Years ago there was a feature in MixW32 that allowed (if I remember correctly) the user to instantly replay/record the past few seconds of 'time'. Over the past weekend such a feature would have been extremely useful for catching MS pings on 2m that were otherwise missed due to monitoring a different frequency.
The trouble with Meteor Scatter, it is totally random and the pings can be very short-lived - strong enough to decode, but very brief in duration. Monitoring 2m over the past few days, I have one SDR Console VFO sat on 144.360 (the MSK144 'calling' frequency) and another as a 'search and pounce' receiver so that I could jump from signal to signal, thereby logging as many stations as possible (I had a third VFO on 144.174 monitoring FT8). The frustrating part is seeing a big, short-lived ping on a different frequency when I am sat on a clear channel. The ability to rewind, say, the last 10 seconds of audio & waterfall would mean that those pings could be anticipated and, hopefully, decoded.
So my idea (bear with me, as the idea is developing as I type) would be a button that would replay/record the past xx seconds without having to go through the setup of waiting for an IQ recording to begin. I know you can save an IQ file with a buffer as it is already implemented. I think, perhaps, I may be looking for a 'quick IQ' record that needs no other configuring after an initial setup for folders, etc. Just a single click and it records the past 10 or so seconds - possibly of just the active receiver. Maybe save as a separate IQ file each time the button is pressed so that the resulting file can be investigated later, which would mean real-time flow and decoding of other VFOs is/are not disturbed. I could, obviously, have recorded the whole spectrum and gone through it later, but that would require a lot of disk space, and time to go through and find each individual ping. Being able to just 'click and record' whatever it was you just saw would be so useful, not only for MS but for other bands/modes too. There must have been many times when you heard something and immediately thought 'I wish I had been able to record that'. With this idea, you could - just by pressing the button.
Hopefully, this makes sense - if not, please dismiss it as the ramblings of a looney suffering from brain fade due to having had 3 young children at home for the majority of the past year
To give you an idea of how busy 2m was over the weekend, I have logged 103 locator squares since 1st Jan. I would think that
I missed another 20-30 squares during the peak of the MS shower.
I've attached a PSK reporter grab of what my SDR station (Airspy HF+ and a 5 ele yagi, beaming South) heard in a 24 hour period from 3rd-4th January on 2m. There were other stations heard that didn't get sent to PSK Reporter as their locator was not sent (an OH7 station springs to mind).
73, and thanks for the amazing software. I hope we all have a better 2021 and well all manage to stay safe and healthy (all five of us had Covid 19 here, a couple of weeks before Christmas, so the main symptoms, etc. were gone by then without anyone requiring medical intervention, thankfully).
Sean Gilbert - G4UCJ IO92ma
E: sean@hfradio.org.uk W: www.hfradio.org.uk
Instant rewind/record feature
Instant rewind/record feature
73, Sean - G4UCJ
QRA: IO92ma - W: www.hfradio.org.uk
TX: IC756pro + 2m transverter; Xiegu G90
SDR: Airspy: HF+ Discovery; Dual Port; R2; SDR-IQ; FCD Pro+
Ant: Active loop x 2 phased; 2m 5el @ 6m
QRA: IO92ma - W: www.hfradio.org.uk
TX: IC756pro + 2m transverter; Xiegu G90
SDR: Airspy: HF+ Discovery; Dual Port; R2; SDR-IQ; FCD Pro+
Ant: Active loop x 2 phased; 2m 5el @ 6m
Re: Instant rewind/record feature
Hmmm. Sky+ for SDRs.. I like it! Not sure how much work that would be.
You can already have a buffer of up to 30s in the Data Recording part of Tools.. Settings. You can also set up an instant record button with parameters (Data::Record) and press one of the Preset buttons to set up parameters.
Glad you didnt suffer too much with the old Billy Ray...
You can already have a buffer of up to 30s in the Data Recording part of Tools.. Settings. You can also set up an instant record button with parameters (Data::Record) and press one of the Preset buttons to set up parameters.
Glad you didnt suffer too much with the old Billy Ray...
Jim, Bournemouth IO90BR
Re: Instant rewind/record feature
Last year i asked Simon to add a pause button for the FFT and waterfall, no reply then but i like to ask this again because it can be implemented together with Sean's wish.
Why? ...i like to do NDB and beacon chasing but on weak signals the cw is hard to decode. Would be nice if we can stop the waterfall (visual cw) or playback. So i support Sean's request, regards, Leon
Why? ...i like to do NDB and beacon chasing but on weak signals the cw is hard to decode. Would be nice if we can stop the waterfall (visual cw) or playback. So i support Sean's request, regards, Leon
- Simon G4ELI
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Re: Instant rewind/record feature
This is actually something I have thought about but the time hasn't been right.
Depending on bandwidth I can add a 'replay last 10s' optionally with a loop. Maybe even as much as 30s.
Depending on bandwidth I can add a 'replay last 10s' optionally with a loop. Maybe even as much as 30s.
Re: Instant rewind/record feature
~15 sec loop would be perfect! I think that's enough to loop the whole wf (with 40 lines/s)
- Simon G4ELI
- Posts: 2134
- Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2020 7:27 am
- Location: Mawnan Smith
- Contact:
Re: Instant rewind/record feature
The main issue is designing a usable interface - for this I think we would have buttons at the bottom of the display where the Clock and Frequency live. When you click Playback the last X seconds is replayed until Playback is stopped and normal replay restarts.
The recording cache holds enough data for this so can be used for playback.
The recording cache holds enough data for this so can be used for playback.
Re: Instant rewind/record feature
That would be an quickly to reach place. Rather not hide it under a tab, takes to long to reach.
Re: Instant rewind/record feature
I like the direction this is going! Up to 30 seconds rewind would be amazing, but 15 seconds would suffice for most things. I also like NDB chasing but had not considered using a rewind facility for that. I agree about the button being easy to see/operate and should, ideally, be visible on the main UI.
73, Sean - G4UCJ
QRA: IO92ma - W: www.hfradio.org.uk
TX: IC756pro + 2m transverter; Xiegu G90
SDR: Airspy: HF+ Discovery; Dual Port; R2; SDR-IQ; FCD Pro+
Ant: Active loop x 2 phased; 2m 5el @ 6m
QRA: IO92ma - W: www.hfradio.org.uk
TX: IC756pro + 2m transverter; Xiegu G90
SDR: Airspy: HF+ Discovery; Dual Port; R2; SDR-IQ; FCD Pro+
Ant: Active loop x 2 phased; 2m 5el @ 6m