Tagged: sdrsharp

SDR# Website and Downloads Removed

Update: The author has updated the website with an explanation of why he took it down. He has also restored download functionality so now sdr-install.bat will work again.

The SDR# website, download links and repositories have been taken down and probably won’t be back for a number of days or weeks. This means the sdr-install.bat file will not work as well. If you already have SDR# installed it will continue to work as normal.

We aren’t exactly sure why this has happened, but it seems the author of SDR# did not like the many forks of the software that have been recently popping up. The forks may have been violating the licence that SDR# is under.

If you are new to RTL-SDR, our Quickstart guide has guides to using HDSDR and SDR-CONSOLE to try while SDR# is unavailable. HDSDR and SDR-CONSOLE are two good alternatives to SDR# but are slightly more difficult to set up and use.

See the Reddit discussion on this here.

Two new SDR# Plugins

Last month two new SDR# plugins where released on rtl-sdr.ru. The first is TimeShift SDR. This plugin creates a buffer which allows you to listen to any signal at any point in time on the waterfall within the buffer time. It is very useful for catching signals that you might have otherwise missed by being too slow to click on them. Update: Turns out Timeshift SDR isn’t exactly new. But it has recently been updated to work on the latest SDR# releases.

Timeshift SDR# Plugin
Timeshift SDR# Plugin

The second plugin is a Digital Audio Processor which adds in a squelch slider bar, an audio inverter, an audio band-pass filter and a de-emphasis filter.

digital_audio_processor_sdrsharp_plugin
Digital Audio Processor Plugin

Fork of SDR# with Added Features

Recently an RTL-SDR.com reader wrote in to let us know about a fork of SDR# written by “Gubo682” which has some added features. Note you will need to be a member of the SDR# Yahoo group to access the download page linked above. The added features and changes to SDR# are

Frequency Manager
– Names show up in spectrum
– Scan button for simple scanning through current group
– Selected group remembered after restart
– Adding new entry: group defaults to current group
– Simple DMR support (see Tips)
– SHIFT click (or SHIFT ENTER) will select according relais input frequency for 2m/70cm

Spectrum Display
– When dragging spectrum left/right, holding SHIFT will keep frequency constant

Waterfall Display
– With the new HF [Radio Freqeuency]/AF [Audio Frequency] button waterfall can be switched to AF. Cursor will be annotated with AF frequency.
– Splitter position (hopefully) restored properly after restart

Recording
– AF recording pauses if squelch closed

DX Cluster Plugin
– Displays DX cluster stations in the spectrum
– Displays currently on-air SW radio stations in spectrum (data from http://www.eibispace.de/)

In addition there is also now a notch filter with adjustable bandwidth which can be applied by right clicking in the new AF (Audio Frequency) mode of the waterfall.

To use with the RTL-SDR, you will need to download the SDRSharp_gubo68_4d.zip file, run install.bat and then manually un-comment the line in the SDRSharp.exe.config text file and then copy over rtlsdr.dll and libusb-1.0.dll from an SDR# installation that was installed using the Quickstart guide method.

You can follow the development of this modified SDR# on the SDRSharp Yahoo group, and specifically in this Yahoo Groups thread.

Modified "Gubo682" SDR# showing DX Cluster Frequency Names, Audio Spectrum and Notch Filter.
Modified “Gubo682” SDR# showing DX Cluster Frequency Names, Audio Spectrum and Notch Filter.

New CTCSS Detector Plugin for SDR#

CTCSS is an acronym for Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System and is a system that is used in shared two way radio systems. It is common for a single radio channel to be shared over a number of user groups for frequency use efficiency. CTCSS uses a special tone to identify each group of users, and this tone is used to prevent a group hearing radio chatter from another group sharing the channel.

Over on the SDR# Yahoo Groups forum, a CTCSS detector plugin for SDR# has been posted. The plugin can detect CTCSS tones and provide a squelch for the desired tone. The latest version of the plugin can be downloaded from this link.

CTCSS SDR# Plugin
CTCSS SDR# Plugin

SDRSharp Video Tutorial

If you’re new to the world of low cost software defined radio, and have just been through our Quickstart guide, this YouTube tutorial video by Clayton Smith on using the SDR# program may be useful to you.

In the video Clayton explains how to use SDR# and some of its many features, how to calibrate the RTL-SDR offset in the software,  and he also shows how to receive a few interesting signals in his area.

Getting started with SDR# and an RTL SDR tuner

AirSpy – A New 12Bit, 20Msps SDR Dongle Prototype by the Author of SDRSHarp

AirSpy is a new SDR Dongle currently being prototyped by the author of the popular SDRSharp software receiver platform. The technical specifications are as follows

– 24 – 1750 MHz range
– 12bit ADC @ 20msps
– Cortex M4F @ 204 MHz
– 10 MHz panoramic spectrum view
– Highly programmable / customizable

AirSpy also uses the R820T tuner, which is commonly used in the RTL-SDR as well.

Compared to the RTL-SDRs 8bit [email protected], this is a large improvement, but we hope it will not cost much more than the RTL-SDR or FunCube.

Currently, if you want more information on the dongle there is only an AirSpy Yahoo Group available.

AirSpy Prototype Front

More Comparisons Between the E4000, R820T, FC0013 and Linrad and SDRSharp

A few days ago we posted a video by sm5bsz showing some comparisons between the E4000, R820T and FC0013 tuners, and also a comparison between the special linearity gain mode driver in Linrad and standard Osmocom driver in SDRSharp.

Now sm5bsz, programmer of Linrad and the special gain modes for the E4000 has done another test using only Linrad, which more fairly demonstrates the difference between the various tuners, and the effect of the special gain drivers in Linearity mode. He writes

In this video RTL2832 dongles are compared for sensitivity, spurs and intermodulation. The difference between the Linrad linearity mode and the original Osmocom gain setting is demonstrated as well as spurs in R820T and FC0013.
Which one to prefer depends on the local RF Environment and whether a selective filter is used between the antenna and the dongle.

Note: The Linrad vs SDRSharp video has been removed by the uploader.

Finally in this video, he also compares the standard Osmocom driver to the sensitivity mode available in the modified gain profile drivers. He writes

The sensitivity mode has very poor performance for signals far away from the passband, but it allows about 10 dB better dynamic range for interferences within the passband. Sensitivity mode is for usage with a selective preamplifier while the Osmocom gain mode is a reasonable compromise. The Linrad linearity gain mode is for use without filters in difficult RF Environments.

e4000 sensitivity mode

Linrad can be downloaded from here and the modified Osmocom drivers with linearity and sensitivity gain profiles for the E4000 can be downloaded here. SDRSharp can also use the modified Osmocom drivers with Linearity and Sensitivity modes with this plugin by Zefie.