News

New “Ortac_Rx” SDR receiver software launched with SDRplay compatibility from day 1.

SDRplay is pleased to announce that RFbits has just launched brand new SDR receiver software called “Ortac_Rx”  – and it’s been made available for SDRplay RSP owners to use from day one.

Ortac_Rx is a general purpose DSP receiver designed to have a simple front end, but having full capabilities within. It is compatible with Windows 7 to 11.

It features:

  1. A Simple User interface (KISS)
  2. SSB, CW, AM, FM, FM-Stereo, DMR
  3. Audio recorder/player
  4. IQ recorder/player
  5. Simple Channel Banks
  6. Pseudo Accurate dBm calibration
  7. Accurate modulation depth display
  8. Peak tune functions on FFT display
  9. Small Screen Footprint
  10. Fairly low CPU load

The website can be found at https://rfbits.com/one/  where there’s a link to the Ortac_Rx page from which you can download the manual and the software. ( https://rfbits.com/one/index.php/ortac_rx/ )

The site also includes a link to Ortac_AIS which is an advanced Windows dual channel AIS DSP receiver and message decoder. It is capable of decoding up to 25 messages per second simultaneously on channels A and B.

Nov 9th 2022 footnote: This third party software is not provided by SDRplay and questions regarding its operation and performance should be directed to the author.   SDRplay’s own SDR receiver software, provided free of charge to RSP owners,  is SDRuno: https://www.sdrplay.com/sdruno/

The title of this blog initially used the word “support” and not “compatibility”   which may have been confusing as to who is supporting the software.

SDRplay technical team at UK National Hamfest

The UK’s largest gathering of radio amateurs takes place next weekend (October 14/15th 2022) at Newark in Nottinghamshire. See https://www.nationalhamfest.org.uk/

 

It’s a great opportunity to meet some of the SDRplay technical team and ask questions.  This is ideal for current RSP owners with specific questions and for potential new owners.  If you have friends visiting the event who are thinking about trying out an SDR receiver, then encourage them to visit us:

The SDRplay stand is in the far right hand corner as you enter from the main entrance 

As well as demonstrating our upcoming SDRconnect multi-platform software running on several different platforms, we will be providing hands-on “how-to” help,  for SDRuno users who want to explore new features in detail.

SDRplay is at Superfest, Milwaukee this weekend

Steve KI5ENW from SDRplay will be at Superfest in Milwaukee on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th September 2022

Superfest is hosted by Ham Radio Outlet and the details can be found here: Ham Radio Outlet Milwaukee, WI

Come and meet Steve and ask questions and see the latest demo of the upcoming multi-platform SDRconnect software, the development of which is still progressing well.

The SDRplay demo at  Superfest 2019 – the last time it was held

SDRplay will also be at the UK National Hamfest in Newark October 14th and 15th 2022: https://www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/news/national-hamfest-2022/

 

 

 

Bonito demonstrating SDRplay at DNAT 2022

Come and see the Bonito stand at DNAT22 where Dennis will be demonstrating his famous antennas along with SDRuno and the SDRplay RSP family.  DNAT22 is taking place this weekend (August 27/28) in Bad Bentheim in the far north of Germany on the Dutch border.  For more information visit: https://dnat.de/

 

Check out the new custom band framing feature in SDRuno

The latest update to SDRuno (V1.42 build 0817) includes the much requested custom band-framing feature.   Band-framing has long been a useful feature because it enables instant set-up of popular amateur or broadcast bands at the push of a button – making it very similar to using a traditional hardware radio. The picture below shows the example of selection the 20m amateur band from the “Ham Lower” dropdown menu:

However, many people would like to customise their own specific bands (it may be a subset of one of the standard offerings or indeed a span of frequencies not previously available).

This is now possible by the provision of a new custom band-framing panel which allows users to create their own choice:

Documentation is on page 66 of the updated manual: https://www.sdrplay.com/docs/SDRplay_SDRuno_User_Manual.pdf

Check out Mike KD2KOG’s new video guide to this feature:

 

 

Software news and reporting bugs

Work is continuing towards our year end plan to release SDRconnect (the multiplatform version of SDRuno formerly known as SDRuno V2.0 )

In parallel we are releasing the features promised in SDRuno V1.42 of our Roadmap  where you can see details of what has been released and what is yet to come.

