ExpertSDR2 User's Manual Introduction 1. ExpertSDR2 software features 1.1 Hardware requirements to PC or laptop 2. Installing ExpertSDR2 software 3. ExpertSDR2 program description 3.1 Program interface description 3.1.1 Control Panel 1 3.1.2. Control Panel 2 3.1.3 Control panel 3 3.1.4. Displaying panel 3.1.5. Spectrum analyzer graphic (panadapter): 3.1.6. Ways to tune a station 3.1.7. Waterfall Display 3.1.8. Status bar 4. ExpertSDR2 program fine tuning 4.1. Settings' selection panel 4.2. Menu Device 4.2.1. Receiver Settings 4.2.2. Additional calibration over frequency 4.3. Menu Sound Card 4.4. Menu Display 4.4.1. Main Window tab 4.4.2. Spectrum tab 4.4.3. Waterfall tab 4.4.4. Grid tab 4.4.5. Filter tab 4.4.6. The background tab 4.5. САТ menu 4.6. E-Coder menu 4.7. Futures Menu 4.8. Manager Menu 4.9 CW Skimmer Menu Conclusion 1
Introduction The program, ExpertSDR2, was designed to support SDR hardware modules of the Expert Electronics Company. As of today the program ExpertSDR2 supports: receiving adapter Colibri in the "receive" mode transceiver adapter SunSDR1 and SunSDR2 in the mode "receive" and in the mode "transmission" phone and telegraph modulation types two independent receivers with the bands from 39 khz to 312,5 khz wide band spectrum analyzer. A proprietary DSP library, developed by the Company Expert Electronics, allowed to improve the quality of reception and to enhance the reliability of the software. Two types of operating systems are supported: Windows XP/Vista/7 and Linux Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Work on improving the program, its operating speed and adding of new functionality is constant. New versions can be downloaded from our website 1. ExpertSDR2 software features ExpertSDR2 software is a logical continuation of the previous program ExpertSDR. ExpertSDR2 is completely redesigned from scratch. It simultaneously controls typical SDR functions, such as the display of the spectrum of the received signal and the spectrum launched in time (waterfall). As well as unique new functions such as two independent and separate receivers and separate wide band spectrum analyzer. These features are described below. Main features: The main innovation in the new ExpertSDR2 program is the own core of digital signal processing (DSP). Due to this, the intelligibility of the received signals and the quality of reception is improved. The program interface is redesigned to maximize the working field for displaying the air spectrum (panadapter) and the waterfall. The main control panel is at the top of the window. The minimum size of the program window is 865x179 pixels. The spectrum analyzer window with a waterfall can be completely hidden. It allows to work on small monitors, tablet PCs, laptops or to place the radio amateur program near on the screen near each other. There are two kinds of frequency memory. The first type of memory is automatic and stores the frequency if it is on the receiver over a second. Clicking the cross hair on different stations the frequencies are stored in the 2
memory. Those frequencies can be selected in order back and forward, as in the internet browser. The second type of memory is organized as a table, in which the current frequency with comments and modulation type can be saved. The number of these memory locations in the second type of memory is unlimited. Double-clicking on the desired line of the table brings the radio to the necessary frequency. Even if it is on another band, the receiver will simply change to it. The software frequency agility was developed in ExpertSDR2. Visually is looks like moving the receiver to any place of panorama. You may move it by holding down the mouse or rearrange clicking the cross hair on the interesting station. Herewith the spectrum and all stations leave at the same places. Zooming the panorama (ZOOM) is done over the following principle. When zooming the panorama frequency scale, the Zoom position pointer stays in the field of view regardless where it was before. At a larger scale, the user can change to another frequency or station by dragging the receiver's filter. The frequency band will start moving towards, so that the filter will be in the field of view. The aspect ratio of the spectrum and waterfall on the screen are easily changed by dragging the scale up and down under the spectrum. Upper and lower limits of the spectrum graphic can also be changed directly from the program window. In addition to manually changing limits of the spectrum graphic, there is an automatic tuning of these limits. The margins of the range above and below the peaks of the station are set in the program Settings and the automatics tune it by itself. The automatic adjustment of the waterfall color range is introduced. Now when switching preamplifier and/or ranges, the waterfall color scheme remains comfortable, in accordance with the user s setup. Attenuator is software controlled. The attenuation menu contains 1 attenuator position 20dB. Calling up the additional set of necessary programs is possible to start with calling up the only ExpertSDR2 program. Determine in its settings the paths to the necessary programs and they will start launching together with ExpertSDR2 program. Dark color scheme of the program allows to work in rooms with dark or subdued lighting without eye fatigue The program has several different color schemes and settings for individual elements of the spectrum and waterfall, with a change in their transparency and substituting pictures on the background of the spectrum. The spectrum can be displayed as vertical thin lines, painted by gradient colors, or displayed as a line in a classic signal envelope from air. 1.1 Hardware requirements to PC or laptop Personal computer or laptop can be any modern configuration, produced in the last 2-3 years. Recommended configuration: 2 or 4 core processor Intel Core i3 or Core i5 2, 4 or 8 GB of RAM 40 GB of free hard disk space for the program ExpertSDR2 and the related programs. 3
