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Contents
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Updated: 8-18-2009
Version 1.19.0.2
Released
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Please note on this webpage
"PowerSDR" refers to the stock version of PowerSDR
available from FlexRadio Systems and "PowerSDR/IF
Stage"
refers to the version modified for IF Stage use. PowerSDR/IF
Stage is the version available for download only from this
webpage. PowerSDR/IF Stage is being developed by Scott
McClements, WU2X, and Chad Gatesman,
W1CEG, without affiliation to FlexRadio
Systems.
PowerSDR
Software For I.F. Stage Use
In 2007, I built a Softrock
SDR kit for 8.83 Mhz and attached it to the I.F. output port
of my Kenwood TS-940S. Since my TS-940S was also computer
controlled, I decided to modify FlexRadio Systems' PowerSDR
software used for FlexRadio Systems series of SDR radios so I
could have the features of PowerSDR with my TS-940S.
I made changes
to PowerSDR source code so that any radio
using a Softrock or similar board as an
I.F. stage with a radio that is capable of being (CAT)
computer controlled could take advantage of the PowerSDR
software features. I modified PowerSDR to communicate
with another software package called Ham Radio Deluxe .
Ham Radio Deluxe would communicate
directly with the radio over the serial port, and my version of PowerSDR
would communicate with Ham Radio Deluxe, regardless of which radio Ham
Radio Deluxe was connected to. This provided these basic features:
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Full
tuning control from
the PowerSDR software. You
can change bands, modes, frequency,
click to tune from the panadapter window, etc. as
usual from the PowerSDR software and the tuning updates will
be tracked by your radio in real time
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Full tuning control from your
radio. You can spin the VFO, change modes, etc. and the
tuning updates will be tracked by the PowerSDR software
I chose to use Ham Radio Deluxe to
control the
radio because its a well written piece of
software with an easy to use, well defined, high performance interface for
third party software interfacing that already can control almost every
rig that supports CAT commands.
There are plenty of radios out there such as
the Kenwood TS-950 series, Kenwood TS-850S, Kenwood TS-870S. Kenwood TS-940S and
the Elecraft K3 that have
IF outputs and support CAT control that can
easily and cheaply pickup some modern features and performance that Software Defined
Radio and the PowerSDR software has to
offer. Other radios such as the Yaesu FT-1000D
and FT-2000 will also work, with the addition of a mixer
circuit to downconvert the first I.F.
frequency down to a lower HF range, so that simple
boards like the Softrock can be used. Other radios that
don't provide a factory IF output can be tapped internally,
with some know how.
I have personally been using my
Softrock lite kit with a Kenwood TS-940S and its been a great
combination. The TS-940S has a buffered 8.83 Mhz IF
output and has the ability to switch the AGC circuit off
in SSB and CW modes
- both necessary for good performance. Figure 1
shows my setup.
|
Figure 1 - Softrock kit configured for IF use
on a Kenwood
TS-940S. |
Since 2007, I released three versions
of my special PowerSDR modifications, that I call "PowerSDR/IF
Stage", though most just refer to it as "PowerSDR/IF".
The
three PowerSDR/IF Stage versions released
were 0.90, 0.91 and 0.92. They were all based on
the same 2007 version of PowerSDR, v1.9.0. FlexRadio Systems
have made several improvements to the PowerSDR since the 2007
version that I used as the base of my version. My original versions
were more prototype like, and more of a "hack" to
see what was possible. The new PowerSDR/IF Stage 1.19.0.x version is
a complete rewrite from the 0.92
version.
Since FlexRadio has release several
improved versions of PowerSDR , I decided it was time to
work on a new version of PowerSDR/IF Stage. Chad
Gatesman, W1CEG, a new ham and good friend of mine has joined
in on the development of the new version. In fact most
of the new code base was actually written by Chad.
We are tracking all the development of the project at http://code.google.com/p/powersdr-if-stage/
So to quickly highlight some differences between the 0.9x
version and the new version, and our design
goals:
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New PowerSDR/IF Stage version
numbering scheme.
It will have the format 1.19.0.x.
