With the exception of Winrad, SDR software has been proprietary to the hardware. SpectraVue for the RF Space SDRs, and Perseus for the - you guessed it - Perseus SDR. Finnish DX-er Tarmo Kontro alerted me about SpectraVue 3.0 beta 19 which is in fact able to read 1600 kHz Perseus files! The beta 16 could read 800 kHz Perseus files, but I was hoping Moetronix would develop Perseus support further. And indeed that happened! Above is an image of SV 3.0 beta 19 running a 1600 kHz Perseus file from October 2008 (incidentally just as I heard a KVXR ID on 1280). The software, although in beta, appeared to be very stable.
Now, this seemed to be good news also for other users. Netbook owners! The Perseus software is a fixed window 1024x648 (?) pixels, while most netbooks only run 1024x620, or even 1024x578 pixels. With 620 lines, running Perseus is sort of OK if you move the window a bit upwards and allow the task bar to be hidden. But SpectraVue is scaleable, leaving you in better control over the task bar and the desktop. I tested a 1600 kHz file on my MSI Wind running at turbo mode (1.98 GHz instead of the standard 1.6 GHz), and it was running very smooth, although with a high (90%) CPU load. As was pointed out by Anders Hultqvist though, a "chopped" Perseus file (using Chuck Hutton's excellent "WavChopper" utility) will not play at the utility's current state.
SpectraVue 3.0 beta 19 is [Update: Was!] available from this site. Only the latest beta is downloadable, and there is no guarantee that following betas will support Perseus. Also, I am quoting the usual caveat: If you are not comfortable un-zipping and dealing with bugs and program crashes PLEASE do not download these Beta versions as they are continually changing and can be unstable or non-working.
Update: Well, Spectravue was "open" just for so long. The current beta on the link above is 20, which has a new limitation: "Limit Perseus File playback to SDR-xx owners". So there you go. No SDR-IQ or SDR-14, no Perseus playback. This posting has been changed accordingly.
Update: No, I will not distribute the beta 19. No more requests please.
3 comments:
Version 20 works on the chopped files now. But I had to connect my SDR-IQ first...
is there any reason why you will not distribute the beta 19 i thought dxers shared to make dxing or recordings easier ... cheers david
David, sorry that your post got delayed. I was unaware that I had the "moderate posts" function enabled.
As for your question: Yes, there is a very good reason. Spectravue is the property of Moetronix, the beta is no longer available, and it would be unethical (if not illegal) of me to distribute his software as if it was freeware.
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