17 24" screen monitor VGA card that supports OpenGL 1.5 and above. ExpertSDR2 program will run on less powerful computers with Core2Duo processors and Dual Core, but this would entail an increased level of resource loading. The more powerful the computer, the fewer resources the program requires and the easier and colorful "waterfall" and panorama can be drawn. The operating system installed on the computer must be Windows XP 32/64 bit or Windows 7, 32/64 bit. Support for OpenGL graphics version is available from sellers when buying a computer 2. Installing ExpertSDR2 software Installation of the program is accomplished by running the installation file, which is written on CD. The latest version of the program can be downloaded from our website http://sunsdr.com/. To do this, on the front page of the site select downloads -> Software and Files. Select from the list the file of program for Colibri receiver. Specify the path to download the program. This can be the desktop If you are installing a newer version of the program in place of the old, firstly uninstall the old one. For that go to the control panel Windows, section "Add or Remove Programs" and uninstall the old version of ExpertSDR2 program. After downloading, run the file: ESDR2_Colibri_installer.еxe (New software releases may differ in name and numbers) The dialog box will appear for the Setup Wizard and prompt you to select the installation language. Select and press the button Next. 4
After selecting the language opens the main window of the installer. To continue, press "Next". In the next window is written the license agreement for software distribution. If you accept the terms of the agreement, then put the check in the appropriate field and press "Next" button 5
In the next window you can specify the location where the software will be installed. By default, the program is installed on drive C: in the folder c:\program Files\Expert Electronics\ExpertSDR2 Colibri\. If necessary, you can choose your installation directory. Press "Next" button. In the next window you can select the name of the program group in the START menu. By default it will be the same to the name of the installation folder ExpertSDR2 Colibri The installation wizard will inform you that it is ready to install the program to a specified location when you press the button "Setup". If you want to change the installation location of the program, you can press "Back" to go back a step or two back. Press the button "Setup". 6
The next window will appear with the information about the installed files and the installation process. After installation is complete, appears a window which announces the completion of the installation. Now you can run ExpertSDR2 automatically upon completion of installation. To do this, leave the check box run the program. If you plan to run the program later, then clean the check box and press "Finish". 7
Congratulations! You have successfully installed the program. Folder with the label for running the program will appear in START menu. The shortcut to run the program will be created on the desktop 3. ExpertSDR2 program description In this chapter you will learn about the interface of the program and fine-tune on the Colibri receiver. The settings that are not mentioned or addressed leave by default or are provided to the user for self-study and experiments. All the unmentioned settings cannot cause the fatal damage to the hardware of the Colibri receiver, so you can safely experiment with them and adjust it according to your taste. You're dealing with a software-defined radio - SDR, the basic settings and signal processing occurs in the program. The program is flexible; it cannot be burnt up and permanently break. Firstly will be described the program interface. Then there will be described the operating methods for main program controls, frequency adjustment, zoom range, etc. After installation of the Colibri receiver's program, the first start of the program takes place in a completely "folded" form, with the minimum possible size of the window 865x161 pixels. Pressing the standard button Maximize the window on the whole screen disclose the entire program on the desktop. Or the desired size of the program can be set by dragging the edges of the program out. 8
¾ of the panel size of the program panel is occupied by the panorama spectrum analyzer or panadapter and the waterfall region. The waterfall is a convenient function which allows you to observe the dynamics of signals' changes in time. ¼ of the program panel is occupied by the control buttons for the functions of the Colibri receiver, the settings displaying panels of the receiver's operational tuning and its condition at the time. A large number of finer settings are hidden in sub-menus will be discussed later. 3.1 Program interface description The ExpertSDR2 program user's interface consists of graphics and operating controls. The figure below shows the appearance of the program showing the main groups of Colibri receiver's operating controls and programs. 9
3.1.1 Control Panel 1 The panel contains the following buttons: - button to power ON the receiver. RX2 button to switch on the second software receiver. To call the second receiver press the button RX2, located next to the power switch of the receiver. Pressing the drop-down menu button you can choose the second receiver's window configuration. Location of controls and the display panel parameters of the second receiver have the same interface as in the first receiver. It is also possible for different receivers to accommodate different parts of the screen or even to accommodate them on different monitors. The figures below show three possible configurations of the program window with two switched receivers. The horizontal arrangement. 10
This kind of arrangement of windows is handy if the operator's working station is equipped with one or even better two large monitors with a diagonal of 22 "and more. The vertical arrangement. This kind of arrangement is very convenient if there is used a large monitor with 4:3 aspect ratios or modern specially vertically oriented monitors. Separate window In this configuration, each receiver has its own window and can be moved independently on the screen. It is comfortable if two monitors are used. Button - button to enable the attenuator or receiver's preamplifier. 11