Notice there are 4 positions
to the version number - we will include the base PowerSDR
version number in this new versioning scheme. The
version 1.19.0.1 signifies that its based on PowerSDR
version 1.19.0 and the last position (1) signifies the
PowerSDR/IF
version.
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New version supports
direct serial communication to rig from PowerSDR/IF.
In addition to supporting
Ham Radio Deluxe communication, we
have implemented a direct, high performance serial connection to a few types
of radios (Elecraft K3, Kenwood TS-940). This allows
for a superior tuning connection between PowerSDR/IF Stage and the
external radio. All serial communication is optimized for
PowerSDR/IF
Stage usage.
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Release new versions more
frequently. We will be able to release new
version more easily now because modifications in source code
that we made are not "mixed" with the original code. We can
merge our source code changes into newer PowerSDR versions
very quickly and release it. Understand this limits what
type of changes we will make. For instance, modifying any
visual aspect of the stock PowerSDR windows (console, setup
menus, etc.) will cause us much more effort in moving up in
the future, so we will avoid those types of
changes.
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PowerSDR/IF has its own
Setup dialog. This keeps PowerSDR/IF settings
separate from PowerSDR settings. PowerSDR/IF settings are
also stored in a separate database file
(databaseIF.xml).
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SDR-1000 Hardware is
selected instead of Softrock hardware. In the 0.9x versions, softrock was
the type of hardware selected, but now we use
the SDR-1000 radio as this minimized the number of changes we
need to make. By default when you install PowerSDR/IF Stage SDR-1000 will
be selected. We are now including a default
PowerSDR config file (database.xml) that will select several
default values that are needed for proper PowerSDR/IF Stage
operation.
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Continue to make
PowerSDR/IF Stage work with as many radios as
possible.
We want to keep PowerSDR/IF Stage working with as
many radios as possible and do not want to focus
on integrating more features that only benefit a single radio
model.
Getting Started
If you are not already familiar with the
stock PowerSDR software, then please visit the FlexRadio's
website and read
the PowerSDR manual. Once PowerSDR/IF Stage is
operating correctly, the PowerSDR manual is very valuable for
understanding all the features that are available.
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If you are using a Kenwood TS-940S
or Elecraft K3, we recommend that you start by trying
the direct serial connection to those rigs from PowerSDR/IF
stage. This means that you do not need to have Ham
Radio Deluxe ( HRD) installed and running on
your system for things to work. If you are
not
running one of
those radios, then you need to get the latest
version of HRD installed and
controlling your radio (if you haven't already!). HRD has very
good documentation
and a good support
forum. Please ask
any questions about HRD in the HRD support forums. If are
going to use HRD for the external rig connection, make sure
you have HRD correctly controlling your radio before you
continue.
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Download
and
unzip the PowerSDR-IF Stage.zip -
OR- run the
PowerSDR-IF Stage.exe file (self-extracting zip
file) and extract the setup files into the
directory of your choice. Then run
setup.exe
.
Once you run
setup, follow the instruction to install PowerSDR/IF Stage
on your system as you would any Windows software.
If you are not going to
use direct serial communication
with the 940 or K3, after installing
the PowerSDR/IF Stage software, but
before running PowerSDR/IF Stage, ensure that HRD
is running and connected to the radio you wish PowerSDR/IF
Stage to interface with.
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Now you can start PowerSDR/IF
Stage. We have shipped a default
database.xml file with the install so that we could
pre-setup several necessary values in the PowerSDR Setup
menu. For instance, we selected the "SDR-1000" hardware
and marked it "Receive Only". These are just a few settings
we defaulted. If you change those settings,
PowerSDR/IF Stage will not operate correctly. Reset your
database if you changed things and its no longer working
(download stock database.xml from from HERE
and copy into install directory). Since we have shipped
a database file, you will not run through the normal setup
wizard - PowerSDR/IF Stage will start up immediately.
If you are familiar with PowerSDR already, you may click on
the "Setup" menu and customize any of settings that you
desire (i.e. audio sample rate, choose a skin, change buffer
sizes. The only changes in PowerSDR/IF
Stage to the stock PowerSDR setup menu was to add additional
buffer sizes (as in version PowerSDR/IF Stage 0.92) on the
audio tab. We have not implemented the "I/Q Sample
Offset Correction" option.
