CW Skimmer V2 released

Chris DL5NAM

...have fun 73 Chris

Wayne VK4ACN

Yay. Thanks for the heads up.

Sergey R5AU

Thank Chris ! What is new instead ver1 to ver 2 ?



does it mean SDR bridge not necessary any more ?

I'll will be on my setup only at evening (((

Chris DL5NAM

Serge, i cant test it. I am in Croatia for vacation and work remote my home station. 73 Chris

Peter Bacon

CW Skimmer 2.0 has been released. New in this version:

new Spectrum via UDP function; improved prefix identification; various small improvements.

The upgrade is free for all registered users. Unregistered users have a new 30-day trial period.

73 Alex VE3NEA

Chris DL5NAM

... have not check: F6xxx as TRX possible ?

AH0U

Anyone have any setup screen shots... I can't get it to work.... no waterfall and an error msg stating Unable to create the SSR14X object

Mark_WS7M

The SDR14 is specific to a radio that has an active X control.  The other one uses USB.

So for me I still need to use SDRBridge to get I/Q data over.   Without SDR bridge I can only do standard DAX audio.

Sergey R5AU

Yeah, have a read detailsm but we still need to start with SDR bridge:

"SDR-IQ and SDR-14SDR-IQ and SDR-14 are software-defined receivers produced by RF Space that cover the frequencies up to 30 MHz. CW Skimmer can use these radios with the bandwidth of 48 kHz, 96 kHz, or 192 kHz."  skimmer Help

AH0U

I am using SDR Bridge and it shows the correct slice and tracks with the radio but Skimmer does not... somehow the Bridge and Skimmer are no longer talking

Chris DL5NAM

It's look like V2.0 is a cosmetic update of V1.9 (dont know why he called upgrade V2.0) - i am wrong?

Patrick Moonen

What is the capability of this feature ?

Andy - KU7T

This capability sends data via UDP that N1MM+ can use for the spectrum display. Similar functionality is built into SmartSDR v2 (I think, could not try it yet...).

73,
Andy,
KU7T

AH0U

I tried this setting and the Skimmer stops and I get an error msg stating:

Unable to createSDR14X object so I went back to SoftRock and can now see output the skimmer screen but it is not following SDR Bridge so it does not follow the Flex and does not decode...any ideas???

Ria

Not really much of an upgrade for us... but it still works so that's a plus. Still have to use SDR-Bridge. 

Andy F5VAI

Now that CW Skimmer has the capability to send data via UDP, is there a simple mod that Flex could do to show callsigns to appear in SmartSDR like IOS version does.  

73, Andy F5VAI  

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Andy,
Here is the request to add spots to the display.  It is a very popular idea and been on the list for 4 years but I doubt it is going to be a simple enhancement either way.

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/pfskimer_what_is_the_possibility_for_a_smartsdr_dis...

Maybe add your thought about the enhancement to the UDP feature to see if that gets any feedback from FRS.  Either  way, I'm hoping we see it happen one day though.  It would sure be nice for those of us that are primarily CW OPs. 

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
SSDR / DAX / CAT/ 6700 -  V 1.10.16
Win10

Michael Aust

Andy,
  Great comment, hope Flex takes notice, I think this would be great
to send data from CW Skimmer via UDP 
73 Mike

Eric Gruff

I'm going nuts with the new CW Skimmer, SDR Bridge and SmartSDR v2. I have tried adjusting many settings, but can't get the audio (IQ) to line up with the correct frequency. I play around and get one station lined up correctly by messing with the LO frequency or audio IF, then QSY and everything is crazy again. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the correlation between CW Skimmer frequency and radio/SmartSDR.

My settings are SoftRock-IF, sampling rate 192 kHz (both DAX and CW Skimmer), CW pitch to match sidetone (750 Hz), and various Audio IFs. 

Using the old CW Skimmer and SDR Bridge, everything used to work with SmartSDR v1, but now there seems to be a disconnect between the programs. Anyone have any ideas?

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Eric,
There are some troubleshooting tips in the quickstart guide.  
  
http://www.nn4zz.com/Data/NN4ZZ%20CwSkimmer%20Bridge%20setup%207-Jun-2017.pdf

Not sure without seeing your setup for the audio tab but you might want to check the "channel" settings from page 25.  

Also see the notes on page 18 about the .ini file.

Also check the telnet settings, page 5. 

If you find it is something else, let me know and I'll add it to the guide.

good luck...

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
SSDR / DAX / CAT/ 6700 -  V 1.10.16
Win10

 

Kevin

Ya. Something isn't right. I used to have out of sync issues in the past but now it seems permanent. Seems to be affected by the height of the skimmer window and width of the SSDR panadapter. Jiggle them around a bit and it all of a sudden starts working for a moment or two. I tried finding some rhyme and reason but it just seemed to be off by an arbitrary amount each time.

I had thought v2 of skimmer would have supported Flex better so no middleware was required. I don't think SDR bridge had any updates since Skimmer updated but I'm also not sure that's the problem. Skimmer has never been that stable on the Flex for me. Others seem to be able to deal with it. It rarely gets used here. Too bad. It seems like great software.

73,
Kev K4VD


Eric Gruff

Thanks, Al. I decided to uninstall both programs, then reinstalled per your very nice guide. Seems OK now, but I had to restore the default ini files too. Not a big deal, and it's working.

Your help is much appreciated!

73 - Eric

Steve-N5AC

This is the N1MM Logger+ spectrum port. No need to use CW Skimmer for this -- it's included in SmartSDR v2.0. See the SmartSDR v2.0 release notes for more info.

Eric Gruff

Kevin - you're right. I reinstalled everything, and it sort of worked for a minute. Then I realized there is no reliability of the sync between the skimmer window and the panadapter. If I click on CW Skimmer where there is a signal and decoded call, it sometimes goes to the correct frequency and I hear the signal, but other times I'm off by several kHz. I can tell where I am only after waiting for CW Skimmer to start decoding again and then I can see the callsign.

It seems mostly random, so there's no way to use it during contests.Since I changed two variables (CW Skimmer version and SmartSDR version), I'm not sure where the fault lies.

Kevin

Unfortunately, if you search back in this community you'll see similar issues reported for a long time. In my worst case, using SDR Bridge and CW Skimmer actually threw SSDR's waterfall out of sync with SSDR's spectrum display:
https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/am-i-going-nuts-spectrum-vs-waterfall

There are some reports that say you should only change frequency by using Skimmer. Others, including Tim, says it all works fine. 

I try (often) to use SDR Bridge with CW Skimmer to report spots to DX Labs spot collector. Skimmer has a built-in DX Cluster. This way, Commander's band map will show the spots my radio actually sees. In theory, great! In practice, not useful. In a contest or even just casual operating it's no fum to click on a spot in the band map or a call in skimmer and then have to figure out where you ended up.

I had high hopes but v2 of anything doesn't seem to be working out for me. Can't wait for v3!



Always attracted to Skimmer posts because I'm always looking for the fix. Lots of promise if it all can just work together. Lots of frustration (and eventually acceptance) when it doesn't.

73,
Kev K4VD

AH0U

I have read several of these posts but it works greasy for me so I wonder if it has something to do with operating systems or something in the computer itself... I use Windows 7 Pro by the way