Pressing the drop-down menu button, offers a selection of the attenuation level at the receiver s input. The receiver's attenuator has 2 attenuation levels, 0dB and -20dB. Note! While using band range filters the attenuator values are stored for each filter, and correspondingly to each range. When the LPF is switched on the whole HF range, its attenuator's/preamplifier's level is already stored. BS - button turning on the spectrum analyzer in the whole receiving range 0 to 62MHz (broadband scope). The Bandscope panel can be stretched to the desired screen part or can be taken out separately outside the receiver's window to a separate monitor. Navigation and settings for the wide band scope is similar in many respects to the settings of the spectrum analyzer of the main receiver and will be described in details on pages 18-19 SC - on/off switch button for the sound output on the computer's sound card MEM button to open frequency memory panel. 12
3.1.2. Control Panel 2 The second panel contains several different controls in the form of buttons and sliders, separated by functional features. Controls: Volume slide volume control. This control is applied to the LF output on the front panel of the receiver and to the PC's sound card sound output. Clicking the triangle, a shortcut menu appears with separate volume and balance sliders for the Receiver 1 and Receiver 2. RF - AGC sensitivity control (Automatic Gain Control knob analog on classic receivers). Pressing the button with the speaker icon, next to the slider, effectively mutes the sound. Separately are located the buttons for receiver's operation control and a shortcut to the functions. Receiver's operational control panel and shortcuts to the necessary functions contains the following buttons: Mixer balance and volume control menu for the first and second receiver's separately EQ button opens equalizer panel. Multi-band signal's tone control is accessible for receiving. 13
SQL enables the noise gate. Pressing this button a vertical yellow line appears on the S-meter that sets the level of noise blanker opening. Mute mutes LF signal. BreakIn button calls the settings of the telegraph filter carrier shift. EiBi button causes the labels of the broadcasting radio stations to appear in the spectrum analyzer window. Hovering the mouse arrow on the label shows the name of the radio station. IQ - on/off button starts recording the receiving IQ channel. The recording band is equal to the band displayed on panadapter. The file is saved in the folder "My Documents\ExpertSDR2\wave. SKM button turns on the CW Skimmer (Read more on page 42). SM button calls the large S-meter 14
Pressing the opening button the S-meter window separates out of panel and can be dragged to any place of the screen. Panel of modulation type buttons allows to select the necessary modulation type including digital broadcasting. AM - amplitude modulation. SAM - synchronous amplitude modulation. DSB - two sidebands with the suppressed carrier. LSB - lower sideband SSB. USB - upper sideband SSB. CW - telegraph mode. NFM - narrowband FM (connected). WFM - wideband FM (broadcasting). SPEC - overview of the entire receiver's bandwidth without demodulation display (panadapter bandwidth). DIGL - digital connection modes, the lower sideband. 15
DIGU - digital connection modes, the upper sideband. DRM - Digital Radio Mondiale digital broadcasting standard. Nearby is placed the panel of choice buttons of operating ranges 160M - 2M - amateur bands. CB - CB 27MHz range. GEN - continuous overlap over ranges. 3.1.3 Control panel 3 Panel is split into three buttons areas separated on a functional basis. Advanced settings region includes: RIT switching the detuning on receipt Pressing RIT button, the spectrum analyzer graph shows highlighted portion of frequencies, in the limits of which the detuning is possible and there appear the VFO cross hair settings. Reset - resets the detuning frequency. The detuning frequency can be set directly in the input field keypad, or by moving the cross hair to the desired frequency on the spectrum analyzer graphic and press the left mouse button. At this point, the receiver's filter will be with the selected color. At the same time, below the main receiver display filter frequency will be displayed the following values: 16
RIT: - the detuning frequency. L: and H: - upper and lower frequency ramp filter value. O: - white vertical stripe inside the filter shows the frequency within the filter range. It is possible to quickly change the filter bandwidth, by grabbing the top or bottom of the ramp. To do this, bring the crosshair on the edge of the filter and pressing the left mouse button, pull the edge of the filter. RIT Switching the detuning on transmission Manipulating the transmission frequency detuning on the receipt. AGC - menu of AGC velocity presettings. Step - frequency tuning step. Step selection menu allows to change the step in range between 0.1Hz and 100 khz. Area of DSP-signal processing functions: 17
RxEq enable the equalizer. BIN - enable pseudo stereo processing. NR - enable the digital noise suppressor. NB1 - enable the first type pulse noise suppressor. NB2 - enable the second type pulse noise suppressor. ANF - automatic notch filter. Receiving filter bandwidth control area: 1.8-3.5 khz for DSB / USB / LSB / DIGI mode. 3-16 khz for AM/SAM mode. 50-1200 Hz for CW mode. 3-16 khz for NFM mode. 150-310 khz for WFM mode. 10 khz for DRM mode. USER opportunity to select the receiving filter bandwidth by your sole discretion. (Possible at any modulation type except DRM) 3.1.4. Displaying panel This panel contains visual information about the VFO frequency, signal level at the antenna input (S-meter) and some controls of the receiver's modes. Appointment of displaying elements and controls. Displaying elements: VFO B LO frequency range display B VFO A - LO frequency range display A (main oscillator). S-meter - scale, showing the signal power level in the receiver's filter band by default. Scale is graduated in units and dbm. To the left of the S-meter scale figures display the signal 18
