sdrangel

• Demod Analyzer: fixed sample rate handling. Fixes #931
• Enable LimeRFE on Windows. PR #942
• Demod Analyzer: allow complex input. Fixes #932
• Noise Figure: compile only if Boost >= 1.70.0. Fixes #943
• Update airspyhf library to latest version to fix #928. PR #945
• Save and restore position and size of main window. Fixes #89. PR #946
• SatelliteTracker: Web API fixes. Fixes #948. PR #949
• Fixes to web API request mapper. PR #950
• Web API doc: added missing doc swagger yaml files

Another contribution from Jon srcejon that you may be able to experiment with depending on your location. This plugin can be used to receive the time and date as broadcast on Low Frequency (LF) by various transmitters that are tied to atomic clocks:

• MSF - UK - 60kHz
• DCF77 - Germany - 77.5kHz
• TDF - France - 162kHz

Details here

• Add image zooming to APT demodulator. PR #941
• Add Star Tracker galactic line of sight plot. PR #938
• Improved packet demod performance. PR #935
• Scope GUI: refactor of amplitude scale and offset. Issue #937. This changes the amplitude range and offset settings drastically. Please check Amplitude adjustment and Offset adjustment
• Scope: allow complex float possibly unscaled input. Issue #929
• Fixed SWGModelFactory so that init() is invoked on complex objects. Fixes #899
• Fixed multiple streams input. Fixes #925
• Upgraded libairspy to v1.0.10

This is a nice contribution of Jon srcejon enriching the measurement features of SDRangel. This Rx channel plugin can be used to calculate the noise figure (NF) of a receiver (SDR as well as optionally one or more LNAs). It uses the Y-factor method and requires a calibrated noise source. Details can be found here

• GLscope rework featuring a multiple I/Q stream input. Issues #898 and #872.
  • You can use ScopeVis::setNbStreams method to set the number of I/Q streams that the scope will accept. The default number is 1 as it effectively used to be. The ScopeVis::feed method has been modified to take a vector of begin iterators one for each stream instead of a single begin iterator.
  • The GLScopeSettings::TraceData structure has now a m_streamIndex attribute to specify to which I/Q stream the trace applies. Similarly GLScopeSettings::TriggerData has a m_streamIndex attribute to specify to which I/Q stream the trigger applies.
  • The ChannelAnalyzer plugin is adapted but not modified and has a new control for the trace or trigger stream index that therefore has a fixed value of 0. However in the GLScopeGUI these controls can be used to control to which I/Q stream the trace or trigger applies.
• ADS-B demod: Delete m_worker after removing sink from DSP. PR #916 Issue #915
• ADS-B demod: ADSBDemodWorker: check running state before actual start/stop
• GS232: SPID rotator fixes. PR #914

SDRangel Ubuntu 20.04

This plugin contributed by Jon srcejon shows a calculator for various types of antennas depending on the center frequency of reception or transmission. Although not related directly to SDR functionality it is handy to have this sort of calculator directly available in the software.

• Sat tracker: fix rotator max azimuth and elevation settings in GUI. PR #900
• GS232: support SPID MD-02 controller. PR #901
• File Output: make file name persistent
• PlutoSDR MIMO: fixed wrong reference to BladeRF library in CMakeLists.txt. Fixes #905
• Add .wav file support to File Input File Source and File Record plugins. PR #907. Implements #285
• Star Tracker: Add Custom Az/El target and drift scan plot. PR #910

AIS (Automatic Identification System) is used to track ships and other marine vessels at sea.

Again a nice contribution of Jon srcejon. AIS is supported with 3 new plugins:

• AIS demodulator to decode AIS messages. See here
• AIS feature to collate data from several AIS demodulators. See here. AIS is broadcast globally on 25kHz channels at 161.975MHz and 162.025MHz. This way you can combine data coming from two AIS demodulators centered on these frequencies. The position of ships can be shown on a map thanks to the Map feature
• AIS modulator: you can play with it or test equipment on close circuit. You need a license to use AIS on air. If you have an amateur radio license you can experiment with AIS on amateur radio bands. See here

PRs #891, #895 and #896 for first implementation (v6.12.0) and fixes.