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Next you need to setup various IF
Stage related settings, click on the "Setup IF"
option:
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The first tab is labeled "Rig Connection". This is
where you specify which type of connection you want
to the external rig from PowerSDR/IF Stage. In the
"Rig Type" box, you can select "Kenwood TS-940S", "Elecraft K3"
or "Ham Radio Deluxe". The Kenwood and Elecraft selections
are direct serial connections - no other external program
is required to be running. The defaults for Rig
Serial Connection should all automatically be filled in
correctly for either the Kenwood or Elecraft. The only
selection you must make is to specify which COMM port the
rig is connected to. Be sure that you do not already have a
logging program, or other software connected to the radio
when you attempt to connect from PowerSDR/IF Stage.
The defaults for the "Rig Timing" box should be good for
most newer computers. Selecting either the
Kenwood or Elecraft automatically changes other settings on the "IF
Frequencies" tab.
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Select the "IF Frequencies Tab".
What you specify here will depend on what type of Rig you
are using. This panel is familiar to users of
PowerSDR/IF Stage version 0.92, the settings should be
the same.
If you have selected the Elecraft K3 as
your rig type, you don't need to put any values in for the
IF Frequencies for each mode - leave them set to zero.
Enter the IF (center) Frequency
to be used for each mode. Some calculations and a
little trial and error are needed to find the exact IF
center frequency needed for each mode. The values
depend on the type of radio used, mode, IF
output frequency of the radio and the Softrock center
frequency. Figure 2. shows the IF conversions
involved for my TS-940S and will serve as the
demonstration for calculating
required values.
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Figure 2 - Frequency conversion from the IF
output of rig to baseband.
| The
IF output of the TS-940S is 8.83 Mhz. The center frequency
of the Softrock is ~8.817
Mhz.. Since the Softrock lite converts the
IF output to baseband, we need to calculate the frequency
where the center IF output of the TS-940S falls on
the baseband (green line). We take the TS-940S center
IF output and subtract the Softrock's center
frequency:
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8.83 Mhz -
8.817 Mhz = 0.013
Mhz
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This gives us
the ball park baseband IF frequency we must enter into
setup menu for the IF Frequency for each mode. The IF
frequency is entered into the setup menu in Hz, so we must
convert Mhz to Hz.:
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0.013 Mhz X 10^6 = 13000
Hz
| After you have entered these values
into the setup menu, you will then need to tune in a strong
signal where the exact frequency is known. For instance a
local AM broadcast station, WWV or a signal generator will
work. Use the panadapter to view the strong signal and
make corrections to the IF center frequency for each
mode to perfectly align the signal with the PowerSDR's VFO
display. Figure 3 shows the peak of the carrier of WWV
centered right at 15 Mhz.
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Figure 3 - WWV carrier centered @ 15
Mhz, the result of tweaking the IF center
frequency. |
On some radios
that output
a transmitted
signal sample on the IF port, you can put the radio
into transmit mode and view the panadapter to make
corrections to the IF center frequency. Given my setup
above, I ended up with a value of 13950 Hz for LSB and 17000
Hz for USB, for example. If the IF output frequency of the
radio is less than the center frequency of the Softrock kit,
you will end up with a negative number. You specify a
negative IF center frequency in this case:
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8.804
Mhz - 8.817 Mhz) X 10^6 = -13000
Hz
| The above alignment is useful if
you intend to use the PowerSDR/IF Stage for receiving
and the radio for transmitting - your received and
transmit frequency will be aligned this way (make sure
XIT/RIT and split mode is off on your external
radio!). The
" Global IF Frequency Adjustments "
section is used to make small corrections for drift after you
align the IF frequency for each mode. Since there will be
some amount of drift between the oscillator in the external
radio and the SDR board, you might need adjust the
global offset. The "Global Offset" value is added to any value
set for each mode. The "LO Center" only relates to when you
have selected the Elecraft K3 from the menu. Use this to fill
in the center frequency of your SDR board. Also note
it is not necessary to fill in any IF Frequency if you
are connected directly to the K3. This is because the
K3 automatically provides the IF frequency values to
PowerSDR/IF Stage via a CAT command. The only value
you need to adjust is the global offset to tweak frequency
alignment. " Swap I/Q @
Frequency" is used to swap the I and Q channels automatically
at a certain frequency. Radios like the Elecraft K3 and
K2 invert the IF output above a certain frequency. Again if
you select the direct Elecraft K3 connection as you Rig
Type, this will automatically be setup. I believe the
frequency for inversion of the K2 is 20Mhz, any K2 users,
please let us know. " Frequency
Limits" is used to set the frequency limits of the external
rig under control. Selecting the Elecraft K3 rig type
will automatically fill in these values for you. Otherwise,
manually specify the min and max frequency of the radio
you are using
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The
"Meter Connection" tab allows you to connect PowerSDR/IF
Stage directly to an external Power/SWR meter through a serial
connection. When connected, the TX meter in PowerSDR/IF
Stage will show real-time power and SWR data taken directly from
the external meter.
