AOR5000 Best Software?

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gigyahurts

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I have been reading these forums for a while and signed up today because I have a AOR5k on order. It is an unblocked +3 and I would like to know what people find is the best software for operating. In past threads Butel, Bonito, Radio Control and Ergo were mentioned and all look good, but I would like to know different opinions of users.
 

Fast1eddie

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Using Butel on all my AOR's. Pretty straightforward, little quirky like any other. Basic but adequate help section. Just enough to point you in the right direction. I like it, but am looking at alternatives.

The 5000 has a horrible interface and just won't talk right. I only use it for programming. Newer model though and that shortcoming may have been fixed.

Nice!
 

gigyahurts

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Thanks Ed, What are you running for digital decoding? I have been using multipsk, hrd, pcale with my ts2000. I ran into problems downloading satellite imagery due to bandwidth. This and other reasons are why I got the aor inbound.

Also, I will be sharing antennas with my transmitter so I am placing an rf sensing switch on the coax. MFJ Enterprises Inc.

Any opinions.

Also, how do you find the spectrum analyser in the butel software?
 
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ka3jjz

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It's always wise to talk to other 5000 owners (like Ed) when addressing questions like software - and here's another place to do it...

ar5000 : AOR AR5000/Alpha/2000/2300/5001 RX

You should be prepared to be more specific about what you use the 5000 for - SWLing, digital, utilities, aircraft, whatever. With such a broadbanded receiver, multiple applications are certainly possible.

best regards...Mike
 

vince48

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I would suggest Radio Control. I use it with my AR5000+3 and my Icom 2500. Excellent DB features and scanning functions. Happy Holidays

vince48
 

gigyahurts

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Thanks Vince and Mike! I have just signed up with the yahoo group as well.

About what I will be doing. I currently have an 80 meter loop antenna and a diamond V2000 antenna. I am probably in the too ignorant to even know what I don't know yet category since I have not had access to anything above 500megs and not had much time for anything under 3.5 meg.

My first task is to get good imagery from wx satellites not wxfax but direct feed. My second task is to intercept police radio xmissions which just switched to digital. It is ironic that I will do this because I can't stand listening to the current analogue signals now, just that the change to digital has piqued my curiosity.

I am interested in utility stations and have decoded a few French 4285 signals, some acars and work a bit of ale. I am trying to understand the Russian Signal Analysis software to determine what some of the modes are that I am having trouble with.

I will probably hook up a SDR to have a look at a broad swath of bandwidth in the near future and was one driving factor in the aor5k purchase.

I want to program the radio via computer because I can't stand trying to do any radio programming from the front panel. I also want to record signals automatically for later decoding.
 

frankh

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the butel software makes programing the 5k MUCH easier as the keypad layout is horrible also its nice to see all the fields at once I haven't tried any of the all in one software packages but I cant see them being a good fit with this receiver
for a panadapter I would recommend the rf space sdr-14 when combined with the 5k its a formidable package Ive tried panadpters from avcom and rei and the sdr wins hands down
aor's ctcss board and antenna switch are nice add ons as well
one more tip the mini din for the accessory out is the same as apple uses for their mouse for a no solder solution as the mini din's are a pita to work with
 
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Fast1eddie

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Gig, I wanted to send you a PM however that feature is blocked on your end. Got some thoughts and wanted to ask you about the digital modes. I would like to try that and would appreciate some advice.

Gimme a e-mail at ShinyBadge_735@yahoo.com and we'll pick up from there.
 

gigyahurts

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Thanks for the info, Frank. I have been looking at the SDR14 and the QS1R for panadapters. The no solder din is a real good tip as well!

Ed, I have changed the settings for PM's or I can email you if you like. It may be a question that more people would find useful on the board as well, but that is your call. I am happy to answer what I can but won't have my A5K till early next week. Any decoder info will be based on my experience with the TS2K and that has been mostly in the HF bands.
 

vince48

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Greetings, I would suggest the SDR14 for the panadapter. I currently have the QS1R and had the SRD14 prior. I love the QS1R but for panadapter is not it's strong suit. The SDR14 is better suited for this. Happy Holidays
 

KC1UA

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I'll second Vince's comments on the SDR14. Superb combination with the AR5000 receiver. SDR-14's are no longer manufactured though so you'd have to find one used or consider one of RFSpace's newer offerings. Check their website at www.rfspace.com .
 

offsite

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Gigy, If you are up for the added expense, the RFSpace NetSDR is the best panadapter I have found for my 5K.

Coupled with the SDR-Radio Console (see the RFSpace site), this combo is amazing for frequencies above 30 MHz.

For 30 MHz and below you likely will much prefer using the NetSDR as a standalone receiver, since it has better specs than any of the big box radios I have used.

But for frequencies above the HF band you will need to use the 5K as a sort of continuously variable wide ranging transverter for the NetSDR.

