Radio Fobos

Contributed driver, written against RigExpert's library source and not yet tried on a real radio.

New in 0.2.6, not in 0.2.5.

Not tested on a radio yet. The driver was written against RigExpert's library source and checked with a stand-in for the library. Reports are welcome on Discord.

Requirements

OnAir drives the Fobos SDR through RigExpert's agile library, libfobos-sdr-agile. It only sees radios that run the agile firmware: hardware revision 4 has it from the factory, revisions 2 and 3 need the firmware from the library's Releases page. A Fobos SDR with the stock firmware is not listed.

The library is not shipped with OnAir:

• Windows: copy the 64-bit fobos_sdr.dll next to OnAir.exe (it uses the libusb-1.0.dll that is already there). The radio needs the WinUSB driver.
• Linux: build and install libfobos-sdr-agile (cmake, make, sudo make install, which also installs its udev rules), then sudo ldconfig.

onair.log (Windows) or the terminal says which library was loaded, how many radios it lists, and the hardware and firmware revision.

Inputs and rates

• RF input: specified for 50 MHz to 6 GHz, at 8, 10, 12.5, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40 or 50 Msps (revision 4 also 58 and 64). OnAir takes the smallest rate that is fast enough for the mode.
• Gain: one slider from 0 to 95 dB (LNA steps 0, +16, +33 dB, then the VGA in 2 dB steps). Radio settings can fix the LNA step.
• HF1 / HF2 inputs: below 50 MHz the radio samples one of them directly (radio settings: HF1, HF2 or off). About 70 % of the converter rate is clean; the range ends at half the converter rate (25 MHz at 50 Msps, 32 MHz on revision 4), so 25 to 50 MHz is covered by neither input. The gain slider does nothing here: the HF inputs have no amplifier.
• The fast converter rates need a USB 3 port. An external 10 MHz reference can be chosen in the radio settings.
• A SoapyFobosSDR module built with Visual Studio cannot be loaded by OnAir's Windows build; the native driver needs no SoapySDR.