strength in db mw. Pressing the right mouse button on S-meter, it can be chosen what Smeter will display. ADC shows the strength in each quadrature channel (double scale) Oscillators' control unit: SubRX enable sub receiver A>B - assign the frequency of the VFO A to B. A<B - assign the frequency of the VFO B to A. A<>B - swap frequencies between the VFO A and B. LOCK - lock oscillator's adjustment SAVE - prompt saving of the current frequency and modulation type in memory SET - manual frequency input in VFO A or VFO B. Buttons - navigate the stack memory. The memory cells are automatically filled in when the receiver is at a certain frequency longer than 1 second. When you press the "down arrow", appear a list of the cell stack, where you can select the interesting frequency. Total stack contains 16 cells. 3.1.5. Spectrum analyzer graphic (panadapter): This window displays the instantaneous spectrum in the band from 39 to 312 khz (switched by user). Inside this window there is a receiver's filter with which we tune in the station and hear them. 19
On the left side of the spectrum analyzer graphic is a vertical scale, where are seen the power level of signals in the air. Measurement units dbm decibel-milliwatt. Blue bar on top shows the limits of the amateur band. The red vertical thin line shows the virtual carrier frequency. Above the red bar is shown the receiver's frequency, to the nearest one-tenth Hertz and the signal level in the band of the filter, expressed in units of S-points Next to the red stripe of the receiver's frequency is displayed the receiver's filter in the form of translucent light gray stripe. That fall into this band, is heard in the phones. The figure shows the upper sideband (USB) of the receiver in the SSB mode, that is why the receiving band is to the right of the frequency tuning. Frequency tuning is 14.151500 MHz. Range of the displayed frequencies can be just drawn by the envelope line, and may have a fill. Rendering spectrum type, its color, the color of the envelope line, its filling, their transparency, etc. are configured in the program and have a fairly broad opportunities (details on page 24). 1) Spectrum analyzer scaling When you hover the mouse pointer on the level strip appears a hand. When you press the mouse button at this moment, you can change the scale of levels displaying. When you press the right mouse button the scale is captured and the upper limit of the displaying level can be changed. Pressing the left mouse button changes the lower level of the spectrum. Changing in the proportion of graphics Isolation scale below shows the frequency for a concrete point of spectrum. When you hover the mouse pointer to the frequency band appears a hand. When you press the mouse button, you can change the balance of waterfall display and spectrum analyzer or zoom the spectrum range. By pressing the left mouse button the scale is captured and the balance of waterfall display and the 20
spectrum analyzer can be changed, including the ability to completely hide one or the other graphic. By pressing the right mouse button at this moment the spectrum scale can be changed i.e. make increasing or decreasing the spectrum scale. Changing the spectrum scale is done relatively the zoom point «Zoom position». Regarding the shown triangle there will be an increase or a decrease of scale. The triangle can be moved along the frequency scale in two ways thereby changing the frequency regarding which the increase is made. Triangle can be moved to the necessary position by pressing the left mouse button or click on frequency scale with the mouse wheel and the triangle will move instantly to a place of clique. By clicking the right mouse button on the frequency scale appears the arrows' image in different directions. Now, when you move the mouse to the right - the scale of the spectrum will increase, as you move to the left - will decrease. 3.1.6. Ways to tune a station Tuning into a station in spectrum analyzer graphic is possible in several ways: Quick mouse click setup in the right place at the sight. When you hover the mouse arrow on the spectrum analyzer crosshair appears on the signal. Displayed next to the exact frequency of the sight and the signal strength in dbm in specifically selected point. By clicking the left mouse button on the selected point on the screen at a given position moves the receiver's filter. And the setting is made with the accuracy specified in the "Step" menu. 21
Moving the receiver's filter over the spectrum analyzer graphic By pressing the left mouse button on the filter field, the filter is shifted to the desired part of the spectrum analyzer until the signal would be in range of the filter. Adjustment is made to the accuracy specified in the "Step" menu. Moving the spectrum itself, when the filter is at a standstill. By pressing the right mouse button on any part of the spectrum, moving to hit the whole spectrum of the desired site in the target filter. Adjustment is made to the accuracy specified in the "Step" menu. Moving the receiver's filter together with the spectrum. Formally, this is not a method of adjustment. But allows not to knock the tuning reception frequency, see the state of the air outside the window strip panoramas. In this case, the tuning frequency does not change, but the whole panorama moves. Besides the listed above ways of tuning, the synchronous tuning between the bandscope and the main receivers is implemented. Pressing the right mouse button on the interesting signal on the bandscope, the main receiver synchronously tunes to this frequency. 3.1.7. Waterfall Display The waterfall spectrum deployed in time is displayed on the chart. The lighter the color of the waterfall, the stronger the signal at this point. Dark blue color in the figure indicates a low level signal, in this case it is the air noise. The color palette as of default settings automatically adjusts to the most suitable range of perception levels. If necessary, the color limits depending on the signal levels can be adjusted in program settings (details on page 34-35). Besides the rainbow waterfall color there are monochrome and arbitrary waterfall rendering, which parameters can be also set in the program settings. 3.1.8. Status bar 22