With this system you will be able to record RF spans up to 2 MHz wide anywhere on the spectrum up to 3 gHz and play them back for future analysis. And, of course, you can do real time demodulating and decoding within that 2 MHz span, as well.

Before it starts rolling off, I think the 5K's 10.7 MHz IF is about 10 MHz wide above 30 MHz and around 500 kHz wide below 30 MHz because of internal filtering. But this is way better than the R8500, for instance, with its 40 kHz IF limit below 30 MHz. [With the NetSDR alone you get the full 2 MHz span below 30 MHz, of course]

In my experience, there's no returning to a standalone 'big box' receiver once you've used point and click tuning, and the amazing signal conditioning and noise handling features that SDR-Radio Console and the NetSDR will bring to your new AR5000.

73
-rb-
 

gigyahurts

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Outstanding info everyone! Thanks for taking the time to post. Let me split this into two lines of inquiry; software and panadapters.

From what everyone is saying, go with single purpose software and get the best database / programming software and that would seem to be either Butel or Radio Control. I will look more closely at these and make a choice.

As to panadapters, I have been hovering over the SDR-14 buy now key on several occasions. Based on this discussion I am glad I waited. As I understand it, the NetSDR does what the SDR14 does but can record 2meg compared with 190 khz. That is definitely worth 400 bucks.

On paper though, the QS1R looks like it does the same 2meg record and slightly higher specs in some cases at 600 bucks cheaper! Vince, is it a poorer panadapter because it will not show as much spectrum on the screen at once? Or is it because it is more difficult to control both radios with the software? The use of SDR via the 10.7 if is the main reason I got the 5K for use over 30 meg.

Thanks for the help on this.
 

vince48

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Gigyahurts,
The QS1R is a great piece of hardware and software, but panadapter service is not as good as a SDR14 or the NetSDR in my opinion.
It's a bit cumbersome to use the QS1R because of the offset. I did use it very briefly with my AOR5000+3 but it was not as good as the SDR14 setup I had.
Check out the QS1R yahoo group. You will find a few messages regarding this. Now, if you are looking for a SDR, I would strongly advocate the QS1R.

vince48
 

gigyahurts

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Thanks Vince, Saw the posts you talked about. Really appreciate the input. Looks like the netsdr it is.

Got the radio yesterday and hooked it up after work. Really great audio and sensitivity. I really wish I had the antenna splitter because I would have liked to try to contact some of the stations I heard. The loop is going to work fine for the bottom of the spectrum but I will need a better antenna for the stuff over 500megs. The diamond works up to 1.8 gig (which is as far as I got last night) but it is not very good.

Hope to get it hooked up to the computer tonight. Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions!
 

offsite

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Happy Holidays, Vince!

Been running the NetSDR remotely via the net server that is part of Simon's SDR-Radio suite. He's said there will even be a rev soon to allow use of an external radio via the server! The server runs pretty well (spans of up to about 500 kHz wide) on an Atom netbook. With something more substantial you can serve at least 1 MHz across a cable modem connection without maxing out the throughput limits. So, soon, you will be able to run your home located AR5000 / NetSDR from your office... :)

Planning to add IF out to my 2500 just for fun, and a better discriminator out to the 5K... so, between that and the DSD Windows port, should be a great holiday.. unless something blows up after my frolick amongst the SMDs... ha ha

73,
-rb-

Scott, RB
Happy Holidays to the both of you! I still have my eye on the NetSDR RB. The best to everyone.

vince48
 

gigyahurts

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After running the test version of Radio Control and comparing it to the information available on Arc5000 (I can't find a test version to try) here are my conclusions.

The pluses of RC is that if you get the professional version, you can run hardware scans inside the software allowing full search and scan at hardware speeds. It is a very good db system that is easy to operate and works flawlessly.

The arc5000 software seems to have a more thorough search function via the spectrum analyzer which allows more data collection on each frequency hit rather than just a cumulative hit count on the RC. It is limited in speed to software only which allows only 3-5 steps per second. It is also less than half the price.

If RC had the spectrum analyzer features of ARC5k, it would be a no brainer. As it is, I have to weigh up the relative benefits.and choose. Thanks to all who have suggested these packages.
 

syslabs

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gigyahurts, you have a valid point regarding storing of information for each frequency hit in RadioControl. On the other hand, if you think about hooking up a SDR to the AR-5000 as panadapter anyway you will normally get not only a real-time spectrum display but also a waterfall display allowing you to see the spectrum history and therefore the activity on one or several frequencies of interest which may make this issue less significant.

An important difference between RadioControl and ARC5000 is that the latter software was designed for the AR-5000 only while RadioControl was designed to be used with a wide range of very diverse radios. The idea is to have (ideally) one software for all radios in a shack and the handheld or mobile radios. In that context, it may also be noteworthy that you can reuse the frequency databases and memory files created in RadioControl for any other supported radio.

Just 2 hopefully helpful comments.
 
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