• Catch TleException in Satellite Selection Dialog to avoid crash. PR #894 (v6.12.0)
• PlutoSDR MIMO: REST API fixes (v6.12.0)

Recently a new version of the Pluto based on the famous Analog Devices ADALM Pluto has appeared on the Chinese market under the Pluto+ name. This is an enhanced version of the original ADALM Pluto with aluminium case, gigabit ethernet, a SD card and more importantly for what concerns this plugin both Rx and Tx terminals of the AD9363 connectorized with SMA chassis female jacks. Both Rx and Tx are activated out of the box. This is based on a firmware variable so it should be possible to activate the 2Rx / 2Tx with any version of the AD firmware. AFAIK Pluto+ is the cheapest MIMO 2Rx/2Tx capable SDR to this date.

More details on the plugin can be found here

The center interpolator by 64 has been fixed. This fixes #884

• Satellite tracker plugin: Fixed memory leaks. PR #979, Fixes #877.
• More memory leak fixes. PR #879: Star tracker, Packet demod, IEEE 802.15.4 modulator, DATV modulator.
• Revision of mutex locks in FIFOs. Fixes #870.
• DAB/DAB+ demod: Use UTF-8 rather than latin encoding for program names. Fixes #874.
• DAB/DAB+ demod: Use latest DAB lib API. Don't write MOT data to files. PR #880

• Satellite and Star tracker plugins: dark theme option for charts as default
• Spectrum: increase maximum FFT size to 32k
• Change delete order of channel and GUI. Fixes #860
• APT demod: moved processPixels process to a separate thread. Implements #865
• APT demod optimization: do a full image process only every 20 lines
• DAB/DAB+ demod: added images in GUI and various fixes. PR #866
• DAB/DAB+ demod: fixed right-click audio selection. PR #856 fixes #853
• SampleSinkFIFO: read/write return immediately if size is zero. Fixes #868

The DAB / DAB+ demodulator was missing in the Windows build. It is now available. PR #854 fixes #853

• DSD Demodulator: set fixed 48kS/s for requested channel SR. Fixes #752
• External libaries (package builds): upgraded DSDcc to v1.9.3

Thanks again Jon (srcejon) for this nice contribution that implements a long awaited feature (Issue #169). The details can be found here

• NFM demod: implemented DCS squelch. Finalizes #792
• DATV modulator: avoid SR=0. PR #851 fixes #849
• Fixed webapi adapters. Fixes #842
• Package builds: upgrade DSDcc to 1.9.2 that contains FEC fixes. May benefit to DMR, dPMR and YSF modes of the DSD demod plugin
• ADSB and VOR: Fix assertion when removing all elements from model. PR #841

Thanks to Jon srcejon SDRplay API v3 is now supported with a new source plugin. This allows using the whole SDRplay range of devices and not only the old RSP1: RSP1A, RSP2, RSPduo and RSPdx. You will need to install support of SDRplay v3 in your system either from the SDRplay website or Jon's repository for Linux. If you compile from source make sure you install SDRplay v3 before and then touch the main CMakeLists.txt so that the cmake process can pick up the SDRplay libraries and thus the plugin build triggered.

• NFM modulator. Implemented DCS. Part of #792
• DATV demod: option to enable/disable the video player
• DATV demod: stop player before initializing DATV framework
• Do not enable interprocedural optimization for Mac. Fixes #807

For more details on artifacts and their contents please read the quick start in the Wiki.
Note that Ubuntu .deb package is for 20.04. Please note that since v6.2.0 SSE 4.2 is required. It has been intended to be like that for a long time but was not effective until this release.

This new plugin contributed by Jon srcejon can be used to measure the packet error rate over digital, packet based protcols such as AX.25 (Packet mod/demod), LoRa (ChipChat mod/demod) and 802.15.4. More details here

Also contributed by Jon this is a very nice addition that brings DVB-S2 support in the modulator. DVB-S2 is increasingly popular over DVB-S and the standard on QO-100 wideband transponder.