Reporting Bugs and social media
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Facebook and other online forums can be incredibly useful tools for disseminating information. Many people are able to get valuable help and information that can make hobbies such as ham radio and radio listening so enjoyable for so many people. We are grateful to all those members of the community who tirelessly help others with their expertise.
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However, these same forums can also be a significant source of misinformation which can confuse and frustrate.
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Whenever we put out a new release of SDRuno, we always see a substantial spike in people reporting problems and ‘bugs’ which they associate with the new release. This is completely understandable, but the problem occurs when people imply that the ‘bug’ that they perceive is an actual verified fact.
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In the overwhelming majority of cases, these reports whilst well intentioned are erroneous and the stated ‘bugs’ simply do not exist. In almost all cases, the problem relates to simple user error, a misunderstanding or a problem with the individual’s hardware or system setup.
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Since the first release of 1.42-0720, we have only been able to verify two new bugs. The first was a problem with memory panel scanning on the slave tuner for the RSPduo, which we fixed in 1.42-0728. The second problem appears to be a Unicode problem associated to non-English Locales. This is quite subtle and we have only had three reports so far. The problem manifests itself as an access violation upon exit which is in fact related to saving information to the SDRuno.ini file.
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In all other cases, new ‘bugs’ reported to us have not been bugs at all.
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So far, there have been around 13,000 installations of 1.42-0728, so the notion that it is in some way “unstable” does not appear to be bourn out in practice.
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As a company, we take bugs very seriously and genuinely try very hard to thoroughly test software before releasing it. We need to know about problems that we have not been able to find in testing, but we also want to avoid a situation where we spend considerable amounts of time trying to validate ‘bugs’ that turn out to be no such thing.
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If anyone finds what they believe to be a problem associated with our software we urge them to use the following procedure BEFORE reporting their issue on Facebook or other social media as if it were a verified fact:
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1. Check the release notes. Is the issue listed as a known bug? If not, does the problem seem to relate to any of the listed changes?
2. If the answer to 1 is no in both cases, please check your own setup and settings carefully.
3. If you still believe that there a problem, PLEASE contact SDRplay. If you can find a repeatable sequence of steps that triggers the problem, send an email to feedback@sdrplay.com
4. If you are still not certain as to whether what you are seeing is a bug or not, please open up a support ticket via the Help sectin of our website and we will work with you to try to understand the issue. Please always give a detailed description of the problem and illustrate with screen shots if at all possible.
5. Once we have verified that your issue is indeed a bug, please feel free to post as widely as you want!
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What we are keen to avoid is the ‘wall of noise’ that can drown out the facts and cause considerable confusion. We also want to get good clear information so that we can understand and fix problems. We do NOT sit monitoring forums looking for bug reports. When we see such reports, it is usually just as a result of casual browsing.
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The next release of SDRuno will add custom band framing. That is all that is planned for this release and that is currently in testing. We don’t meddle with stable code for the fun of it, so if your sensitivity suddenly seems well down, it is almost certainly not related to the new release. The release after next will attempt to address all know (and hence documented) remaining bugs.
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Thank you for reading and enjoy the forums – links can be found here – click on “Community Links” : https://www.sdrplay.com/misc/

Pour nos amis Français -manuel mis à jour + offre 5% de réduction

Merci Claude Commaret pour la traduction du manuel SDRuno mis à jour:

 

Cliquez ici pour le manuel SDRuno mis à jour

 

Traducteur Claude F4ELA

Aussi, maintenant (Août 2022), Passion Radio offre 5% de réduction sur tous les produits SDRplay – https://www.passion-radio.com/sdr-receivers/rsp-dx-935.html

Passion Radio peut vous aider à démarrer – parlant en français  

Il y a aussi une énorme communauté francophone pour SDRplay: https://www.facebook.com/groups/359333241112736

 

Monitoring Jupiter – Project JOVE update

Dr. Chuck Higgins recently spoke at the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers Eastern Conference about the new affordable way in which amateurs can make accurate measurements of Jupiter’s radiation.   The RSP1A allows them to monitor sufficient spectrum with the accuracy they need.  Check out the video below to find out more:

(The video gives an  overview of Radio JOVE 2.0 and includes a short demonstration of the new radio spectrograph using the SDRplay RSP1A receiver with a dipole antenna and the associated Radio-Sky Spectrograph (RSS) software)

JOVE is a US-based public outreach, education, and citizen science project using radio astronomy and a hands-on radio telescope for science inquiry and education. Radio JOVE 2.0 is a new direction using radio spectrographs to provide a path for radio enthusiasts to grow into citizen scientists capable of operating their own radio observatory and providing science-quality data to an archive. Radio JOVE 2.0 uses more capable software defined radios (SDRs) and spectrograph recording software as a low-cost ($350) radio spectrograph that can address more science questions related to heliophysics, planetary and space weather science, and radio wave propagation. Our goals are: (1) Increase participant access and expand an existing radio spectrograph network, (2) Test and develop radio spectrograph hardware and software, (3) Upgrade the science capability of the data archive, and (4) Develop training modules to help people become citizen scientists. We will overview Radio JOVE 2.0 and give a short demonstration of the new radio spectrograph using the SDRplay RSP1A receiver with a dipole antenna and the associated Radio-Sky Spectrograph (RSS) software.

For more information about the  project, visit: radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov

For more about SARA, visit: https://www.radio-astronomy.org/

 

SDRplay answering your “How Do I?” questions in HRN webinar

Monday July 18th 2022 at 1830 UTC (7.30pm UK BST)

Ham Radio Network are hosting “An Evening with Mike Ladd (KD2KOG) and Steve Brightman (KI5ENW).  The theme of the evening will be “How do I…?” and be targeted to SDRPlay device owners that need help, support and guidance with their RSP device or SDRuno.

The evening will be driven by questions from users or would-be users,

This will be an informative and entertaining evening and participation should be high.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5249312563

Meeting ID: 524 931 2563

The room opens at 1915 hrs BST/ 1815 hrs UTC for a 1930 hrs BST/1830 hrs UTC Start

For more details about Ham Radio Network, visit: www.hrn.world   – the Ham Radio Network – you can join their Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/517224945921950
We hope to make a copy of the video available via our webinars page: https://www.sdrplay.com/webinars/

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