SDR# SDR# Plug-in: Frequency Scanner updated

[thewraith2008]

This is an update to the great Frequency Scanner plug-in for SDR#.
TSSDR (Vasili) has given me the approval to update and release this plug-in.

The plan was to release the plug-in via his website but currently the English translation is not functional in the admin section of the site which is complicating creating a release post.


This plug-in version adds/changes and fixes some items:

v1.2.0.0

Changed: Graphic for 'Lock' and 'Unlock' buttons in Channel analyser.

Changed: Channel analyser buttons 'Lock' and 'Unlock' are disabled during scanning to avoid accidental usage.

Changed: Reworked UI for better visibility on Telerik SDR# (1717+) and darker themes.

Added: 'Configure' - option for adjusting fade speed for on screen buttons in channel analyser.

Added: Quick zoom function (when scroll wheel clicked)

Changed: On screen 'Now Playing'
- Previously this has been made up of 'Frequency Group Name' (as sourced from the 'Frequency Manager' plug-in database)
- It will now display in the following format: 'Frequency: Group - Name'

Added: 'Now Playing' file which can be used when streaming audio (via Icecast + butt or RadioFeed) with ability to synchronize to audio.

Fixed: 'Edit scan ranges' - When exiting a empty field, it would cause an exception.

Fixed: On occasions when scanner stopped, an exception would occur.

Added: Ability to run scanner without channel analyser.

Fixed: When scanner was stopped, some code was left running which continued to consume CPU cycles (6% for me).

Added: On SDR# start-up, the Frequency scanner plug-in will backup the 'scanner_entryes.xml' to 'scanner_entryes.xml.bak'.

Added: Option to restrict set/clear of lockouts and lockout range to bottom 80-100% of channel analyser panel.

Added: PDF Documentation
- Please read it

see 'changelog.txt' for full list and details.

NOTE: The core of the scanning logic has not been changed.

Documentation has been created to help with it's installation and usage, please read it.
NOTE: Support is not guaranteed. Especially if the answers are contained in the documentation or on this forum.

I have tried to be as thorough as possible with the documentation to explain usage and features.
I believe any questions can be answered by reading this documentation.
This documentation most likely is not complete and may contain errors and is not laid out as good as it could be.

Testing has mainly been done with SDR# 1700.
Limited testing has been done with SDR# 1732.


Download

HASH: 83ea544e2c91df79177622674250ee69

 

[gustavobm]

Working flawlessly! Thank you thewraith2008!

 

[BM82557]

Copied the new dll into my V1700 to replace the prior version dll which worked correctly , no other changes were made. V1700 starts ok but the scanner plugin does not show up in the plugins to the left of SDR#. Copied the old dll back in, with no other changes, and V1700 starts ok and the scanner plugin returns and runs correctly. Did a clean install of V1700 and the same thing happened, new dll doesn't run but the old dll works fine. OS is Win 7 64 bit. Any ideas?

 

[thewraith2008]

I'm not sure why you don't see it.

I just tested with a fresh SDR# 1700 in both Windows 7 32 bit and Windows 10 64 bit and both showed up.
I don't have a Windows 7 64 bit to test with, but I sure that alone wouldn't stop it to show in SDR#.

I tested the DLL in zip and it's same as one I'm testing with.

Check that when you extracted the DLL, it actually extracted correctly.
Check file size and MD5 hash (with HashMyFiles).
Something (like AV) may have blocked it from extracting correctly.
The extraction program you used maybe not working right with the 7z file. I use 7zip. WinRAR may cause problems, not sure.

 

[DRL-XM43]

New DLL working fine for me Latest Win10 update and Latest SDR# Thank you thewraith2008

Love the new easy lock/unlock feature

 

[morfis]

I only use wrinrar and haven't had any problems with extracting the files.
Plugin working fine with sdrsharp 1700 on windows 10 64bit and windows 7 64bit

Not tried it with 1732 as that was consigned to the bin

 

[thewraith2008]

I only use wrinrar and haven't had any problems with extracting the files.
Plugin working fine with sdrsharp 1700 on windows 10 64bit and windows 7 64bit

Not tried it with 1732 as that was consigned to the bin

Thanks for the info, good to know WinRAR is OK with 7zip and that the plug-in works OK in Windows 7 64 bit (using SDR# 1700)

 

[charlieprimero]

This is an update to the great Frequency Scanner plug-in for SDR#.

