Below some of the additional features added to the default SDRsharp radio (v1.0 15-aug-2019) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that the upmost 'spectrumanalyzer' display is the main display to be used for controlling the SDR. Use 'Span', 'Floor', 'Contr(ast)' and 'Intens(ity)' sliders to change upper and lower Spectrum analyser and Waterfall signal levels. Use the 'set' button or 'Right' mouse-button and select 'Do autoscaling' to automatically set lower signal level when 'Play' is active. Use the 'dBm / dBu / S-pts / %' list box to switch between signal level labeling. Use the 'Speed' slider to independently set the waterfall speed somewhere between 20 secs and 1.5 hours. After having clicked somewhere in the SpectrumAnalayzer display one can use Left and Rigth arrow keys to move frequency. Use Page-up and Page-down to move/change centerfrequency according 'Cent-step' listbox entry. Use mouse scroll button on one of the top Cent/Freq digits to change (center)frequency. Click on top of bottom of digit to increase/decrease digit value by one. Or if one of the digits shows blue use up/down arrow. Shortcut keys: to select VFO-A to VFO-C A select mode AM S Select mode SAM L select mode LSB U select mode USB D select mode DSB N select mode nFM W select mode wFM B 5 set BandWidth to 5 khz (do not type the white spaces) G 50 (Enter> set audio level (Gain) to 50% C 100 (Enter> set Center stepsize to 100 khz Z 9 (Enter> Set Frequency stepsiZe to 9 khz Perform auto scaling (un)mute audio 1350 Set frequency to 1350 Khz 1350 K Set frequency to 1350 Khz 1.2 M Set frequency to 1.2 Mhz When the Spectrum display is selected (has focus) (after having clicked somewhere in the Spectrum display) One can use the below keys: Right/Left arrow increase/decrease active frequency with 'stepsize' amount. Up/Down arrow increase/decrease active frequency with' stepsize' amount. Page-Up/Page-Down increase/decrease Center frequency with 'center step' amount. Use the upmost buttons on the left 'FFT display' panel to enable/disable the RF Waterfall, IF baseband, AF audio and/orAM envelope displays. Right click in IF baseband spectrum display to add or remove up to 4 notches, left click to enable/disable notch. Use mouse wheel (or drag side of notch) to change notch width. (as an alternative one can use the 'IF' button to toggle between normal RF-spectrum and IF-baseband mode) One can also use the IF display to more precisely set/tune main receiving frequency ans/or passband width. Use the 'Lock' button to enable/disable frequency locking when (Vector)Scope display is active (XY mode, X=AM, Y=PM) To more precisely inspect AM audio levels on the 'Scope' panel, please disable the AGC function/button. The 'RF gain' slider will automatically adjust itself to an appropriate level. If needed manually adjust RF gain to get the display within range. After a frequency change the AGC function is automatically re-enabled again to avoid audio overloads. 'Radio' panel: Vfo A to C Re-use stored setting when this Vfo was last used. For instance to quickly switch between 3 bands of interrest. 'Audio' panel: [1] to [4] buttons Enable/disable audio notch 1 to 4, visible when IF passband is enabled on FFT window. Or ... drag the notches just as if you would drag/change the Vfo passband. Click on notch to enable/disable a previously set notch. 'Input' Select soundcard if a soundcard based SDR is connected 'Output' Select soundcard for headphone or speaker output. 'FFT diplay' panel: 'Waterfall' To enable/disable the RF spectrum WaterFall display. 'show IF' To enable/disable the IF baseband spectrum display 'Audio' To enable/disable the AF audio horizontal moving display. 'Envelope' To enable/disable the AM envlope display. 'S-meter offset' to change S-meter readings when using an RTL-stick or other front-end. 'Indep sideb.' To toggle between default and Perseus style bandwidth changing (using mouse). 'Spect' button to select/change Spectrumanalyzer fill, gradient and/or line color. The same holds for the 'W-fall', 'Audio' and 'Scope' buttons. 'Scope' panel -> [...] button 'Vfo gain' Manually adjust gain when AGC is disabled or to change scope Y axis visibility. 5 lower sliders to change the behaviour slow/fast of the corresponding coloured audio level meter (bars). 'Avg' slider change averaging level for locking on Vector scope display, default value is around 40 'Gain' slider change amplification for locking in Vector scope display, default value is around 9 'Advanced' panel 'Auto Scale' To enable/disable auto scaling after center-frequency change. 