The status bar displays the following parameters: ExpertSDR2 program screen size in pixels. CPU percent usage. Temperature inside the receiver. Universal Time (UTC). Current date. Local Time. 4. ExpertSDR2 program fine tuning All major changes and fine tuning of the program are implemented in the settings menu which is accessed by pressing the "Options" button in the top right corner of the screen. Before you receive the operating menu, in which a variety of settings are divided by functional features and type of destination. WARNING! Recommend you to study this section of the instructions as many settings are hidden in a submenu and each function can have its own settings panel. See the figure. 23
Example: For the AGC function there was designed its own panel, while choosing the filter settings a new category of settings appear with its tabs and submenu. Important notes! All the settings for a particular user or task can be saved and then loaded. To do this, use the buttons "Save" and "Load". If you change a value in the menu, and the work of the function did not suit you, and you forgot the original values, you can reset all the settings to their factory settings by simply pressing "Reset" button. This also applies to some menu items in nested categories settings where there is a reset button. Checking the changes made to the work of a particular function can be done without closing the settings windows. To do this, simply press the button "Apply". Сancel all the made changes is possible by pressing the button "Cancel". If the parameters changes to the menu satisfies you and no other changes are required, close the settings menu by pressing the "OK" button. 4.1. Settings' selection panel Settings' selection panel contains a graphical representation of customization sections, separated by types of customizable functions. When choosing the right type of functions, menus and tabs appear with the knobs and buttons related to a specific function or settings type. 24
Menu Device - setting hardware and software signal processing functions. Menu Sound card - setting the audio output of the receiver through the PC's sound card. Menu Display - customize the appearance of the program and display signals' parameters. Menu CAT - setting the connection of the receiver to a PC via the CAT interface. Menu Panel - setting receiver's operational panel E-Coder. Menu Futures - configuring an automatic accompanying programs launch. Menu Manager - Setup Manager, receiver's remote control capabilities. (Planned to implement in the nearest future). Menu CW Skimmer setting the connection with the program CW Skimmer. 4.2. Menu Device Menu Device includes the tabs for setting the following functions: Setting computer communication parameters with the receiver and HF input tuning Tab VAC - configure the virtual audio cable Tab DSP - received signal processing settings Ext Ctrl - setting the remote control input. Expert - configuring IP-address of the receiver and the receiver's thin calibration. 25
4.2.1. Receiver Settings Left area is allocated for setting the basic system functions of receiver's program interaction with hardware stuffing: Device - selection receiver's menu. Colibri the serial number of the used receiver. SDR Address - the physical address of the IP receiver, by default 192.168.16.200 or the set address. SDR Port - the port number over which the data is transferred. Sample Rate - inverter's sampling frequency. Corresponds to the panorama swath. You can select one of the 4-band values. 26
Buttons: Button Search searching the receiver in the net. If all the PC's network settings are correct, you will see your receiver and it's address in the appeared panel. Press the button Use to choose the receiver for work. Button Information displays the receiver's serial number, firmware revision, PCB revision, and installed options. The button can be used as one of the variants of the communication tests of the program with the receiver. If the connection is made, the receiver's information is displayed, otherwise appear the connection failure. Hardware settings: 27
Use LPF enable the wideband filter at the receiver's input with the bandwidth 0-62 MHz. While operating the receiver in the VHF wideband mode oversamples 62-800MHz it is necessary to clear the check box Disable audio output disable the receiver's audio output Tab VAC As the program Colibri ExpertSDR2 and the programs for decoding the digital types of communications run on the same computer, they can be connected via a virtual audio cable without wires and sound cards. The virtual audio cable is customized for each software receiver on tabs Receiver 1 and Receiver 2. A virtual audio cable is enabled by setting Enable check box in the field settings VAC -> Receiver VAC tab contains the following items: Driver - choose the type of audio cable driver or sound card driver. Input - choose the sound card physical output or the number of virtual audio cable. Channels - select the number of the sound card used channels or a virtual audio cable Sample rate - the sampling frequency Buffer size - size of the buffer. Latency - the signal's delay time. RX gain - additional signal gain in the path of the receiving virtual audio cable in decibels. TX gain additional signal gain in the path of the transceiving virtual audio cable in decibels. Tab DSP The tab contains the settings referring to the software receiver and processing of the receiving signals. Three types of settings can be chosen in the drop-down menu: AGC setting AGC characteristics of the receiver DSP noise suppressor setup 28