To configure an external meter, check the
"Use External Meter"
check box. This will enable you to select a
meter type (e.g. "Array Solutions PowerMaster") in the drop down box.
The PowerMaster is currently the only model supported
now. You will also have to configure the port number
for the serial connection to the external meter. The
other serial connection values will be automatically set to
the defaults for the selected meter type, but if you have a
need to change them, they are there.
The Data
Interval controls the rate at which data is collected from
the external meter.
Operating Hints and
Tips
Operational vs.
Non-Operational Dialog Buttons and
Controls
As was stated previously, no
attempt has been made to disable to remove controls that are
of not usable or can cause undesired side effects in
PowerSDR/IF Stage. For example, the "BCI Rejection" button is
used on the FlexRadio SDR-1000 to engage filter hardware to
eliminate Broadcast interference on the low bands. Rather
than try to list out every button or control that is not
usable, or should not be used, use this as a guide: If the
control is specific to controlling FlexRadio SDR-1000
hardware, then it should not be used
. Another obvious group of controls that exist, that should
not be used, are the buttons related to
transmitting functions - "Drive Power", CW Sending Speeds,
etc. That being said, any control related to receiving
functions and PowerSDR console appearance are
usable. The PowerSDR/IF Stage program does perform
all the frequency and mode related functions that PowerSDR has
to offer.
Functionality Available When
Using Direct Serial Connection to External
Rig
The
amount of functionality provided by selecting one of the two
currently supported rigs with direct serial
control (TS-940 or K3) is greater than when using
Ham Radio Deluxe. For instance, when using either one of
these rigs, there is full linking between VFOA and VFOB.
The "Split" control can be toggled on the radio or on
PowerSDR/IF Stage and it will work properly. In other words, VFO A/B
linking, Mode Linking, and Split mode linking will work,
and can be controlled from PowerSDR/IF or the external rig. Also, the
update sync'ing between PowerSDR/IF Stage and the external
rig will be virtually real time. For instance, muting
of the PowerSDR/IF Stage audio will be virtually instantaneous when
using the TS-940 or K3. In addition, the
K3 setup should work "out of the box", without any
change required for IF Frequencies and other settings, as long as the
Rig Type of "Elecraft K3" is selected (along with
the correct comm port and correct specification of the LO Center frequency
of the SDR board being used). The Kenwood CAT commands
are virtually the same for all Kenwood rig types; this means
it is possible to use the TS-940 rig type selection to connect
to other Kenwood models - though is this completely untested and
unsupported at this point. Feedback appreciated.
Functionality Available When
Using Ham Radio Deluxe
When using Ham Radio
Deluxe as the Rig Type, integration is slightly reduced. Also,
update speeds between the external radio and PowerSDR/IF Stage
will be slower. Ham Radio Deluxe only provides linking
of VFO A and mode between the external rig and PowerSDR/IF
Stage - the limitation comes from the Ham Radio Deluxe
software. This is the reason that we have implemented
direction serial connections for a few rigs to start
with.
