SDRSharp (SDR#) Help

[DaveNF2G]

(Mods, if this thread becomes generally useful, then please feel free to Sticky it.)

I will start off with some questions of my own:

1) Why does my USB SDR receiver seem more sensitive with SDR# than with other software? It seemed to me that it should make no difference because the hardware is the same, but evidently this is not correct.

2) How can I correct the error between the actual frequency tuned and the frequency displayed? For example, the box says 462.669.000 when I am tuned to 462.675.000 MHz.

3) What filter is meant under Radio at Filter Bandwidth? 12500 Hz seems awfully wide for NFM. I'm guessing it is a RF filter and not an AF filter.

4) Is there a way to make the frequency grid on the upper frequency display lock to actual allocated frequencies at the spacing indicated in the Step Size window?

These are all I have for now, but there might be more...
:wink:

 

[kilokat7]

I'll add one more:

5) I know you can play back .wav format files with SDR#, but can you generate RF spectrum recordings with it as well? I didn't see any recording feature within the program unless I missed the obvious. I just assumed this was a given with any SDR software today, but maybe not.

 

[jpryor]

SDR# is really turning out to be a great piece of software. Youssef the author and team have done some real good work.

1-SDR is all about getting the software code as close to the antenna as possible. This software implementation is providing great Automatic RF Gain and AGC controls along with superb Automatic IQ Correction for great image rejection. These software features alone are making the relatively cheap DVB-T style RTL receivers shine, and much better than on other software packages.

2-To correct the displayed frequency, click on the Front end button on the Radio settings panel. Adjust the Frequency correction (ppm) option +/- the appropriate direction and amount to make the correction. For example I have needed to set my value to -25 to correct the displayed frequencies. This will vary depending each user's hardware and setup.

3-That is the RF filter bandwidth. You will see it varies by mode. You can also adjust the filter bandwidth from the spectrum display by clicking and holding on either side of the shaded filter rectangle, than dragging the size of the filter in or out further to better fit a received signal.

4-Yes, click on the Snap to grid checkbox in the bottom section of the Radio settings panel. Once that is enabled, all adjustments, scrolling and clicking will snap to the nearest frequency based on the current Mode and Step size settings. Indeed very handy, plus with the mouse over frequency being spot on as well. Make sure you have the latest version as this feature was a more recent addition.

5-Not there yet, but some folks have asked. Check the SDR# blog and or join their Yahoo group for updates.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Many thanks to Jeffrey for those excellent answers!

 

[datainmotion]

Wirelessly posted (Clacking rocks together: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-us; DROID X2 Build/4.5.1A-DTN-150-30) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Yet another gem discovered! Can hardly wait to try this on my IQ and FCD - thanks guys!

 

[jpryor]

Also an addition from a recent nightly development build now offers Front end control for independently enabling and disabling both the RTL AGC and Tuner AGC. Gives you some extra flexibility and experimentation for finding the right combination of Automatic Gain Control settings that work best for various needs.

Some exciting looking functionality in the development pipeline including Auto Tuner for automatic peak signal tuning and UniTrunker for trunking support (https://www.assembla.com/code/sdrsharp/subversion/changesets). Up to this point folks have also been pushing the received signal via VAC (Virtual Audio Cable) to various trunking and audio/digital decoding programs.

For an Auto Tuning example, see this video (SDRSharp Peak Detection 'enhancements' - YouTube) for SDRSharp Peak Detection 'enhancements' in action.

Here are some additional links for SDR# that may be handy for folks who are looking for more details:

SDR# | A Software Defined Radio in C# SDR# | A Software Defined Radio in C#
Windows Software [rtlsdr.org wiki] Windows Software - Installing SDR#
SDRSharp : SDRSharp SDRSharp : SDRSharp - Groups - Yahoo

And if you are completely new to Software Defined Radio and want more information for using the $20-$30 DVB-T style RTL tuners in general, check the main "OsmoSDR - turn a USB TV tuner into an SDR" thread.

 

[kitradref1]

You guys are way over my head but I bought the unit and loaded sdrsharp. Is there a user manual yet that actually describes the gui? I know it's real new, but for us semi nubes, I'd like to know what the lsb, usb etc really means. ... in english.
If I'm in 450.7550 should the radio setting be nfm, lsb...stuff like that.
I know step size and basics, but like to know more about filter settings, what shift means.
This is a great program and will only be better when I mount an attenna.

If anyone can point me to some more basic instructions and such.
And please don't waste your time correcting my spelling or some other crap like that.
This forum has much more class than that.

Thank you for any input.

kitt

 

[n9mxq]

450.755 should be NFM (narrow FM) WFM is Wide FM (broadcast) AM is just that, LSB and USB are Lower and Upper Sidebands (Not used a lot with this dongle)

You may want to join the SDR# group on Yahoo.

And I see nothing wrong with your spelling..So no worries there ;-)

 

[SDobbie]

Installation issues

I have installed the drivers for RTL SDR using Zadig latest version. I make sure that the hardware id's match and install them for bulk in interface 0 and once installed, it does not show up in sdr sharp. I have tried reinstalling and restarting. I am using 32 bit Windows 7 and the Bulk interface 0 comes up under universal serial bus devices as installed.

