Weak signal software for PCSince the output audio is produced from the fourier transforms the interleave factor must be at least 2 if no window is used, and with a sine^4 window, the quality becomes reasonable at interleave factors 8 and above.The program uses no window if the interleave factor is 2, and a sine window when the interleave factor is 4. In this way some feeling for this software may be obtained on slower computers.
Minimum parameters for reasonable performance:
The program should produce a readable signal at very low levels. It probably allows 3dB lower (or more) S/N than a conventional DSP such as Timewave 59+. This program needs a 32 bit computer with floating point hardware. A 486 at 66MHz is probably enough, but the time for the graphics may be critical. By selecting a black and white screen it may be possible to improve the speed of graphics considerably. This very early version is maybe not so straightforward to use, but for the experimenting amateur......
How to use the test programYou need the DSP100.EXE (zip file) and a DOS extender DOS4GW.EXE (zip file) to run the program, you must type: DOS4GW DSP100 at the dos prompt. A file G.BAT, supplied with the .EXE file supplies this command.When you start the program for the first time, you enter the parameter set-up routine. If you have a modern pentium, just press X to select them. If your computer is too slow the program will stop with a message telling just that (and what to change). The parameters are saved in SIGPROC.INI and you have to select Set-up from the main menu if you want new parameters. The other option in the main menu is A=Run program. Connect the output from your radio to the line input of your sound board. It probably has to be a genuine Creative Labs SB16. I have another computer with a compatible board - but it does not behave like the Soundblaster manual says it should. When the program starts, you see the spectrum in real time like an oscilloscope image. The spectra are time averaged fourier transforms, and there are two, a fast (yellow) and a slow one (green).
ParametersThere are some parameters that can be changed, and they are indicated at the top of the screen.The capital letter in each mode tells what character to press to enable change of that particular parameter.
dc Left Use + or - to make the peak at the centre of the
spectrum disappear. The program uses complex FFT to save time, and
the centre peak is an artefact arising from a DC offset in the A/D
converter. Use / or * to make the step length smaller or larger.
When a parameter change is selected, the current value is displayed in green in the upper left corner of the screen.
Other keysS To save currently selected options.C To toggle between coherent detect and normal filtering. X Exit. Horisontal arrows Move cursor to select which frequency to listen to. Vertical arrows Enable/disable automatic frequency adjustment to follow frequency drift of signal. Alt Horizontal arrows Shift display horizontally if spectrum too wide to fit on screen. The numbers on the third line are signal frequency and amplitude.
Source codeThe complete source code SRCE100.ZIP is intended to run in its own subdirectory with the Watcom files under a separate directory \WATCOM directly under the root. If the WATCOM header files are placed elsewhere, DSP.MAK has to be changed.
The files are:
Tha WATCOM directory needs WPP386.EXE, W32RUN.EXE, WLINK.EXE,
WSTUB.EXE WASM.EXE WMAKE.EXE, a subdirectory \LIB for
the libraries (CLIB3R,PLIB3R,MATH387R,EMU387,GRAPH) and a
subdirectory \H, including \H\SYS for the header files.
This is a small sub set of WATCOM, about 4 megabytes.
The code is straight forward, and it operates to a large extent
with global variables which should make it relatively easy to
manipulate.
At the present state the code has a minimum of comments.
Since most of it will probably be replaced I have not written
much more comments than those I need myself to be able to work
with the software.
The user interface is very primitive.
A mouse driver would be a better way to move the cursor.
I do not claim any copyright.
The source code is here to encourage particularly radio amateurs
to make their own additions and changes for whatever purpose
of their own.
If you make your own software from the source code here, please
give it a new name of your own - even if you have changed
only a single line. Please, change also the menu text in main.c.
|