'Fast conv.' Toggle between Fast Convolve and default principles for the notch filters 'FFT wind' Select the window type for the FFT Spectrumanalyser and Waterfall displays 'VFO wind' Select the window type to use for the VFO band filter. 'Bandwdt' Select filter bandwidth (same as BW combo to the right of freq-indicator) 'Filter order' To set the filter quality for the VFO filter (default=400, higher values, more CPU). To get deeper/sharper IF baseband notches, select a lower min-samplerate on Audio panel. 'Latency' To experiment of you are experiencing audio drop-outs (default=100ms) Using a RTL based dongle one can also inspect the 'audio' spectrum for commercial stereo stations in the FM band. To do this, enable the Audio display on the FFT display panel. Tune to a station in the FM band and set the 'min sampling' on the 'Audio' panel to 96000 using the Sampling box on the 'Audio' panel. Select wide-FM (wFM) as the audio mode on the 'Radio' panel to be sure the bandwidth (BW) is 180 kHz or more. Disable 'Filter audio' and toggle 'FM stereo' for best results. *************************************************************************************************************************** If your audio contains drop-outs you can experiment with the below: - Select a lower FFT resolution (e.g. 4096) on 'FFT display' panel. - Decrease the speed for the FFT waterfall and/or the Audiogram. - Select 'Audiogram' instead of Envelope scope' by disabling lower right 'Scope' button. - Select only 'SP + Waterfall' in the 'View' combo on the 'FFT display' panel. - Decrease the overall size of your SDRSharper window on your computer monitor. - Disable the 'Fast Conv.' button on the 'Advanced' panel. - Try different 'min sampling' setting on the 'Audio' panel. Depending on sound card selected some setting(s) might to better. *************************************************************************************************************************** Some more HINTS, TRICKS and suggestions: - For best audiogram waterfall display select 48000 for the 'min sampling' on the 'Audio' panel. However this will degrade the visibility on the IF spectrum display. - For best details on the IF display, select 16000 or 24000 for the 'min sampling' on the 'Audio' panel. - This 'min (output) sampling' value will also affect audio quality and the bandwidth for the 'Raw' output, so it's something to experiment with. - For more pronounced IF baseband nothes (USB, LSB, CW) use lower 'min-sampling' values e.g. 8000 or 16000. - When SAM demodulation is selected, use the 'AM pseud' button on the 'Audio' panel to switch between mono and 'pseudo stereo'. (Left ear one sideband, right ear the other sideband). - Use the 'Vfo gain' slider and/or timebase combo on the collapsible 'Scope panel on the left to 'manually adjust the amplification for the Scope and Envelope diplays *************************************************************************************************************************** For HF below 30 Mhz, the first station in the Eibi stationlist data is listed on the top line in the SpectrumAnalyzer. Click on this top-line to view all stations for the frequency. To get a longer list, increase the max on the last line. Mostly the strongest station will be on top of the list (this is the one displayed in de spectrum analyzer). If, for your location, another station in the list is the strongest, double-click on the required station name. It will move up to the top of the list. After closing it will be displayed in de spectrum display Use the [Download] button on the 'Display' panel to automatically download/update new frequencylist data. Be sure you have entered the lattitude and longitude coordinated for you current receiver location first. Use Google Maps (click on your location) to get your latt/long values. You can also download/update the frequencylist data by hand: 1) go to http://fmscan.org/perseus.php 2) Set your location using 'Perseus location search' 3) select LW/MW/SW (0-30Mhz) 4) select CSV format 5) select 'semicolon' as the CSV separator 6) Click 'download userlist1.txt' 7) After some time a new page shows up, right click and use 'save as' to save the data on your local hard disk. 8) Copy the file to your SDRsharp runtime folder with the name 'userlist1.csv' 9) Restart SDRsharper **************************************************************************************************************************** To enable 7-segment LED indicator style numbers for Center and Frequency indicators copy the 'LCD Bold', 'LCD Light', 'LCD Normal' and 'LCD Ultra' font files to your fonts folder. (Lcd-bold.tff, Lcd-l.tff, Lcd-n.tff, Lcd-u.tff)