Since there has been so much discussion for a way to scan with the SDR, here is my feeble attempt with only about 4 hours of work and testing at a simple scan program that will interface with PowerSDR as a CAT program. I made the screen small and always on TOP so that you will not lose focus, etc.
Being a very (and I stress, _very_) alpha version, it is somewhat limited in the following ways: 1) You MUSTset your SDR com port to COM6, 57600 baud, 8 stop bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. Reason for that is simple; that's the way mine is set ;) Later, and only if folks are interested enough, I will make a setup menu to save your serial port settings to anything from com1 to com16, etc., etc. Again, if I get enough feedback, I'll make a setup menu for your com port. 2) I have only tested timing issues on MY computer. I have only seldom seen some issues where VAC or PowerSDR goes into some "never-land" state where I can't read anything from the com port. This has been pretty rare however. If this does occur, I can usually wake things back up by unchecking and then re-checking the "CAT Control" check box in PowerSDR setup. Here are some of the features I've put in so far: 1) Allows user to set low and high range of scan freqs. in Mhz. 2) Currently has a user selectable scan step size from 1 to 10 kcs. 3) dBm threshold level - user selectable. Overcomes some of the problems with spurs. 4) Pauses on any signal at or above the dBm threshold for 2 seconds, then resumes. 5) Pause button to allow user to freeze the scanning. 6) Continue button to allow scanning where the user paused (see #5). 7) A "Loop" check-box to force a continuous loop of scanning for the selected freq. range. To exit the program, just close the window. All serial port polling is threaded so that other events and processes are still available. If you try it, please let me know any problems you have, comments, etc. If there is enough interest, I will further test and develop this app. I wrote this for myself since I did not want the overhead of a full CAT program like Ham Radio Deluxe running just so I could scan on the SDR. If you want something like that, then I suggest you get HRD, as it's a nice program for full CAT control. Here's where you can download the SDR Scanner: http://w5ami.net/sdrscan.zip Unzip wherever you want...only one file for now. -- "There is nothing more uncommon than common sense." -- Frank Lloyd Wright _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
