QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

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Mike2459
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by Mike2459 » Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:54 pm

Question: How are you patching SDRUno's output to your FAX software? VAC? or the systems Rec. Playback input?

I have a Dell laptop with the same Intel audio and 2.5 ghz core2 duo cpu. it can't run SDRUno and a fax program, there is severe latency, but no smearing on what little get's displayed.
Mike

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glovisol
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Location: Piedmont, Italy

Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by glovisol » Mon Nov 19, 2018 4:29 pm

Hi Mike,

I use the Rec. Playback system of the X61 PC. When using two PC's I use two identical Lenovo/IBM X61's, so the audio systems are identical. I wonder if it is a question of virtual memory and perhaps the problem could go away with more RAM...

It really would be a problem if a single PC could not be able to handle the RSP receiver and the Weatherfax software at the same time, even a barebones one like the SeaTTY.

Why don't you upload "what little gets displayed" just to give me an idea?

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glovisol
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by glovisol » Mon Nov 19, 2018 5:20 pm

WEATHERFAX AND THE RSP DUO RECEIVER - Fldigi Wefax in operation
Attachments
Fldigi in operation.jpg
Figure 7. - WEFAX in operation with Fldigi
Fldigi in operation.jpg (355.76 KiB) Viewed 21267 times

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glovisol
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by glovisol » Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:01 pm

WEATHERFAX AND THE RSP DUO RECEIVER - SeaTTY Wefax in operation
Attachments
SeaTTY in operation 1.jpg
Figure 8. - WEFAX in operation with SeaTTY
SeaTTY in operation 1.jpg (239.11 KiB) Viewed 21260 times

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Mike2459
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by Mike2459 » Tue Nov 20, 2018 2:49 am

wefax_20181119_205957_8502000_ok.jpg
wefax_20181119_205957_8502000_ok.jpg (256.67 KiB) Viewed 21245 times
From Windows 7 Resource Monitor - Average CPU Usage:
SDRPlay API Service: 26.2
SdrUno 1.23: 9.2
Fldigi 4.0.16: 21.3
Total for abv. 56.7

The horizontal displacement in the image indicates that the received data is encountering delays (latency). Breakup of the audio is also noted.

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Mike2459
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by Mike2459 » Tue Nov 20, 2018 3:06 am

CPU Usage:
CPU.JPG
CPU.JPG (78.95 KiB) Viewed 21243 times

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glovisol
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by glovisol » Tue Nov 20, 2018 1:50 pm

WEATHERFAX AND THE RSP DUO RECEIVER - SYSTEM OVERLOAD?

Hi Mike 2459,

Opening the W7 diagnostics is a good idea, here below I downloaded two PC screens showing what's happening with SDRuno open as well as Fldigi. Clearly the system is already at nearly max. load with just SDRuno open, and goes over the top when the Wefax software is started. The hard disk seems to be in a very bad state, e.g. the Virtual memory going full blast, so it is probably the RAM that needs to be doubled to 6 GB or more...

I also tried with SDR Console, hoping it would be lighter on the system, but the charts are still very dirty, while they are perfect on PC #2. I have opened a ticket also, as I feel this to be a problem of general interest.
Attachments
ScreenHunter 32.png
System performance 1
ScreenHunter 32.png (119.55 KiB) Viewed 21208 times
ScreenHunter 31.png
System performance 2
ScreenHunter 31.png (129.96 KiB) Viewed 21208 times

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Mike2459
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by Mike2459 » Tue Nov 20, 2018 6:08 pm

You can view your memory usage in Resource Monitor:

Memory Usage for Dell E5400 laptop Win7 32bit
Standby memory is memory that is available for use
Memory.JPG
Memory.JPG (92.56 KiB) Viewed 21178 times
32 bit Windows operating systems can access up to about 3.5 GB of memory (about .5 GB is reserved). 64 bit operating systems can access much more.


Memory Limits.JPG
Memory Limits.JPG (40.12 KiB) Viewed 21178 times
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... -windows-7

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glovisol
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by glovisol » Wed Nov 21, 2018 10:39 am

Yesterday a few minutes after I had lodged my ticket, Mike of SDRplay Tech. Support promptly replied to my questions and sent copy of a meteofax chart coming from Europe and received with a RSPuno in NYC, using a single PC hosting SDRuno and the Wefax decoding program MultiPSK. SDRplay must be commended for the quality of their assistance!

Here below the received chart and the PC specification. It is now certain that SDRuno and Meteofax software can coexhist on the same PC and successfully produce Meteo charts. In fact the chart shows some noise, due no doubt to a weak signal, but there is no trace of smearing on the black lines.

Coming to the question of the PC used: it is a 64 Bit tabletop, Windows 10 OS, with an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X six core job, operating at 3.59 GHz. The RAM is 16 GB. This is a far more powerful machine than my IBM X61 laptop operating with Windows 7 and this explains why it is not possible to receive and decode Metofax with a "small" machine. Furthermore I have no hope of improvement, because, as pointed out by Mike 2459, nor the X61 at 32 bit, nor Windows 7 Professional support more than 4 GB RAM. So the trick of using two machines, one for receiving and the other for decoding, really saves the day and provides satisfactory quality at low cost.
Attachments
0KwcrfbzuF.png
Received Metochart
0KwcrfbzuF.png (292.87 KiB) Viewed 21137 times
imqY0wc=LT.png
OS & PC specification
imqY0wc=LT.png (79.21 KiB) Viewed 21137 times

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Mike2459
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Re: QUALITY METEOFAX RECEPTION WITH THE RSP RECEIVER

Post by Mike2459 » Wed Nov 21, 2018 4:38 pm

You might try setting SDRUno to zero-if mode with sample rate at 2MHz and decimation set to 8. I just tried this on my laptop, it reduced CPU usage considerably. The average CPU Usage of the SDRPlay API dropped to around 15, SDRuno dropped to around 12. Unfortunately no FAX skeds are up at this time so I can't test this setup. It may not be enough to run fldigi though, but SeaTTY might run ok. And of course close any nonessential programs that may be running. There are also some windows settings that can be changed that might help.

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