Flex Spots Problem & Opportunity - FreeDV Flex Integration

[K9YK Radio]

Mooneer, I've noticed that the spots being sent to the radio with the Flex waveform integration do not have lifetime_seconds set.  This causes these spots to pile up and collect in the panadapter until the radio is rebooted. Ideally these spots should only stick around for 10 minutes.  If the station does not transmit again in 10 minutes, we can assume they are no longer on the air.  

Removal of the spots is handled automatically by the radio, you simply need to set the lifetime_seconds parameter when creating the spot. 

S0|spot 149 callsign=VA3WTB rx_freq=14.236000 tx_freq=0.000000 mode=FREEDV color= background_color= source= spotter_callsign= timestamp=1767639575 lifetime_seconds=0 priority=0 comment= trigger_action=TUNE

There is another opportunity here.   It looks like the spots are being sent to the radio when the station stops transmitting.   FreeDV could calculate the average SNR during the station's transmission and then add that to the "comment" parameter when the spot is created.   When a comment is added, it appears in the panadapter when the user mouses over the spot.  This would make it easy to see the SNR from each station right in the Flex panadapter.    Something like comment="Avg SNR=12" would work nicely.

Beyond this, command line options to set the foreground and background spot colors would be great so that users could easily distinguish FreeDV spots from other types of spots. 

Mark (K9YK)

[Mooneer Salem]

Hi Mark,

Is the ten minute timeout based on what other apps that support Flex's spotting feature do? Trying to figure out if it maybe should be a bit longer.

Thanks,

-Mooneer K6AQ

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[K9YK Radio]

Yes Mooneer, here is a spot that was sent by FRStack3.  You can see that lifetime_seconds is set to 600.

S0|spot 111 callsign=N5LOL rx_freq=14.244000 tx_freq=14.244000 mode= color=#FF008F00 background_color=#DDDDDD source=STSN5LOL14.244 spotter_callsign=K8NEE timestamp=1767638485 lifetime_seconds=600 priority=2 comment=US-1182(US-OK) trigger_action=tune

[Mooneer Salem]

Thanks! Try this once it finishes building: https://github.com/drowe67/freedv-gui/actions/runs/20790084717

-Mooneer K6AQ

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[Alan Beard]

Hi guys,

I have an RX-888 here, home, Sydney, Australia, I'm running KA9Q-web, I'm looking for

how to add a decoding mode to add to it, RADEv1. As noted above, I have freedv-ka9q running

in OpenWebRX alongside other digital modes. Yes, there's an app-image, but I'd like the sourcecode.

And, the ability to add the VHF bands that the RX-888 supports. To make use of the antenna here for others

to listen to.

Alan VK2ZIW

Alan VK2ZIW

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[Alan Blind]

Mooneer

Thanks for your fast turn around on suggestions.

Question and a request:

What is the command line argument to set up the new spot timeout option?

And.....can you publish a list of all the Flex AppImage command line arguments, to put them in on consolidated location.

Alan. WA9WUD

[Mooneer Salem]

Hi Alan,

Please see https://github.com/drowe67/freedv-gui/blob/566dadf9ed114d91a20c9560ac1f475e5a4a2c42/src/integrations/flex/README.md#full-list-of-options for the full list of command-line options for the FlexRadio waveform, including the most recently added spot timeout one.

(There's also an equivalent for freedv-ka9q at https://github.com/drowe67/freedv-gui/blob/566dadf9ed114d91a20c9560ac1f475e5a4a2c42/src/integrations/ka9q/README.md#command-line-arguments.)

Thanks,

-Mooneer K6AQ

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[Stefan N.]

Hi Mooneer,

I tested the 2.2.0 waveform on my 6400M. So far, I see that there are spots, but the SNRs are static, not "live" as in the reporter.

It's difficult to activate the feature on the Maestro, even with a stylus, because the console isn't very touch sensitive.

Although there is an SNR shown, it does not actually update based on fluctuating incoming signals.

Is there any chance to see the own SNR received by the other station?

Thanks,

Stefan

[Mooneer Salem]

Hi Stefan,

Unfortunately, due to how the callsign reporting works (where the callsign is only transmitted at the end), we can only report a snapshot of the SNR at the time the callsign was sent. Additionally, to reduce the amount of CPU that the waveform needs, we put the connection to FreeDV Reporter into a transmit only mode (i.e. we're only able to report spots to the server, not get spots reported by others), so it's not possible to get your own SNR as reported by receiving stations.

Thanks,

-Mooneer K6AQ

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digitalvoice/17149d3d-a20f-4924-bd6e-6a0a508ddc7cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Alan Blind]

For consideration, may I suggest a compromise.  There have been several suggestions for FreeDV to do more radio control and display functions, like graphing the SNR, adjusting gain for each band, high SWR etc.

I suggest FreeDV, including my Flex FreeDV, broadcast a data UDP broadcast of data it already has.  This makes it available for other apps to use the data in support apps, meeting the needs of each user, and removes FreeDV apps from processing the user specific displays.

Alan. WA9WUD

[Mooneer Salem]

Any software developers here interested in implementing something that uses that proposed UDP data stream if it were to be implemented? If so, let me know and we can collaborate on a feature request that can be brought up to the rest of the project team.

-Mooneer K6AQ

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digitalvoice/088fef30-a880-4af9-857f-9da39d6b2324n%40googlegroups.com.

[Alan Blind]

Mooneer

I would be one to use the UDP broadcast of FreeDV data in my Node-Red based applications.  I can see how just having the call sign opens the door to interfacing with many log programs.

Alan. WA9WUD

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