[hpsdr] Modified PowerSDR with selectable FFT size and selectable palettes...contest report

[David McQuate]

I ran PowerSDR from Release.zip.  Works great!  Thanks for your 
contribution!
I especially like the greatly increased frequency resolution in the 
spectrum display.
Dave  wa8ywq

w3sz wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Hi All,
>
> Just a report to all regarding the performance of the modified 
> HPSDR-PowerSDR code with larger FFT sizes during the ARRL VHF QSO 
> Party [VHF/UHF/Microwave contest] this past weekend.  I consider the 
> microwave contests to be the acid test for any SDR/waterfall 
> combination, and it was performance in these microwave contests that 
> convinced me that PowerSDR needed to be modified to perform up to my 
> expectations.
>
> I am pleased to be able to report that with the new larger FFT sizes 
> [I used an FFT size of 262144] I was able to see with PowerSDR every 
> weak signal I saw on Linrad, with no difficulty.  Both programs 'saw' 
> signals that were below the threshold for copying [CW].
>
> In NO case during the contest did a station hear me that I could not 
> copy with PowerSDR.  There were as usual several stations that I could 
> find with the waterfall, and then copy completely Q5 with no dropouts, 
> that could not hear me at all.  That is likely as much an optimized 
> tower-mounted preamp/transmit power issue as it is anything else, but 
> the bottom line is that with the modified PowerSDR you will NOT likely 
> miss seeing [and hearing] any station on the microwaves that you might 
> see/hear with any other rig, and you will likely pick up quite a few 
> that you would not see/hear with a non-PowerSDR-equipped rig [other 
> than Linrad or something equivalent].
>
> Whereas I had previously needed Linrad to find the weak microwave 
> stations in every microwave contest, Linrad was, due to the improved 
> performance of the modified PowerSDR, totally superfluous this 
> contest, and I only kept Linrad running so I could prove to myself 
> that in fact I saw with PowerSDR everything Linrad could see 
> throughout the entire contest.
>
> The PowerSDR code ran for the entire contest on 5 HPSDR setups, with 
> no glitches or crashes during the entire contest period [except I shut 
> down Saturday night through early Sunday morning due to thunderstorms 
> in the area].  Since fixing a cut-and-paste-engendered bug around May 
> 25, I have seen no exceptions, crashes, or other unusual behavior with 
> the modified code.
>
> After changing FFT size you need to exit PowerSDR and restart the
> program to have the new FFT size available.
>
> The files remain online, located as follows:
>
> A zip file of the PowerSDR.exe file and the rest of the /bin/Release
> directory are at:  www.nitehawk.com/w3sz/Release.zip
>
> A zip file of the entire Modified PennyMerge directory [about 100 MB]is
> at: http://www.nitehawk.com/w3sz/HPSDR_W3SZBUF.zip
>
> A grep of 'w3sz', which should capture most of the changes is at:
> http://www.nitehawk.com/w3sz/w3szpowerSDRgrep.HTM
>
> A grep of 'GlobalClass' should pick up most stragglers, and is at:
> http://www.nitehawk.com/w3sz/GlobalClasspowerSDRgrep.HTM
>
> A text file with a few more details is at:
> http://www.nitehawk.com/w3sz/simplePowerSDRMods.txt
>
> These are pretty much the newest files, except for perhaps a slight 
> 'tweak' of the default waterfall levels to suit my personal 
> preferences.  At this point the modified software behaves exactly as I 
> want it to, and I have no plans to modify it further.
>

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