PowerSDR/IF-Stage, Perseus SDR and FT-950 with IF-2000

[Andy Wilkinson]

Hi,

I have asked this question in a number of other forums without success and I am hoping that someone here will be able to point me in the right direction. 

Basically I have a Yaesu FT-950 with the RFSpace IF-2000 IF interface card fitted, I also have the Perseus SDR which I would like to use as a pan-adapter due to its sensitivity and other features. I currently have this working with HDSDR as a pan-adapter but I would like to use PowerSDR/IF-Stage as the pan-adapter software. I am willing to pay for a license if this is what is required, but I do believe that there used to be a Beta version of the PowerSDR software that would allow the Perseus to work and then this functionality was removed for later versions. 

Can someone point me in the right direction to either:

a. Obtain a licensed version of the software that works with the Perseus SDR

b. Point me to where I may obtain a copy of the beta version that worked

c. Help me with the steps to allow this setup to work

Hopefully there is a way to do this as I find HDSDR to be a little clunky and I feel there is much more I could do with this setup.

Many thanks

Andy EI2HWB

[Kevin Morgan]

--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PowerSDR / IF Stage" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to powersdr-if-st...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Are you looking to use your Perseus as the receiver instead of the Yaesu FT-950?  Because using the PoweSDR-IF software with your '950 and the IF out should be pretty awesome.  I have a TS-940 with the Telepost IQ Panadapter and under PowerSDR-IF it was fantastic except for my Dell desktop blue screening all the time because of the soundcard drivers for the E-MU 1212M soundcard. Because of this problem (and because I love SDR) I purchased the QS1-R receiver.  I'm not a big fan of the SDRMax software written for it and so use HDSDR with it a lot of the time, though when operating CW I use SDRMAX because I can access the audio direct from the DAC with no delay.

Using the QS1-R with the TS-940 I make use of a Woodboxradio RF sensing switchbox which works great.

One of the reasons I didn't buy a Perseus was the proprietary software issue.  I've also been in search of a rewrite of the PowerSDR platform for the QS1-R.  I have a Flex 1500 and the PowerSDR software for that, and the -IF version for the '940 have spoiled me.  PowerSDR has the absolute BEST CW filter algorithms anywhere.  I can go down to a 10 Hz wide filter and there's absolutely no ringing whatsoever, so I feel your pain.

Best of luck with your quest.  It seems we have to find a developer to modify the open source PowerSDR code for our receivers.

73, Kevin AB2ZI

-- 
Kevin J. Morgan AB2ZI <kmor...@optonline.net>
Photos <http://www.flickr.com/photos/44030661@N03/>

[Andy Wilkinson]

Hi Kevin,

Many thanks for your reply and apologies for emailing directly, but I am still waiting to be added to the group. It seems to have let me post but not reply!!

My main aim is to use the Perseus as the receiver fed from the IF-2000 FT-950 IF output at 10.55MHz. Have the PowerSDR software track my tuning on the FT-950 whilst giving me the whistles and bells of the Perseus and the amazing filters that it has. I believe that there was a Beta version of ethe PowerSDR / IF-Stage software that had support for the Perseus, but soon after it appeared it vanished again from all sites that were hosting it. So the development work has been done and I would love to get hold of the Beta so that I can try this out here in the shack. I do have HDSDR setup here at the moment, it is very clunky and almost seems like a childs version of what the Perseus is capable of. Although I have to say that the point and click aspect of the bandscope is pretty hot, especially as I can open the scope up to 1.6MHz width and record that whole section to HDD as well. 

There are folks using the Perseus down to 3 HZ BW for some of the beacons, so I can only imagine what this would be like linked in with my FT-950 and the PowerSDR software. I should be able to pull stations out of the mush with next to no difficulty as well as work some of the digital modes even in high QRM. I would rather not buy another Panadapter to fit in with the software if a solution has been out there in the past. Fingers crossed there is either a nice soul that has a copy of the beta, or the writers of the software are willing to sell a license to operate with the perseus. 

Thanks again for the reply and I hope to work you on the air in the near future, I have attached a couple of pics of the current setup with the perseus and the HDSDR in action.

Cheers

Andy EI2HWB

-- 
Kevin J. Morgan AB2ZI <kmo...@optonline.net>
Photos <http://www.flickr.com/photos/44030661@N03/>

[Scott M]

Nothing was removed from PowerSDR/IF that made it work with the Perseus - it never did. 

There are several SDR receivers that essentially include "sound cards" built into them (and more show up everyday).  The original PowerSDR was written for the flex radio (SDR-1000). The SDR-1000 didn't include any analog to digital converter. To save costs on that original radio, a high quality sound card was used.  PowerSDR can interface with any standard windows compliant sound card, because it uses the standard windows SPI to interface that sound card makers all follow.

Lots of these new SDR radios include built-in analog to digital converters and other things that needs controlled (like DDS).  These SDR designers now often op to develop proprietary device drivers for their SDR boards, not building on any stardard device type (like a sound card type) that PowerSDR can interface with.  Or at least can interface with without modification. 

It would be nice for some standardization here.  So like web browsers, SDR applications could be developed and interface with any backing SDR board.  It would take the right consortium, but I have no idea would even be motivated to do something like this. SDR in ham radio has turned into a big waste land. 

To answer the original question, if you want to use PowerSDR/IFwith what you have, I'd say get a LP-PAN and use whatever soundcard you probably already have in your computer 

 73

Scott, WU2X

[Andy Wilkinson]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply. I had definitely read (but cannot now find the article) that there had been a beta of the software that the Perseus had worked with at some point and then was dropped for whatever reason. I don't know if this was a branch that was done by an enthusiast, but this is what I would like to try. The Perseus is far superior to the LP-PAN and considering that I already have one I thought that it would be a brilliant option. I do understand about SDR receiver and the different methods currently employed to interface them with PC's / Software. I do have a Funcube that would also satisfy the basic requirements, but having the Perseus I wanted the best from my setup. 

If there isn't a version of the PowerSDR/IF-Stage that addresses this then I will move on and leave the gorgeous looking/performing software behind. I don't see using a soundcard as an option as it means introducing something else into the mix that will only reduce what I was trying to accomplish with the Perseus. The LP-PAN option, although being proven, means another expenditure that I wasn't aiming to make at  this point in time.

Thanks again

Andy

EI2HWB 

[Scott M]

Not sure if I can create a FAQ thread or not.   I receive a lot of direct email about "does this SDR board work with PowerSDR/IF".  My explaination was broad to hopefully let others know how this works. 

The basic answer is if your SDR board can appear as a soundcard device within windows, it will work. There are so many new dongles out, and I don't know how any of them work in terms of interfacing. 

Maybe an option with the Perseus is to "slave" it to your rig, not sure if the 950 has a receiver out port that you can also plug into your Perseus.  So rather than using the IF output port on the 950, you just use it as a second RX. The only issue is you need to have the Perseus frequency track with the 950.  It would take a very simple program to do that, I think HRD used to be able to hook to two radios at once and keep them sync'd, there maybe others. 

73,

Scott