• DATV demodulator: various fixes mostly in the internal player and DVB-S2 decoder. The plugin is not 100% stable but these changes improve it significantly. Fixes issue #833
• "My position" setting: fixed station position altitude setting. Fixes issue #828
• APRS feature: choose between metric and imperial units. Implements issue #829
• AudioOutput plugin: fixed REST API device settings PUT. PATCH. Fixes issue #837

Another great plugin from Jon srcejon that implements a DATV DVB-S modulator (DVB-S2 may come later). The details can be found here

• FileInput: Sample rate fixes, PR #803
• Set depending objects to nullptr before deleting GUI. Fixes #806
• SSB demod: increase audio volume range to -10 to +40 dB.
• Fix impulse response of FIR filter. PR #811
• HackRF: auto baseband filter and hardware LO correction PR #812, #824
• DATV demod: many fixes to improve stabilty of DVB-S2. Implements #804
• ChirpChat demod: LoRa APRS support. PR #814, #815. Implements #813
• SatTracker: Fixed Doppler timing interval. PR #818
• DemodAnalyzer: Support Packer demod. PR #820

• FileSink: File name handling in settings and API. PR #798
• FileRecord: cut file only if sample rate changes. Implements #795
• ChannelAnalyzer: Added Costas Loop PLL and more controls. PR #797
• DATV: implemented soft LDPC external tool. Issue #785
• Spectrum: removed FPS no limit setting. Fixes #793

• GS-232 Controller feature: added ERC-M controller support. PR #788
• Added missing swagger files from recent updates. PR #788
• Satellite Tracker feature: fixed build on Mac. PR #788
• Spectrum Vis: initialize pointer to GUI. Fixes #790
• Reapply audio sample only on effective channel sample rate change. Implements #791

This release features two new exciting plugins contributed by Jon srcejon (PR #787):

• APT (Automatic Picture Transmission) decoder to receive NOAA satellite images. Please check documentation here
• In order to optimize reception of orbiting satellites and follow them a new Satellite Tracker feature plugin has been created. This is rather sophisticated so make sure you check the documentation here to use it productively.

These two plugins have new specific dependencies so if you compile from source make sure you update your procedure according to the Wiki instructions

• New MER and CNR gauges. Implements #784
• For DVB-S2 allow a maximum of bit flips corrections (more than 0) in the hard LDPC decoder. With a value of 200 (recommended) signals down to 10 dB MER can be successfully decoded vs 15 dB with no bit flip tolerance as it used to be.

Check DATV demodulator documentation here

• FileSink: enable record button only when plugin is running. Issue #782
• SigMFFileSink: enable record button only when plugin is running.
• RTL-SDR: increase LO ppm range to +/-200

• Frequency zooming. Implements #773. Use the mouse wheel inside spectrum or waterfall area.
• Power and time zooming. Implements #779. Use the mouse wheel inside spectrum (power) scale or waterfall (time) scale.

Check documentation here: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel/tree/master/sdrgui#mouse-scroll-wheel

• DeviceUISet: fixed channel instance registrations element deletion. Fixes #776
• FileSink: fixed spectrum GUI center frequency setting (baseband to GUI communication)
• FileSink: give .sdriq extension to provided file name automatically. Fixes #780
• SigMFFileSink: give .sigmf-meta extension to provided file name automatically.
• SigMFFileSink: append data if file exists and has been recorded with SDRangel. Implements #781

A few changes suggested in #768 have been implemented. These are quick wins without massive refactoring of the spectrum feature. There are a number of new controls that made a reorganization of the spectrum GUI necessary. This will change significantly the placement of the different controls and add a few more. You can check the description of the spectrum GUI interface here: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel/tree/master/sdrgui#3-spectrum-display-control

Summary of changes:

• More FPS capping options including lifting capping completely. Implements #772. A fixed 20 FPS used to be in place which corresponds to standard usage. Increasing the value will make the display more reactive but will increase GPU utilization (depending on FFT settings) and therefore power consumption significantly. Conversely reducing FPS will limit power consumption in all cases (it is a capping) at the expense of a less reactive display.
• Autoscaling. Implements #771
• Overlap control. Implements #770. Overlap was possible but its control from the GUI had never been implemented.

• SSB demod: corrections to spanLog2 processing. Effective when audio sample rate is lower than 48 kS/s.

• More Star Tracker updates. PR #762
• AirspyHF: added decimation by 128 and 256. PR #764
• SSB demod: use log (dB) for volume setting
• CW keyer: revised the WPM calculation
• SoapySDR: a few fixes. PR #766
• RTLSDR: changed BW setting limits. PR #766
• Various changes in build and compiler warning fixes. PR #766
• NFM demod: cosmetic changes. PR #766
• Removed FPS limitation in WSSpectrum. Implements #767