase my cpu from 36% (av) upto 56% (av) ? I could understand if it was say a moving picture but cpu increase on a static picture doesn't equate to me or am i missing something ? or is my pc **** lol ?

73 de G7DAZ (Darren)

KE9NS

Darren,

The only way (currently) to correct a messed up bandstack (which is inside the main database file) is to either load up a Backup database (Setup->Import), or go into the database itself and remove the bandstack entries that are messed up.

I'll work on a Delete button for the bandstack. 

But ,when PowerSDR is all setup the way you like it, do a Setup->Export database and keep that file handy. 

Then if something goes Wonky, you can simply do a Setup->Import database.

No need to uninstall anything.

The ke9ns robinson project skin (ke9ns6_world) is a large high resolution file. I probably need to reduce the file size or image resolution, but the built in Tracking world map seems to be fine.

Darrin ke9ns.com

Darren G7DAZ

Cheers Darrin,

many thanks for the swift response :-) ....yeah i did a database save earlier today for any future mishaps etc, ...as for the .xml file i've been putting off playing with that for a while just in case i **** anything up; but if i do just a copy of it 1st then i should be ok.

The idea of a delete button for the bandstack memory's sounds good, but in the meantime i'll play with a copy of the .xml document...i need to alter the bandplan info to keep it current to my location, so i'll familiarise myself whilst i'm there.

The cpu still went up with the tracking map on but i can use that as justification to the xyl why i need a new pc ;-)

73 de G7DAZ (Darren)

Richard McClelland, AA5S

For those who are using ancient PCs (like my eight year old Dell XPS 420), this newly released video card (Nvidia GTX 1050 TI) really picks up performance:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M25X363/ref=twister_B01MSNCDTA?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 

Plenty of reviews to be found online.

KC2QMA_John

Darrin KE9NS, Do you do the software development yourself or do you have help?

John

KE9NS

John,

Yes, but I always note any help in the Revision history list, on my web page. The only person to add code is Nick RN3KK. He just contributed code on an httpserver feature.

And there maybe more people jumping on in the future.

Darrin ke9ns.com

KE9NS

Just added a BandStack Sort button, and a BandStack entry Delete feature (Mouse Wheel Click), to the BackStack window. So now you can Add, Delete, or Sort.

Darrin ke9ns.com

KC2QMA_John

WOW! Do you ever sleep LOL
I figure at the rate things are going it should take FRS around 3-5 years to get SSDR to match up with PSDR as far as the basic features and they have a team and a good budget you are just one man and are able to have new features almost every month!

I don't know how you do it but keep up the great work!

John

KE9NS

Well, Flex wrote the code, I'm just adding my tweaks and mods. And, I'm learning a lot along the way.

Darrin ke9ns.com

Darren G7DAZ

Hi Darrin,

many many thanks for the "bandstack memory delete" function; it's much appreciated and sooooo much easier than editing the .xml document :-)  ....the VFO displays look much nicer; makes my radio look so pridddddddy. Not used the mp3 side of things yet, but it's got to be much easier than converting/editing from wav....keep up the good work sir.

73 de G7DAZ (Darren)

Darren G7DAZ

Hi Darrin,

love the new "ring colour" feature....tis one little mod that has (IMO) such a massive visual impact on my U.I. ....now it looks "proper" smart and is a joy to behold....no longer looks dull/plain.

Many many thanks for your hard work.

p.s. the coloured "temp/cpu/volts" box is also cool :-)

73 de G7DAZ (Darren)

John

Darrin, whats there to not like about it hi. I love the vocap contour map showing how far
one's signal should reach on different power levels. Now imagine something like this linked to a TEP map or even vhf/uhf openings , now that would be the cherry on top as it would indicate visual open paths from 10m up to microwaves.......
Darren uk, I am still drooling over it, even the family are excited  LoL.

73
John

Marty VK2VCC

likewise if your in OZ!! great job Darrin

KE9NS

Just finished adding a 10 min ID Timer:

It has 3 possible modes,

Standard: Just a pop-up window after 10 mins
Waterfall ID: Transmits your call sign as an image viewable from any SDR (but not sure its considered a legal form of ID yet?)
Audio ID: Transmits an audio File (which can be voice or CW)

LEFT Click on the “ID Timer: OFF” (just above the PowerSDR clock). This will start the 10 min countdown timer (synced to the nearest minute, so the first go around may be less than 10 min). When the counter reaches 0, “TIME TO ID” will flash.
Right Click on the “ID Timer: xx” changes to “wfID Timer: xx”, so at the end of the count down, in addition to the “TIME TO ID”, the Radio will Transmit your TXWaterID callsign (as long as the callsign box is Green).
Wheel Click on the the “ID Timer: xx” changes to “auID Timer: xx”, so at the end of the count down, in addition to the “TIME TO ID”, the Radio will Transmit an audio file found in the Quickaudio folder called IDTIMER.wav
TO Record your IDTIMER.wav file: You must have wave->Quickaudio save folder enabled, then Check the “Rec/Play ID” box, hit the REC button and record your ID message, hit the REC button a 2nd time to end your message. Right Click on the PLAY button and right click on the newest file created and rename to IDTIMER.wav. After you rename the file, select IDTIMER.wav and click OPEN.
You now have a permanent ID message. NOTE: this will work for recording a CW message. If you put the Flex into CW mode, hit the REC button and tap out your callsign (or use the CWX panel), then hit the REC button again when its done sending your call, then rename the file to IDTIMER.wav (as with a voice recording)

Darrin ke9ns.com