This is great news. Thank you!

 

[BM82557]

Copied the new dll into my V1700 to replace the prior version dll which worked correctly , no other changes were made. V1700 starts ok but the scanner plugin does not show up in the plugins to the left of SDR#. Copied the old dll back in, with no other changes, and V1700 starts ok and the scanner plugin returns and runs correctly. Did a clean install of V1700 and the same thing happened, new dll doesn't run but the old dll works fine. OS is Win 7 64 bit. Any ideas?

Downloaded it again, extracted it with 7Zip (also used the first time but I forgot to mention it), copied the dll over to V1700. Of course it works fine now!

 

[questnz]

A new scanner plugin installed into the latest SDRsharp and is working kind of
Can someone please help and post the correct settings for:
1. scanning ranges eg 485.000 - 488.250 NFM what would the correct setting for entry, 485,000,000 - 488,250,000 NFM, 12,500 step size ?
2. is the coma or stop between required in frequencies separation
3. what would be the optimum bandwidth setting, 200,000, what is governing bandwidth
4. Best Configuration window setting

regards Chris

 

[BM82557]

A new scanner plugin installed into the latest SDRsharp and is working kind of
Can someone please help and post the correct settings for:
1. scanning ranges eg 485.000 - 488.250 NFM what would the correct setting for entry, 485,000,000 - 488,250,000 NFM, 12,500 step size ?
2. is the coma or stop between required in frequencies separation
3. what would be the optimum bandwidth setting, 200,000, what is governing bandwidth
4. Best Configuration window setting

regards Chris

Here is what works for me for the freq ranges I am looking at -

 

[questnz]

Many thanks for that, I got confused by the bandwidth. This makes sense now. Senior moment thingy! Now I remember I have this setup correctly on another PC I was using previously with old plug in. Just setting my travel laptop with all new installs and like to make sure all is working as expected.

 

[causeway74]

Wow, didn't see this coming. Can't wait to try it.

Can someone explain the expected values for Detect? PDF mentions to increase by +20 but what is the optimum/default - 100?

For the audio mute I've always wondered what this does. Is there a difference between having it disabled v having a value of 0?

Thanks to the dev for the updates.

 

[causeway74]

Is there any way this could be made to work with 8.33 spacing for airband?

Edit: Noticing some strange behaviour when using the channel analyser (see screenshot). When the mouse cursor is hovering over my windows taskbar and I drag it upwards (following the trajectory of the arrow in screenshot), the mouse-over event toggles the scan/lockout state for the frequency in question. My assumption is that this state change should only be driven by mouse click and not mouse over. This happens regardless of the 'restrict lockout area' setting. Can anyone else confirm?



Edit 2: I just noticed I get the same thing again when I hover over the play button. If my cursor is outside of the channel analyser, then I drag it over the play button, then repeat, the button state changes.

Thanks

 

[causeway74]

Edit: This is solved by selecting the "disable channel analyser focus" option in settings, although I'm not sure this is an expected impact of the focus functionality or not. I am using the 'Fluent' them presently on SDR# 1732 on Win10.

Thanks for a great plugin.

 

[thewraith2008]

This is update v1.2.2.0 to the great Frequency Scanner plug-in for SDR#.

This plug-in version adds/changes and fixes some items:

v1.2.2.0

Fixed: False setting/clearing of lockout at mouse position when entering channel analyser.
- This is caused by the SDR# window focus logic than performs a left mouse click to get the focus of
   the SDR# window so the channel analyser zooming can occur without the need to click the channel analyser.

Fixed: A NULL exception would occur if you mouseover the channel analyser before it fully initialised.
- You have to quick to see this, but scanning with a few ranges which took a little long allowed this
   error to be seen.