Filters adjusts the slope of the receiver's filter AGC receiver tuning All the AGC fine adjustments are in this menu. The settings are divided by the processing speed into Slow, Medium, Fast and User's defined with each having its own menu. In case you set the wrong values and the sound doesn't suit you the settings can be reset back to the factory settings by the button Default, placed below each tab. AGC settings: Slope the slope of the AGC characteristic. Attack time of signal rising Decay time of signal falling Hang time time of signal recovery Threshold the knee of operation Noise Suppressor Settings DSP processing functions help to clear the receiving signal from the various types of noise and interference. These include the typical functions: ANF - auto notch filter, removal of the carrier signals (so called make-up foundation). This specialized adaptive filter, which cuts any periodic signals from the mixture of signals in the band of the receiver's filter. NR noise reducer, removal of white noise NB noise blanker, removal of impulse noise 29
NR and ANF function parameters: Taps - filter order. Delay - operational delay. Rate - operational speed. Leak - signal gate level Noise blanker function parameters: Threshold NB 1 operational filter 1 threshold Threshold NB 2 operational filter 2 threshold Adjustment the receiver's filter slope In this sub-menu adjustments to the slope of the receiver's filter for each modulation type and for each bandwidth of the panorama are made. The Filter tabs sub-menu sets the filter order separately for each modulation type. The higher the order, more rectangle the slopes of the receiver. But at the expense the increased propagation delay. 30
Therefore, the user must find a middle ground between the acceptable filter slopes and signal delay. The sub-menu «DIG Offset» sets the shift frequency. In case you set the wrong values and the sound doesn't suit you the settings can be reset back to the factory settings by the button Default, placed below each tab. Ext Ctrl tab To control the external devices the receiver has a special connector Ext ctrl. Connector's pin assignment over range can be configured in the corresponding tab settings. Checking the boxes with the numbers of lines switches the corresponding switches on the corresponding outputs. Configuration of the Ext Ctrl connector outputs are open collector switched grounds. More details about the methods and ways to connect to this connector are described in the documents "Colibri Receiver User Guide" and "Guidelines for the connection the external devices to the transceiver SunSDR2». The most convenient use of this function - switching narrowband filters in the receive mode and/or preamplifier. It is also comfortable and easy to arrange your own antenna switch, having only the relay. Tab Expert The new IP address and the access port to the receiver are set on this tab. The user can change these settings according to the settings on its own LAN, before that making sure that the correct IP address is available. 31
New IP Address field to enter new IP addresses. New Port - the field to input the new port. Set IP Address - a button to activate the new values of the address and port. After pressing it, the new data is stored in the receiver. Frequency coefficient the field where the displaying constant of frequency tuning is corrected. Firmware update - button to update the inner receiver's microprogram. 4.2.2. Additional calibration over frequency Adjustment of the displayed frequency can be done by the signals of the exact time at frequencies 4.996 MHz, 9.996 MHz 14.996 MHz, where are the pulsating signals and it is easy to recognize them. If they do not coincide with the tuning frequency, adjust the value in the field, Frequency coefficient, to matching. When finished it is necessary to apply the value by pressing Write. 4.3. Menu Sound Card By default the output of LF signal from receiver is arranged through a hardware circuit. In the original version it can be headphones or powered speakers connected to the receiver. A convenient way to output LF signal from the receiver is to use a standard PC sound card. In this case, the digital stream of LF signal is routed from the receiver to the PC. A usual headset, such as used on Skype, can also be used to listen to the receiver easily and comfortably with the receiver physically located, for example, in a remote area. To activate the PC's sound card, set check box Enable in the menu Sound card. 32
The sound card settings contain the following categories sound card and linear output for each software receiver. Sound card and linear output settings contain the following items: Driver - select the type of the sound card driver. Input select the physical input of the sound card. Channels - select the number of channels used by the sound card. Sample rate - the sampling frequency. Buffer size - size of the buffer. Latency - the signal delay time. The category Linear output allows to configure the settings of the linear output separately for each software receiver and allows to make the signal output to the audio volume control. 4.4. Menu Display Appearance Setup program contains the following tabs: Main window Spectrum Waterfall Grid Filter Background 4.4.1. Main Window tab In this tab, the header text and the language of displaying all the labels in the program is selected. The Interface Language is configured in the drop down menu "Language". The default language is "Russian." 33
4.4.2. Spectrum tab The displaying parameters of the spectrum analyzer chart are set at this tab. FFT Size - FFT buffer size, which determines the number of points on the spectrum and the quality of displaying over frequency Averaging type - the menu selects the panorama level as a calculated arithmetical average (linear) or mean-root-square Average num - the number of values on which the samples are taken over and the average is calculated. Update period time of spectrum update Render mode menu specifies how the spectrum will be drawn - Lines or Gradient. Accordingly, in the fields of Line color and Fill color are set the colors of panorama displaying. The slider Fill transparency sets the color saturation of the panorama. In the additional category are set the utility functions, which makes it easy and convenient to navigate the panorama chart: 34
