[Fourlanders] Funcube Dongle update

[Bob Lear]

Here is the latest on the FunCube Dongle.

I have found, downloaded and tested several more software packages. 
WU1X PowerSDR IF software looked like it would be right on, however, it 
doesn't allow for input frequencies above 65 MHz (but that is just 
display numbers).  It does take the I/Q sigs from the FCD, BUT it keeps 
breaking up audio and display and sounds like just barely squelched 
audio.  Not sure what is going on, but it eventually goes CPU 100% and 
locks up.

No luck on the SoftRock Yahoo group with the problem with Rocky 
'greening' out and stopping and also no luck with responses on the 
Sdr-radio Yahoo group about the radio connection problems there, 
although the last thing I did this afternoon was to test the FT-2000 
with my computer that I usually use for my radios with HRD and still 
couldn't connect.  I then tried the RTS and DTR checkboxes and that 
allowed it to connect, so that is what I will try when I put the FT-2000 
back on Jim's computer and I'll also see if that is the key to SDR-Radio 
problem with connecting to external radio (to see if that will allow the 
displayed spectrum to track the actual frequency of the radio.

I've also downloaded Spectran, Hamscope, DigiPan and Spec-An to try. 
Most work, but for some reason do not show as much spectrum as the other 
programs.

Best set-up found so far is SDR# (SDR sharp, written in C sharp), even 
though the x-axis display shows the IF frequency (69.451500) and is 
fixed, it shows a pretty wide and usable spectrum for both CW and SSB 
signals.  You can easily watch a signal and tune to it smoothly from 
above or below where you are currently listening.  The signal you are 
copying is in the center of the display and pretty easy to adjust up and 
down the band.  SDR# has both spectrum and waterfall displays 
simultaneously.  It is widows sizable too.

I had SDR# with the dual displays up and running this afternoon for 
quite some time with Writelog on the left side and SDR# on the right. 
This was on a 21" wide aspect monitor and would be quite usable this 
way.  Seems to be fine on Jim's P4 2GHz XP contesting computer.  I even 
had 222 and Server Computers on the network for a realistic set-up. 
Even had the VE7CC Packet cluster running.  All looked good and nothing 
appeared to suffer or slow down.  I did a short video of the display.  I 
hope it can be viewed OK.  I'm going to work on getting that out next.

So SDR# appears to be the most viable solution found so far.  I want Jim 
to try it and test it some more and see how he likes it.  I'm going to 
try and get myself back to some other projects and still play with this 
stuff on the side when I can.

Another bonus is that SDR# appears to be the most compact code package:
It comes in at 84kb, compared to SpectraVue 748kb, kgkSDR 1.2Gb, Rocky 
1.7Gb, WinRad+ 1.9Gb, HDSDR 1.8 Gb and SDR-Radio at 26 Gb!!

I find it amazing that I can get all this stuff to work, but I can't 
make Brian's SDR-14 work with SpectraVue!!  Still trying as I'd like to 
make comparisons with what I've done.

Any input from the peanut gallery would be appreciated.

Bob