DUORECEIVER 1.0
COMBINED FM AND DAB MINI RECEIVER
I got questions from family members why there was no combined FM and DAB receiver available, since there were multiple versions of both a DAB decoder and an FM decoder written. Duoreceiver is an answer to that, using the philosophy of the DAB mini program it is a "mini" version of a DAB/FM receiver.
The current version supports
- the SDRplay devices using the "old" 2.13 interface library
- rtlsdr sticks
- the airspy devices
Further devices may be added later on.
Selecting a device is automatic, on program startup, the software will check the availability of any of the configured devices. If any of the configured devices is connected and can be initialized, the duoreceiver program will detect it and use it as input device.
One sees that the SDRplay control widget is included in the main widget, it merely contains a radio button for switching the agc on or off, a spinbox for the IF gain reduction, restricted to the values 20 .. 59 and a spinbox for setting an LNA state. If the agc is "on", the IF gain reduction spinbox is hidden.
The "control" for the rtlsdr sticks is also included in the main widget. It is kept simple, just a radio button for the agc and a gain setting, using the gains extracted from the device library
Note that the airspy control widget is complicated and displayed in a separate widget.
Both the FM and the DAB subsystems support presets, as did their origins.
For the FM subsystem, the widget contains a button labeled save frequency that - when touched - will open a small widget in which a name may be given to the currently selected frequency.
Touching the name in the preset window will instruct the software to select the associated frequency. Touching the name twice in a short period will remove the entry from the list.
For the DAB subsystem, the widget contains the combobox labeled presets. Touching the combobox will show the registered presets. Touching a name in the list will instruct the software to switch to the service with that name.
Adding a service to the list is by touching with the right mouse button the currently selected service.
On switching off one of the subsystems, the duoreceiver will remember the frequency for the FM subsystem, or the service for the DAB subsystem. Next time such a subsystem is selected, the frequency (for FM) or the service (for DAB) will be selected automatically.
A small "configuration file" is maintained for saving some settings. The file is named ".duoreceiver.ini" and maintained in the user's home directory. This ".ini" file will (a.o) register the subsystem used, and on starting the program the registered subsystem , either FM or DAB, is activated.
Two other files are maintained
- a file ".duoreceiver-fm-stations.bin", a file in a binary format containing the list of saved fm stations with their frequency;
- a file ".duoreceiver-dab-stations.xml", a file in ASCII format containing the presets, encoded in XML.
For use under Windows an installer is available in the releases section if this repository.
For use under Linux-x64 an AppImage is available. Note that you should have the support library for your device of choice should be installed.
Building an executable is obviously also possible. For now, only the "qmake/make" route is there. Easiest is to llok into the documentation for qt-dab, section on dabMini, and follow the build instructions given there.
Copyright (C) 2021
Jan van Katwijk (J.vanKatwijk@gmail.com)
Lazy Chair Computing
The Qt-DAB software and derivatives such as duoreceiver
is made available under the GPL-2.0.
The software, is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.