Render bands - blue stripe on the top of the panorama graph represents the borders of panorama amateur sites. Remember db limits for each band the noise level in the air on different bands is different, respectively, the level of noise track is also different. Setting on one band the desired level, and then switching to another range with another level, returning back to the first range, the level of noise track returns to the previously set level. Remember zoom for each band - the same as in the previous paragraph the spectrum analyzer zoom scale settings are saved. Zoom center follows VFO A - the point about which will be made a change of scale will be always tied to VFO A. Animation - smooth zooming of panorama displaying scales while changing the bands. 4.4.3. Waterfall tab The displaying parameters of the waterfall graphic on the receiver's program main screen are set on this tab. Level mode menu allows to set the following parameters: Waterfall level (Level mode) - the settings in this category allow to set the coloring, speed, driving dynamics and colors changes, depending on the parameters of changing in signals on the spectrum analyzer. Automatic and Synchronous modes allow you to choose how the waterfall will be colored based on changes in the levels of the panorama. In automatic mode the shift in color spectrum will be almost imperceptible; the program will automatically adjust the colors to the noise level. In synchronous mode, noise level changes synchronously change the waterfall color. Thus, in the automatic mode on the waterfall will be only seen the dynamics of changes of all the signals of radio air without reference to local noise levels. In synchronous mode can be seen the absolute change both in signal level and in the local noise level. 35
Rendering mode category - allows to select the coloring of the waterfall. The default are basic rainbow colors with all main colors, but there are choices of monochrome or even custom comfortable coloring. 4.4.4. Grid tab In this tab, the color of the grid and its transparency is selected on the graph spectrum analyzer. 4.4.5. Filter tab In this tab, the color of filters and the need to display the additional text information is selected Color and transparency are set independently in their respective categories for the following types of filters: RX Filter A for receiver A filter. RX Filter B - for receiver B filter. RIT/XIT for detuning modes receive / transmit. 36
Render filter on waterfalls setting the check box in this category includes an image of filter on the waterfall under the filter on the spectrum analyzer graph. Render filter text - setting the check box in this category includes the display of filter frequency settings and signal level in S-units within the used filter. Render S-Meter - setting the check box in this category includes an S-meter image near the receiver's filter 37
4.4.6. The background tab In this tab, the background color of the spectrum analyzer graph is set. The background can be chosen as a solid color, gradient colors, or image of your choice. Pictures with dark tones usually work best as they do not distract attention from the image on spectrum analyzer graph. 4.5. САТ menu The CAT interface is used for controlling the receiver from the third-party programs. It can be logger, digital communications program decoders, SAT-tracker, and other programs. At the present moment the emulation of the transceiver protocol developed by KENWOOD for TS480 is used for receiver control. Managing the transceiver transmission modes is possible through the COM-ports. Separate control over the CAT-protocol for the software receiver 1 and receiver 2 is implemented. 38
Enable CAT enable receiver CAT control Enable PTT enable transmitter control for the COM port (used in transceiver). Enable Footswitch enable transmitting control by the footswitch View log display CAT command log Antenna switch control control of the antenna switch via CAT. Important for program Ham Radio Deluxe. COM port settings are standard and contain the following parameters: Port name - COM port number. Parity - parity. Data - number of data bits. Stop bit - number of stop bits. Baud rate - the speed of the port. PTT line - line selection of the COM port that will be used to activate the transmitting mode. Key line - COM port line that will be used for operating in CW mode. DTR/RTS - COM port line used for PTT mode. 4.6. E-Coder menu This menu is for the assignment the buttons and regulators' parameters of the external hardware ECoder operating panel duplicating the operating controls on the receiver's operating control displaying panel. Each panel button and knob can be assigned a function by clicking on the image in the settings menu. For three additional E-coder knobs are set the standard functions, such as used in classical transceivers and receivers. The same applies to the buttons 39
The following button function are accessible: Unused - button is not used. Band Up/Down - switching range. Mode Up/Down - switching the type of modulation. Volume Up/Down - volume control. Mute operative sound shutdown BIN enable pseudo-stereo mode. NR enable digital noise suppressor. ANF enable digital Automatic Noise Filter. NB1 enable digital surge noise suppressor 1. NB2 - enable digital surge noise suppressor 2. Filter Up/Down - switching software receiver filter bands. SQL enable noise gate. PA - enable an external amplifier (used in transceiver). AGC Up/Down switching the types of AGC. Preamp Up/Down - switching the levels of preamplifier or attenuator Step Up/Down - switching configuration step. Zoom Up/Down - switching zoom modes of the spectrum. MOX - manual switching of the transmitting mode (used in transceiver) Tone switching the tonal signal in the transmitting mode (used in the transceiver) WF enable the Wide Filter. Filter for the entire Nyquist zone. If the settings of the Device module are set to Auto, then this function is not needed on the panel Power ON/OFF - switch on/off the receiver. 40