Comparison of
PowerSDR/IF Stage Version 1.19.0.x to Version
0.92
If you are familiar with PowerSDR/IF Stage
0.92, you will find that some base functions that
existed in the base PowerSDR program were not working.
Some examples are playback of wav files, automatic image
rejection and level adjustments (DSP tab). These should
all work in PowerSDR/IF Stage version 1.19.0.1.
Additional Notes About
Direct Serial Communication for the Kenwood
TS-940S
Some additional notes for TS-940 users using
direct serial connection. You will notice two behaviors
that PowerSDR/IF Stage enforces when connected to your
TS-940S. Note these are not bugs. The first is that
it will force the TS-940S radio to always be on VFO-A. If you
try to switch to VFO-B (directly on TS-940S), it will switch you
back to VFO-A. This is to keep its behavior consistent with
the PowerSDR interface. It will also force the modes
on VFOA and VFOB to be the same whenever you toggle
on "split" mode. This really provides the TS-940S with
a true second receiver. You can now use the SubRX in PowerSDR/IF
Stage to track a "last worked" station for a DX station
working split. In fact, if the RIT function is not
turned on, the RIT/XIT knob on the TS-940S can be used to tune
the VFOB SubRX frequency. Tuning is not as smooth as the main
dial, but it works! Unlike the K3, the TS-940S when in transmit
outputs a strong TX signal sample to
PowerSDR/IF Stage. This can be distracting because of the
audio delay when monitoring yourself talking, so you will find
the real time muting that occurs when the TS-940S goes into
transmit mode useful. The red TX indicators on the PowerSDR
console give a quick indication of which VFO is the active TX
VFO. You can click on the "TX" indicators to quickly toggle
which VFO should be the active VFO to transmit on. Note
however when you go into transmit mode, the Panadapter
area will always show the VFO A frequency, even if you are
transmitting on VFOB.
PowerSDR/IF Stage Behavior
During Transmit
For all rig connection types, when the external radio goes into transmit mode,
PowerSDR/IF Stage will automatically turn on the mute
(MUT) so no output is heard. If you wish to monitor the transmit output
(if your radio supports it), you can click the MON
button to override the MUT during TX mode. Also for the
direct serial connection rigs (TS-940S and K3), during transmit the
DSP controls NB, NB1, NR and ANF will be temporarily disabled
so that monitoring of transmit audio will not be distorted by
these unnecessary noise reduction algorithms.
New Tuning Methods for VFOB
and Mouse Recommendation
PowerSDR/IF Stage also has
implemented two new ways for tuning VFO B, compared to the stock PowerSDR
version. This function currently only exists in
PowerSDR/IF Stage. You can control VFO-B in the panadapter window
area by holding down the Control button on the keyboard and
spinning the mouse wheel. Spinning the mouse wheel without
holding down the control
key will tune VFOA (normal PowerSDR function), but holding the
control key down allows you to target VFOB for mouse wheel
tuning. You can also control VFO-B in the Panadapter (when
MultiRX is on) by right clicking twice to get the red
crosshairs and then spinning the mouse wheel - in other words, when
the red crosshairs are visible, using the mouse wheel tunes
VFO-B. As an additional tip here, Logitech has a series of mice that
have something called "Hyper Scroll Wheel". These are mice with a weighted
mouse wheel. The wheel does not have detents, it freewheels
when you spin it - just like a weighted VFO knob!
Coding guru Chad has implemented a time based queue so that
when you spin the weighted mouse wheel, the tuning of the
external radio is perfectly smooth. As it was, the free
spinning VFO knob in PowerSDR/IF Stage would overload the
external rig with CAT frequency changes. We really dig
the hyper scroll Logitech mice and highly recommend
them.
Notes About
Connecting an External Logging Program When Using a Direct
Serial Connection
If
you are using the direct serial connection to the Elecraft K3
or Kenwood TS-940S, you can use the virtual CAT interface
built into the base PowerSDR to attach a single logging or
other program. Since connecting PowerSDR/IF Stage
directly to the external rig over the serial connection
provides the best realtime tuning experience, we recommend it
over other methods. The aforementioned CAT
interface built into PowerSDR is fully described in the
PowerSDR manual, as it is part of the stock PowerSDR software.
