Wes,

Thanks for your, and Bob’s input. The second RP makes a lot of sense. It is about the same price as a refurbished I7 machine. It also consumes about 10W, compared to about 100W for an I7 computer. The cost of running a 100W computer full-time is about $175/year, at local electricity rates.

Another interesting wrinkle to all of this is the release of WSJT-X V2.1.0 this AM. I just loaded the 64-bit version, as it is now fully functional, and find it significantly easier on my computer. I’m running 8 instances of WSJT-X, which railed the computer during decode intervals and stretched average DT times out to near a second, while running the 32 Bit version. Now, running the 64 Bit version, max decode computer utilization is less than 60%. DT latency is roughly halved. All good things!

I have a couple of retired I5 boxes sitting in the shack. As an experiment, I might fire one of them up and see if it will support 3-4 instances of WSJT-X, now, running the 64 Bit version.

Ted

K9IMM

From: Wes Cosand [mailto:wes.cosand@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2019 7:48 PM
To: Bob Wilson, N6TV
Cc: Ted Gisske; skimmertalk
Subject: Re: [Skimmertalk] Anyone got this to work?

I would affirm Bob's view.  Pavel and  Björn's software just runs and runs.  It is reliable in my hands.  And it doesn't require any of your computer CPU -- just a terminal program to set it up.  

Of course, the big impediment is having to remember or look up the UNIX commands you learned 30 years ago and then figure out how they transmogrified into LINUX commands.  But  Björn's documentation helps a lot.

If FT4 becomes a big deal in contesting, as I expect it will, then it will be nice to have FT8Startup, CWSL_SSBWave, VAC and WSJT-X all available.  

Wes WZ7I

On Sun, Jul 14, 2019 at 6:11 PM Bob Wilson, N6TV <n6tv@arrl.net> wrote:

Ted et al.,

Just to review, there is a much simpler way to generate FT8 spots from a Red Pitaya.  You do NOT need to run FT8Startup, CWSL_SSBWave, Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) or any other programs on Windows, not even a single copy of WSJT-X.

The FT8 decoding logic and almost everything you need is already pre-installed on the Red Pitaya SD Card (in Pavel's Alpine Linux distributions), ready to be enabled.  The only downside is that you do have to dedicate a Red Pitaya to FT8 decoding, since it can only run one one app at a time, either sdr_receiver_hpsdr (for CW/RTTY Skimmer) or sdr_transceiver_ft8. but not both at the same time.

But buying a second Red Pitaya, or using an older one, is so much easier than setting up a Windows machine to do multi-band FT8 decoding, plus you don't have to worry about WSJT-X filling up your Windows hard disk with .WAV files.

The Red Pitaya FT8 app. automatically reports what it decodes to PSKReporter.info, and can "optionally" send the same reports to the RBN via the Aggregator, with no other Windows software required.

SM7IUN has excellent documentation explaining the procedure in detail, including handy setup scripts that automatically rotate between any 8 bands for day, night, and dawn/dusk.

https://sm7iun.ekelund.nu/red-pitaya/ft8-skimmer

I would strongly suggest trying this alternative before investing any effort into doing the same job on Windows, or buying another PC.  Just follow all the steps, or if you get stuck, ask for help here.

73,

Bob, N6TV

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Wes Cosand
6299 Route 413
PO Box 349
Pipersville, PA 18947