Hi Token
So which 3rd party application does support DCC scheduled recording for the G31DCC ?
Marco,
I am not sure which software works best for scheduled DDC record with the G31DDC. You could probably look at the WinRadio Yahoo groups, such as
WiNRADiO_G3_Series : 303/305/313/315/31DDC Receivers to find/ask that question. I have seen a couple of ways mentioned there but have never really followed up to find out what works best. Hotkeys and Keysend work, but are kind of clunky. Since the Excalibur software is so hotkey friendly (almost everything can be done with hotkeys) any software that can schedule hotkey functions should be able to set a center frequency, set a DDC record bandwidth, start, and stop a recording.
Keep in mind that for utilities monitoring scheduled DDC recording is not as useful as it would be for something like SWL or MW DX listening. Also remember that for utilities monitoring nothing on the market that I have used is more informative than the lower window wideband display of the Excalibur.
Utilities tend to be transient signals that move around on frequencies, so scheduled DDC record just does not work out well for chasing them unless you record very wide pieces of spectrum, resulting in huge files. I find that typically for utilities you end up doing ad hoc DDC recordings, hitting the button when you see something, and the G31DDC does that just fine including a variable size, user defined, "prebuffer" that goes back up to 3 seconds before you pressed the record button to capture the recording. That means if you hear a callsign and then hit the record button the recording goes back to 3 seconds before you hit the record and you still often get a recording of the callsign, as an example.
Remember that the G31DDC software DOES allow for scheduled recordings, but only as audio files, not as DDC files. So if you know which frequencies you want to record and when you want them recorded you can do that, but the result is an audio file, not a DDC spectrum file. For this purpose the Recording Scheduler built into the G31DDC software is about the best I have used when it comes to setting up multiple recordings days/weeks/months/or even years in advance. You can, if you want, set up thousands of recordings to be made as far in advance as you want, but only as recorded audio.
Keep in mind the G33DDC software includes the same great scheduler as found with the G31DDC but adds the ability to do DDC as well as audio recordings. And as I said before, it is possible to run the G33DDC software with the G31DDC hardware, although to do so might not be acceptable under the WinRadio EUL. If I wanted to do scheduled record of DDC files with the G31DDC on a regular basis this is probably the option I would use.
nickcarr and I have differing opinions on the software for the G31DDC. He does not like it as well as other software. I, on the other hand, think it is one of the best GUIs on the market. I think probably neither one of us is "right" or "wrong", they are both opinions and an opinion is not quantifiable. What I do know is that the GUI is very busy, lots of information being presented, but once it is learned by the user it is very, very good because of all that information. I prefer it over every other hobby SDR GUI I have used, and except for Studio1 I think have used or tried every other SDR GUI I am aware of. The SDR GUIs I have and regularly use here are Perseus, SpectraVue, SDR-Radio, HDSDR, PowerSDR, SDRdx, Excalibur, and a variety of less well known and more application specific software. The SDR GUI I like and use the most is the Excalibur GUI. That does not mean it is perfect, there are a couple of glaring omissions in it, as I have said before.
The “Demo” version of the G31DDC software does not do the system justice. With no recordings included and none to be linked to on the WinRadio site you can just play with a single dead carrier in the demo mode. This does not show you anything that the radio is capable of. Of course, try the “demo” mode of SpectaVue, SDR-Radio, HDSDR, or Perseus, also very limited unless you can find recorded files to run. But with all of those it is easier to find recorded examples on the web. I believe only the SpectraVue site included recordings right on the same site that you download the application from, but recordings for all of the other software is pretty easy to find on the web. DDC recordings for the Excalibur can also be found, but seem to be harder to find, possibly less common since it is newer and has had less time to build up a selection of recordings online.
If you want Excalibur DDC recordings of specific freq ranges/bands/types of communications let me know and if I do not already have recordings of them I can grab one and put it online for you.
T!
