SDR# SDR# Plug-in: Frequency Scanner updated

[Magpie]

Thank you very much for explaining and the update. Off to work now but further testing tonight

 

[Magpie]

Evening all, I've been testing v1716 with the 1301 new plugin for a while. It runs well - no errors or crashes. Speed of scanning is fine, with detect set at 45 it goes from 225-400 Mhz is little more than a second which is excellent. For a moment I thought there was something wrong with the audio but I found out that I had Latency (ms) under Audio set at 50 where 100 is better (tmho).

Pity that some freqs have to be locked-out to avoid Airspy stopping at them constantly: 240.000 - 260.000 and so on up to 400.000 MHz.

One minor thing: I scan 6 ranges but at start only 5 are marked, I have to select the 6th one manually everytime on startup. It seems the plugin doesn't remember the 6th one.. Many thanks to thewraith2008, keep up the great work.

 

[thewraith2008]

Pity that some freqs have to be locked-out to avoid Airspy stopping at them constantly: 240.000 - 260.000 and so on up to 400.000 MHz.

Since these frequencies are birdies for you anyway, it's not like your missing out on anything by having to manually lock them out.

One minor thing: I scan 6 ranges but at start only 5 are marked, I have to select the 6th one manually everytime on startup. It seems the plugin doesn't remember the 6th one.. Many thanks to thewraith2008, keep up the great work.

This is a bug.
I have fixed for next release.

In the mean time, a work around would be to add another defined frequency range as the last item (a 7th) then you could have your 6th item stay selected when SDR# starts.

 

[Magpie]

Thanks you for all your hard work.

 

[causeway74]

Great stuff. This seems to be working well.

One scenario I've discovered is when I land on an active signal like continuous noise, I pause, but instead of clicking the lock out button I use the channel analyser to zoom, then lock out. Upon pressing the play(resume scanning) button the audio mute isn't enabled again. The lockout button behaviour is fine in the same scenario. I don't normally lock things out in this way but wanted to flag it.

 

[thewraith2008]

One scenario I've discovered is when I land on an active signal like continuous noise, I pause, but instead of clicking the lock out button I use the channel analyser to zoom, then lock out. Upon pressing the play(resume scanning) button the audio mute isn't enabled again. The lockout button behaviour is fine in the same scenario. I don't normally lock things out in this way but wanted to flag it.

OK thanks, has been fixed for next release.

 

[Magpie]

Hi all, found a minor bug in 1301 while running v1732: Show Debug Info doesn't work in this version.

 

[morfis]

Hi all, found a minor bug in 1301 while running v1732: Show Debug Info doesn't work in this version.

1.3.1.0 was the most recent plugin version referenced with download

 

[Magpie]

1.3.1.0 was the most recent plugin version referenced with download

Apologies, my mistake. Have 1.3.1.0 installed now and Show Debug is there!

 

[Magpie]

The audio seems to be a bit choppy now and then. Especially on weaker signals. Sounds a bit as if the mute is cutting in and out. Anyone else has this too?

 

[morfis]

Not noticed it here but not used it much over past couple of days and when i did there was little traffic apart from Merkins with their gazillion watt transmitters.

 

[Magpie]

The audio seems to be a bit choppy now and then. Especially on weaker signals. Sounds a bit as if the mute is cutting in and out. Anyone else has this too?

Have taken a day off work tomorrow to do some further testing.

 

[Magpie]

The audio seems to be a bit choppy now and then. Especially on weaker signals. Sounds a bit as if the mute is cutting in and out. Anyone else has this too?

I haven't been able to solve this yet. May have to do with the values set in the Yellow and Red line or with the MS Detect setting in the scanner.

 

[Magpie]

I cannot get the audio right, will roll back to old scanner and will wait for new updates to come. Keep up the good work thewraith2008.