Even if you are using Ham Radio Deluxe as your rig
control program, you can still use the virtual CAT interface
provided by PowerSDR. Note that PowerSDR
masquerades as a Kenwood TS-2000, so you will not have full
functionality of all CAT commands for your Elecraft K3 using
the virtual CAT connection with PowerSDR. It will work
fine for simple logging programs.
How to use "Skins"
support
Version 1.19.0.1 and later
includes a "skins" feature (part of the "Pretty Betty"
branch), where the look of the face plate of the console can
be changed. In the PowerSDR setup menu, click on the
"Appearance" tab. There is a drop down list where you can
select different skins. When you select a different skin, the
PowerSDR console window will automatically refresh with the
selected skin.
Release Notes (1.19.0.x
Versions)
PowerSDR/IF Stage
v1.19.0.2 (8-18-2009)
New Features:
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[SVN Revision 136]: Add
TS-950 Rig Connection Support
Bug Fixes:
-
[Issue 61] : Zoom adjustment
causes PowerSDR to terminate. The root of the issue
caused various issues with the K3 support.
-
[Issue 65]: A display max
limit is 1000MHz. Frequency max was limited to 1000Mhz.
Increased it to 10,000Mhz.
PowerSDR/IF Stage
v1.19.0.1 (8-6-2009)
-
This is software will contain
bugs! Please report them here. Please do not email bug
reports.
-
PowerSDR/IF Stage is based on the
"Pretty Betty" branch of PowerSDR v1.19.0. The pretty betty
branch introduced "skins" to PowerSDR, but its an early
version of skin support. We are aware of many display
anomalies, such a flashing of the console and other visual
oddities when doing certain actions in PowerSDR. Also,
without question, version 1.19.0.1 of PowerSDR/IF Stage
requires more CPU power that the 0.92 version did. This is
for two reasons - one is that some of the DSP code is more
intensive now and the other is the skin support seemed to
increase CPU usage more. This means its possible that
0.92 would run just fine for you, but 1.19.0.1 will have
audio breaks ups, especially at the higher sampling
rates. We cannot improve performance anymore than we
already have. FlexRadio is going to be releasing a more
stable version of Pretty Betty, with more DSP performance
features (Wide Band Image Rejection) around September
2009 and we intend to merge up to that version as soon as it
becomes available.
-
No attempt has been made to allow PowerSDR/IF Stage to continue to work
with any FlexRadio models. If you use a FlexRadio, use another
stock install of PowerSDR from FlexRadio Systems. Do
not select any other radio type other than "SDR-1000" in
PowerSDR/IF Stage.
Bug Reporting
Please report any issues or bugs
you find in version 1.19.0.1 here . Please include
as much relavant information as you can. We are only
fixing
issues in version 1.19.0.x and not any of the previous 0.9x
versions.
PLEASE DO
NOT REPORT BUGS ON THIS SOFTWARE
TO FLEXRADIO SYSTEMS. PLEASE DO NOT USE THE FLEXRADIO
REFLECTOR TO DISCUSS ISSUES RELATED TO THIS SOFTWARE.
If
a need arises for a forum, we will
create one, but it would not
be fair
to use the FlexRadio reflector with topics related to this
software.
Future
Versions
We are now tracking all bugs and feature
requests on this website
. All
future work will be tracked via the Google code project
website.
Older Versions
Here are previous
versions of the software. Please
use the newest version of the software if you are just
starting out.
Since this website served as the only
documentation available for these earlier versions, you
can download the previous webpage for the 0.9x version in PDF
format HERE.
Donation
If
you
would like to show your appreciation and help support the future
development of PowerSDR/IF Stage, please consider a donation. Besides
the development cost and time required, this continues
to generate a lot of support email (and even phone
calls) for Chad and myself. You can use
PayPal
(button below), or write to me at my address in the FCC
ULS database
Hosting of this
website, the PowerSDR/IF Stage download and WU2X.com
generously donated by Lee Imber,
WW2DX, since 2007. Supporting our sponsor
helps support our project. Please consider Imber Networks for
any and all of your web hosting needs
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