[Skimmertalk] New release of Red Pitaya SDR software adds support for 8-band skimming

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

Exciting news!  8-band skimming is now available on the Red Pitaya.

Pavel Demin has released a new version of his Red Pitaya SDR software that
can support skimming on up to *8 bands simultaneously* at 192 kHz, making
it more powerful than the QS1R, which could only skim 7 bands.  Prior to
now, his software could skim 6 bands at most.

Pavel has also restored his apps. to the Red Pitaya Application
Marketplace, so upgrading and installation is simple again:

Upgrade procedure for Ubuntu Linux users:

   1. Terminate RTTY Skimmer Server, CW Skimmer Server, HDSDR, and the RBN
   Aggregator so that nothing is using the SDR software
   2. Open a web browser to your Red Pitaya's alias or IP address, e.g.
   http://rp-F0xxxx.local
   3. Click on the green *Application marketplace* icon
   4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page
   5. Click the *Upgrade* button underneath *SDR receiver compatible with
   HPSDR (1.0-20171025)*.  Make sure to Install or upgrade the SDR
   *receiver*, not the SDR Transceiver.
   6. *Do not *click RUN (this will require that you keep a browser open to
   run the SDR, and we have better ways)
   7. Close your web browser
   8. Login in to a Red Pitaya command prompt with Putty and type:
   *shutdown -r*
   (Advanced users may run
   /opt/redpitaya/www/apps/sdr_receiver_hpsdr/stop.sh and then run the
   edited /etc/rc.local to update the FPGA and restart with the new
   receiver, instead of rebooting)
   9. After 1 minute, the Red Pitaya will shutdown and restart cleanly
   10. Restart Aggregator and everything should work as before.  NO changes
   required to other software such as CWSL_Tee or HermesIntf.dll; they already
   support 8 bands.
   11. Click on the *ini Files* tab of Aggregator
   12. Click *Edit* and change *SegmenSel192* line in the selected ini file
   to select up to 8 bands.  Save the file and exit the editor
   13. In the Aggregator, click the *Now* button next to the edited ini
   file to stop and restart both CW and (optionally) RTTY Skimming on 8 bands.

Upgrade procedure for Alpine Linux
<http://pavel-demin.github.io/red-pitaya-notes/alpine/> users:

   1. Go to https://github.com/pavel-demin/red-pitaya-notes/releases
   2. Downloadred-pitaya-alpine-3.6-armhf-20171025.zip
   <https://github.com/pavel-demin/red-pitaya-notes/releases/download/20171025/red-pitaya-alpine-3.6-armhf-20171025.zip>
   3. Unzip to your *apps* directory on the Red Pitaya
   4. Continue with step 8 above

These commands may also work, from an Alpine Linux command prompt (not
tested, each command is one a single line, though email may wrap them)

cd apps
rw
wget
https://github.com/pavel-demin/red-pitaya-notes/releases/download/20171025/red-pitaya-alpine-3.6-armhf-20171025.zip
unzip red-pitaya-alpine-3.6-armhf-20171025.zip
shutdown -r


If you need a 14:1 transformer or two for your Red Pitaya, I still have a
few left in stock.  Use http://www.kkn.net/~n6tv/XFMR to order.

73,
Bob, N6TV