 

[morfis]

Not seeing a problem with the audio here magpie. Seaching milair and three groups of eurofarce, spamtanker, plastic awacs, a swarm of egg beaters, hawks, a c130 just off the deck at Brize. Audio is fine on all of them, even the quite weak comms from a C17 which went south so quickly out of range of my windosill antenna.
Airspy R2, sdrsharp 1700, scanner 1.3.1.0, yellow just above noise, red where it works, a few TETRA freqs plus 240.000, 250.000, 340.000 and 380.000 locked out, detect 100, use audio mute

 

[OZ1DJA]

Not having any problems with the audio here either.
Searching 138-144 Mhz and 395-400 Mhz with 2 x Airspy Mini on one computer
Searching 235-300 Mhz and 300-390 Mhz with 2 x Airspy R2 on another computer
- both running SDR# 1716 and scanner 1.3.1.0, detect 70 and audio mute

Thanks to thewraith2008 for his work

 

[Magpie]

Not seeing a problem with the audio here magpie. Seaching milair and three groups of eurofarce, spamtanker, plastic awacs, a swarm of egg beaters, hawks, a c130 just off the deck at Brize. Audio is fine on all of them, even the quite weak comms from a C17 which went south so quickly out of range of my windosill antenna.
Airspy R2, sdrsharp 1700, scanner 1.3.1.0, yellow just above noise, red where it works, a few TETRA freqs plus 240.000, 250.000, 340.000 and 380.000 locked out, detect 100, use audio mute

I had detect 45 which might have played a role in this. And I tested on mainly v1716 and v1732. Will try again thank you.

 

[Magpie]

I had detect 45 which might have played a role in this. And I tested on mainly v1716 and v1732. Will try again thank you.

Have it running on v1700 now with detect 75, Yellow 5 - Red 10, Audio Mute On.

Will report back later, have a nice weekend all.

 

[thewraith2008]

@Magpie

Are you using the option 'Use audio mute' and what are the OFF/ON values?
If yes, setting the ON value too low (<3) will see the auto mute become choppy. Especially with SDR# 1732 (1717-1732).

Setting Trigger and Hysteresis close together will probably cause choppy behavior with weaker signals also.

I'm surprised you stop on any signals when using such a low Detect value (45, 75).
While a PC CPU will play a part, there is usually a limitation of software and SDR hardware that can not be ignored.
Time must be given to the receiver to be allowed to stabilize before detecting any signals that maybe present and then moving on.
This is true for hardware scanners as it is for SDR scanners.
Weaker signals (and strong) will most likely be missed with such a fast scan rate.

Like most things SDR, it's a balancing act to hit the sweet spot.

 

[Magpie]

@Magpie

Are you using the option 'Use audio mute' and what are the OFF/ON values?
If yes, setting the ON value too low (<3) will see the auto mute become choppy. Especially with SDR# 1732 (1717-1732).

Had the values at 5 and 3.

Setting Trigger and Hysteresis close together will probably cause choppy behavior with weaker signals also.

Think this had to do with it. In the previous version of the fast scanner I used Yellow 10 and Red 15. That kept most of satelite stuff outside but gave good rx. In the new version Yellow 5 and Red 10 are more suitable tmho.

I'm surprised you stop on any signals when using such a low Detect value (45, 75).
While a PC CPU will play a part, there is usually a limitation of software and SDR hardware that can not be ignored.
Time must be given to the receiver to be allowed to stabilize before detecting any signals that maybe present and then moving on.
This is true for hardware scanners as it is for SDR scanners.
Weaker signals (and strong) will most likely be missed with such a fast scan rate.

Detect value 45 is default for many milair listeners because they want to scan the complete UHF airband as fast as possible. Setting Detect to 45 on an R2 scans the full band is about 1,2 secs. On VHF a higher value can be used because that 's only a small range to scan.

Like most things SDR, it's a balancing act to hit the sweet spot.

Yes your fully correct on that, getting it right the way you want takes some time of trial and error