SDR Software suggestions for Mac

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 2:56:18 PM2/27/21

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good afternoon all,

I am a recent HL2 owner, and was wondering what SDR software people have been using on MacOS.

I have tried Spark, which I like because it seems simple. But I can not seem to get the mic audio path to the HL2. The RX path works great, but I'm missing something.

Please let me know what you are using, so I can try to duplicate your success. Or if you have a suggestion on correcting the mic audio issue, I'd appreciate reading it.

Anthony - N1IG

Mooneer Salem

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:00:17 PM2/27/21

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Hi Anthony,

I use DL1YCF's version of piHPSDR on my 2019 MBP with no issues (straight from the GitHub at https://github.com/dl1ycf/pihpsdr). The only downside is that it doesn't seem to have FM offset support (e.g. if you're using 10 meter repeaters or a transverter for a higher band), but I could be missing something. You'll need to install Xcode and the command line tools in order to build it, though.

Thanks,

-Mooneer K6AQ

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Alan Hopper

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:08:46 PM2/27/21

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Hi Anthony,

I'm keen to get to the bottom of your mic issue. What audio device is selected for mic in the virtual transceiver settings? Does the mic level bar indicate anything?

73 Alan M0NNB

ron.ni...@gmail.com

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:21:37 PM2/27/21

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If you are using an HL2 with a recent Mac, email me for an Apple App Store promo code for my macOS rtl_tcp SDR app, which currently has some limited beta test support added for HL2 Rx and Tx (keyboard CW and non-compressed SSB). No rtl_tcp server required (although optional for Rx over slower or non-low-jitter networks). It's a macOS port of my iOS app, to which I'm also adding HL2 support so I can use HL2 with my iPhone/iPad for portable ops without having to carry a PC (or Mac or even Raspberry Pi). Eventual goal it to run my HL2 on a mountain (hill) top for SOTA/POTA ops from just my iPhone and an ethernet dongle.

73,

Ron

n6ywu

http://www.hotpaw.com/rhn/hotpaw/

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:26:37 PM2/27/21

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Hi Alan,

The built-in mic selection in the sparksdr program.

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:29:21 PM2/27/21

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thank you for the kind offer. email sent.

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:30:54 PM2/27/21

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thank you for the info. I followed the directions at https://github.com/dl1ycf/pihpsdr/commit/4e0bf674129530cc5cac4127f9b467ff5e86af2a

but got stuck at the end, because I didn't see the application symbol that was mentioned. sure I did something incorrectly...

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:35:49 PM2/27/21

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forgot to answer.... o, the mic audio bar is not showing anything

On Saturday, February 27, 2021 at 3:08:46 PM UTC-5 ahop...@googlemail.com wrote:

Alan Hopper

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:42:16 PM2/27/21

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Hi Anthony,

are there any options in the mic selection drop down and what is the actual name of the selected one? Also if the audio is muted (cross on speaker) so is the mic.
73 Alan M0NNB

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:44:08 PM2/27/21

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the selections are None, Built-in microphone, and VB Cable. The one selected is Built-in Microphone

DL1YCF

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:49:31 PM2/27/21

to Anthony and Sam, herme...@googlegroups.com

I prefer piHPSDR. I have made it running on MacOS and also added many features
(CW, MIDI, PURESIGNAL, . . .)

I use it always on my Mac, both with my Anan, with HL2 and with a RedPitaya-based SDR.

But there are other programs that also run with MacOS, most notably quisk and SparkSDR.

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:54:12 PM2/27/21

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are there updated instructions for installing piHPSDR? I'm kinda new to SDR & Mac, and trying to muddle my way through things :)

Alan Hopper

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Feb 27, 2021, 3:58:02 PM2/27/21

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Hi Anthony,

thanks for that, the log files might give a clue, the location is described in the help. If there is anything in them please post them here.

73 Alan M0NNB

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 4:06:24 PM2/27/21

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I just looked and there are no log files. There is also not a sparkler folder in the Application Support folder.

Mooneer Salem

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Feb 27, 2021, 4:09:06 PM2/27/21

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I personally just type "./pihpsdr" from the piHPSDR folder after compiling from GitHub to start it. I don't think I've tried using the .app but maybe someone else can clarify more.

-Mooneer K6AQ

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Alan Hopper

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Feb 27, 2021, 4:46:40 PM2/27/21

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Hi Anthony,

that is odd, are settings saved (like last session)? If they are, the logs should be wherever they are, if not something else is going wrong. What os version?

73 Alan M0NNB

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 4:53:08 PM2/27/21

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Big Sur 11.2.2

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 5:45:48 PM2/27/21

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Alan,

I checked the Mac security settings, and Spark is not requesting microphone access, like the rest of the programs do to the system settings. trying to figure out how to force it...

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 6:23:54 PM2/27/21

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I have been able install piHPSDR and it receives well. But for some reason it isn't asking for permission to access the microphone, and I can't figure out how to force it.

On Saturday, February 27, 2021 at 3:49:31 PM UTC-5 DL1YCF wrote:

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 27, 2021, 7:56:21 PM2/27/21

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OK, I figured out that the mic has her enabled in the program, and then it asks for permission to use the microphone. So TX Audio is working for piHPSDR for me, and SparkSDR still does not.

Message has been deleted

Alan Hopper

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Feb 28, 2021, 1:54:35 AM2/28/21

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Hi Anthony and Ron,

thanks for looking into this, it does appear to be a permissions issue which hopefully should be easy to fix. My test mac is too old to run Big Sur so It does not show up here.

73 Alan M0NNB

DL1YCF

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Feb 28, 2021, 5:08:03 AM2/28/21

to Mooneer Salem, herme...@googlegroups.com

The you need to open a terminal window. On the Macintosh, you can bundle things into an „app“ folder
that can be placed anywhere and lets you start piHPSDR just by double-clicking.

BEWARE:

If starting piHPSDR from the terminal, the working dir with the props files is the current dir,
but if you start by double-clicking an app symbol, the working dir is

$HOME/Library/Application Support/piHPSDR

.

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Anthony and Sam

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Feb 28, 2021, 6:06:15 AM2/28/21

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I was able to get the microphone working, by enabling it in the TX menu.

Thank you for helping this lo-tech guy.

Anthony - N1IG

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 28, 2021, 6:20:10 AM2/28/21

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The update to SparkSDR worked, and a request to access microphone succeeded.

The TX Audio works great on USB & LSB. I noticed that there is no TX Audio on AM or NFM, but I am just happy to have gotten this far.

Thank you all for the help!

Anthony - N1IG

Anthony and Sam

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Feb 28, 2021, 8:17:15 AM2/28/21

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I had the Drive rolled up, but didn't know that the Compression was a mic gain. Rolled that up per Alan's suggestion, and I now have AM & FM TX Audio.