Added: PDF Documentation
- Please read it


v1.2.1.0 - Not released

Changed: 'Edit scan ranges' window
- For 'Bandwidth' and 'Step size' the minimum value is 5000 Hz (5 KHz)
  This is to deal with values been incorrectly set. e.g. Want 50 KHz but use 50 when it should be 50000
  These low values will either cause a crash or cause excessively slow performance.

- Added: Display plug-in version in 'Configure' window.

NOTE: The core of the scanning logic has not been changed.

Documentation has been created to help with it's installation and usage, please read it.
NOTE: Support is not guaranteed. Especially if the answers are contained in the documentation or on this forum.

I have tried to be as thorough as possible with the documentation to explain usage and features.
I believe any questions can be answered by reading this documentation.
This documentation most likely is not complete and may contain errors and is not laid out as good as it could be.

Testing has mainly been done with SDR# 1700.
Limited testing has been done with SDR# 1732.


Thanks to @causeway74 for spotting this issue as well described here


Download
NOTE: Use 7zip or WinRAR to extract files from the .7z file and read the .PDF file for installation and usage of files with SDR#.

HASH: 3347af87e5fc8ffbdd76f850543d7eef

 

[thewraith2008]

Can someone explain the expected values for Detect? PDF mentions to increase by +20 but what is the optimum/default - 100?

Detect (Slow down scan speed to allow for better detection of active signal)
The value acts as a delay to allow the 'receiver' to stabilize so the plug-in does not miss active signals.

For the audio mute I've always wondered what this does. Is there a difference between having it disabled v having a value of 0?

'Use audio mute' and 'Noise protection delay'
The audio mute is independent of the SDR# squelch but in the end does the same thing (maybe better).
You may get better results using this with scanner plug-in than using the SDR# squelch with scanner plug-in.

'Noise protection delay' This helps eliminate the crash at end of transmission.
Don't use it if also decoding digital signals as well.

Is there any way this could be made to work with 8.33 spacing for airband?

Have you tried? What are you seeing that it should not be doing.
The bandwidth and step size is available when you define scan ranges.
The scanner plug-in channelizes the defined range based on these values.

 

[hamradionl]

Thank you for update

 

[causeway74]

Detect (Slow down scan speed to allow for better detection of active signal)
The value acts as a delay to allow the 'receiver' to stabilize so the plug-in does not miss active signals.


'Use audio mute' and 'Noise protection delay'
The audio mute is independent of the SDR# squelch but in the end does the same thing (maybe better).
You may get better results using this with scanner plug-in than using the SDR# squelch with scanner plug-in.

'Noise protection delay' This helps eliminate the crash at end of transmission.
Don't use it if also decoding digital signals as well.


Have you tried? What are you seeing that it should not be doing.
The bandwidth and step size is available when you define scan ranges.
The scanner plug-in channelizes the defined range based on these values.

Thanks for quick fix - this is working perfectly now.

Re. questions above...

8.33 spacing - I use frequency manager and so for a local frequency of 122.125 with 8.33khz steps, my vfo will actually land on something like 122.124.680. When I look at the recordings I get 'unknown groups' because the frequency manager frequency and the slightly offset vfo frequency aren't 'linked up'. I suspect this is a rounding problem with cumulative error given the recurring step values involved. I'd assume the scanner plugin will use 8.333 as opposed to 8.3333333 so with each pass the deviation may become more exaggered - 118.000 x 3(8.33) may stop on 118.0249 instead of 118.0250 if using 8.33R . This is a rubbish explanation but hopefully you get the idea.

Noise protection - is this value a number of seconds for example i.e. default is 5 seconds? Or is it like squelch setting on a scanner than ranges from 1-10 let's say? My understanding is that the red line is more like traditional squelch in that any signal that rises above the red line opens the squelch and the transmission in heard. So my question is, is there a link between red line and noise protection delay settings? If the red line controls the trigger level, what does the noise protection do at this same moment if anything?

Thanks

 

[mancow]

Here is what works for me for the freq ranges I am looking at -

View attachment 80860View attachment 80861

Seems like civ and mil air should be 10k bandwidth due to AM instead of 12.5k.