Switch DDS/IF - switching over frequency by moving filter over the panorama, that is changing the digital IF, of when the filter is stopped and the spectrum is moving, it is switching the DDS synthesizer Switch Receiver - switching between software receiver 1 and software receiver 2 (RX1/RX2). Knob will correspondingly operate either one or another receiver. Channel VFO A/VFO B - switch between VFO A and VFO B. On/Off VFO B turn on/off VFO B. RIT On/Off enable on/off off-tuning in the receiving mode. RIT Reset - quick reset of the off-tuning values over the receipt to 0. IF as RIT off-tuning by moving the receiver's filter on the panorama window. XIT On/Off - on/off off-tuning in the transmitting mode (used in the transceiver) XIT Reset - quick reset of the off-tuning values to 0 on transmitting (used in the transceiver). Split - enable Split mode TX/Play take the transceiver off into a transmitting mode and play back the signal from the recorder to the air (used in transceiver). Voice recording - activate the recording mode of the voice recorder. For smooth controlling three additional encoders are used, the functions of which can be set from the drop-down menu: Unused - the encoder variable control is not used. Volume - smooth manual volume control. Mic Gain - smooth manual gain control of the microphone (used in the transceiver). SQL - smooth manual adjustment of the noise suppressor threshold Filter Low/High - manual adjustment of frequency of lower/upper filter ramp. Filter Width - smooth manual adjustment of the filter bandwidth. Filter Shift - smooth manual adjustment of the center frequency of the filter (shifting). Drive - smooth manual adjustment of the output power (used in the transceiver). IF tuning by shifting the panorama filter. RF Gain - smooth manual gain control of the receiver over HF. 41
CW Speed - speed manual adjustment of the telegraph keyer. RIT Offset - smooth manual adjustment of the off-tuning in the receiving mode. XIT Offset - smooth manual adjustment of the off-tuning in the transmitting mode (used in the transceiver). In the additional field is set the step of the adjustment changing for certain functions linked to the 3 variable encoders. This setting allows to implement change in a given parameter in just one turn of the encoder. (e.g. setting the volume, noise suppressor or microphone gain) Enable - enable panel E-encoder. Use IF - use of restructuring within the window. Use IF as RIT - restructuring over IF when detuning (off-tuning) is enabled. VFO B turn on subreceiver. Key Led - turn on the buttons' backlight. Enc Led turn on the knob backlight. RX1/RX2 - switching the panel between receivers or specific binding the concrete E-Coder panel to its receiver. 4.7. Futures Menu Often, when using the receiver, several related programs need to be called up. For example, a cluster, logger, or digital communications program. Automate the process of loading the additional programs is easy by specifying in Futures menu which program to run and with what parameters. Setting the checkbox in front of a corresponding button and pressing the button with the program number enables the standard Windows window. There is chosen the necessary folder with the executive file of the desired program 42
Next to the program number is the field Arguments in which specific flags are pointed, which describe the features of a particular run of the program (if they are necessary). 4.8. Manager Menu In the Manager module is set the connection with the SunSDR2 transceiver synchronization server and the Colibri receiver Server address synchronization server IP-address Port communication port number Button Connect synchronization initialization Synchronization of the first and the second receiver is provided by setting the check box in front of the corresponding receiver Sync RX1 or Sync RX2. 4.9 CW Skimmer Menu In the receiver's program is implemented the ability of I/Q stream separate output for simultaneous telegraph signal decoding over the band in CW Skimmer program and transmitting the data to logger. 43
This menu adjusts the connection to the telegraph skimmer server; Button Connect establishes a connection with the skimmer server. Address - IP-address of the remote server or address of the inside Windows network (by default localhost). Port - number of the communication port. Call - your call. Password - access password (if needed). In sub-menu RX IQ Output is customized a sound card or virtual audio port, through which will be done the signal transmission from the receiver to CW Skimmer program. RX IQ Output contains the sound card settings: Driver - select the type of the sound card driver. Input select the physical input of the sound card or virtual audio port. Channels - select the number of the used channels. Sample rate - the sampling frequency. Buffer size - size of the buffer. Latency - the signal delay time. The CW Skimmer settings are set individually for each software receiver. More information about the CW Skimmer program settings is described in the "Wiring Manual ExpertSDR2 program to other programs". Conclusion This guide describes all operating controls of the Colibri receiver program. You can print a document and keep close at hand. In case of questions with the operation of the receiver, you will be able to quickly find the description of the desired button or function. The basic concept of the structure of the receiver's software leave the same, that's why the actuality of this description will maintain to future versions of ExpertSDR2. ExpertSDR2 Software develops and improves every day. Thank you to everyone who uses our technology and is on the air! Expert Electronics LLC. 44