 

[SDLovell]

@SDobbie, you were missing SHRSharp.RTLSDR.dll

I have installed the drivers for RTL SDR using Zadig latest version. I make sure that the hardware id's match and install them for bulk in interface 0 and once installed, it does not show up in sdr sharp. I have tried reinstalling and restarting. I am using 32 bit Windows 7 and the Bulk interface 0 comes up under universal serial bus devices as installed.

I know this post is aging, but since SDobbie's "hijacking" question was never answered, and the same thing just happened to me:
A: You were missing the SDRSharp.RTLSDR.dll... To correct, grab the nightly build at http://sdrsharp.com/downloads/sdr-nightly-rtlsdr.zip and put the contents in your SDRSharp directory. The dll you needed is included.

73
KC9YQJ

 

[majoco]

There are various versions of Zadig for different OS - I had problem like you when trying to get it to work on an old laptop running WinXP. - downloaded the correct Zadig and all's well.

 

[foxy647130]

SDRSharp setup help

Please let me send someone a teamviewer link and you can take control of my sdrsharp setting and fine tune them please I have the control folder and voice fold also DSDPlus I just can't get it right

 

[KF6ORX]

Ditto on no installation/user guide problem. Running SDR# on WinXP with Realtek RTL2832U/R820T dongle. Began experiencing BSoDs with error codes 50Hex and C5Hex. Since the 50Hex error points to the driver as one possible cause I reinstalled the driver that came with the device and ran ZADIG successfully using libwdi. Now when I attempt to run SDRsharp I get "1 compatible device found but it is busy". What's that all about?

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[DK327]

Now when I attempt to run SDRsharp I get "1 compatible device found but it is busy". What's that all about?

Anyone have any ideas?

I usually get this if UniTrunker is using the dongle or another instance of SDR# is running... Try rebooting and checking again... As for the BSOD, I got this on XP with older version of SDR# when I tried to change frequency while it was still playing. Had to 1st stop, change the freq, then hit play again. This seems to have resolved in new version of SDR#. Hope this helps...

 

[SCPD]

I reinstalled the driver that came with the device

Don't do that - it won't help. When you ran Zadig afterwards, it undid that step. The point behind running Zadig is to associate the standard WinUSB driver with your RTL stick.

 

[radioman2001]

Quote"I have installed the drivers for RTL SDR using Zadig latest version. I make sure that the hardware id's match and install them for bulk in interface 0 and once installed, it does not show up in sdr sharp. I have tried reinstalling and restarting. I am using 32 bit Windows 7 and the Bulk interface 0 comes up under universal serial bus devices as installed.

I had a similar error, but mine was the dongle was coming up as a HID Infrared device. I had to go to properties in the "safely remove device" of the USB port and uninstall, then run Zadig, and it then saw the device properly.

The problem I am having and I am trying to research it is it says "target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:1234" I presume that it has something to do with the local NIC card, but I don't know what the dongle would have to do with that. I can confirm the RTL device works on another machine.

 

[DK327]

The problem I am having and I am trying to research it is it says "target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:1234" I presume that it has something to do with the local NIC card, but I don't know what the dongle would have to do with that. I can confirm the RTL device works on another machine.

You might be selecting RTL-SDR/TCP under devices instead of RTL-SDR/USB...

 

[KF6ORX]

Big SDRSharp Problem

I usually get this if UniTrunker is using the dongle or another instance of SDR# is running... Try rebooting and checking again... As for the BSOD, I got this on XP with older version of SDR# when I tried to change frequency while it was still playing. Had to 1st stop, change the freq, then hit play again. This seems to have resolved in new version of SDR#. Hope this helps...

Thanks for your reply. This response took so long because my WinXPSP3 crashed ( See below), Solved device busy issue by reinstalling (again) WinUSB driver with Zadig. Then things got really interesting (and frustrating). The BSoDs continued at random intervals like 20min, an hour, even as long as 5 hours all with total hands-off of SDRSharp. The BSoDs evolved from 0x50 (Page Fault), to 0xC5 (Driver Corrupted), 0xC4 (Driver Verifier Detected Violation) and then 0x8E (Kernel32). This last one was fatal. It clobbered my system. Had to reload from a recent backup. I've verified that SDR# is the latest version (1324) and that Zadig is the WinXP version. I've run Windows Driver Verifier and it says everything's fine. Run out of things to try and can't risk crashing the system by continuing to troubleshoot problem. Too bad.

I've downloaded HDSDR but it just doesn't have the capabilities of SDRSharp and its plugins.

Thanks again for your response.

 

[DaveNF2G]

You might have a bad memory chip in your PC. The fact that this is not a widely reported phenomenon indicates that it's not a problem with either SDRSharp (although it sometimes throws protected memory errors) or Unitrunker.

 

[KF6ORX]

Possibility of bad memory

Yes, I thought about that. However, SDRSharp is the only program on my PC that causes this problem. Nevertheless, I'll run the Dell full memory check overnight. If anything pops up I'll let you know.

I just reinstalled SDRSharp and it upgraded me from v1324 to v1326. See if that helps.

Also, I found a post on page 8 that talked about installing SDRSharp on a desktop and a laptop. The desktop install went ok but the laptop install failed. For some reason he checked the versioning of .net Framework. He found he was missing a version (3.5 I think) on the laptop. After he installed the missing version the install worked. I found I was missing version 4.0 so I downloaded that version. No way of knowing what dependencies SDRSharp has on .NET Framework.

Thanks