Bruce, now I'm confused. You mention that the G31 software cannot do spectrum recordings. Spectrum recording capability is my primary reason for looking to go the SDR route.
While doing my research into different models I ran across a review of the Excalibur and the G31 software on swling.com. It was a quite comprehensive write-up written in October last year and one of the conclusions by the reviewer was (and this is a cut and paste from the review)
"It is, quite simply, the best SDR I have used to-date. And if, like me, recording functionality is a high-priority, then the Excalibur is your best choice, hands-down."
Your comment and the reviewer's comment, regarding spectrum recording, are180 degrees apart. Thus, my confusion! Can you or anyone else in the group comment or shed further light on this? Clearly, I don't want to plunk down the cash only to find it cannot fulfill my principal need!
Many thanks
Anthony R Gargano
n2ss@xxxxxxxx
On Jul 13, 2013, at 1:19 AM, irca-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 21:30:02 -0700
From: Bruce Portzer <bportzer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IRCA] SDR Recommendations?
Message-ID: <51E0D7CA.8030401@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Nick
For the record, I'm running the Excalibur (G31) using the software
written for the Excalibur Pro (G33). A couple of years ago, someone on
the Winradio YG wrote a dll file that allows you to use this lashup and
take advantage of features that are in the G33 software that aren't in
the G31 software. One of the differences between the two is the ability
to do spectrum recordings. The G31 SW only allows you to schedule
recordings for single frequencies. I've been using the G33 version of
the software so long that I'd totally forgotten about the limitation in
the G31 version.
The other possibility is to use third party scheduling software with the
G31 software, like the guys in PEI did. I tried that approach with
mixed success when I first started using the Excalibur. For a while, my
antivirus software thought the scheduling software was malicious and
deleted it on several occasions! I solved the problem by switching to a
different antivirus package.
The Perseus native software seems to lack any scheduling function, but
third party software has been written to take care of that limitation.
At least that's my conclusion after using the receiver for the past
three days. Hopefully one of the Perseus owners on this list will
clarify that point.
Bruce
On 7/12/2013 20:10, Nick Hall-Patch wrote:
Now that I'm a bit more awake Bruce, I believe that I recall that the Excalibur
was only unable to do timed unattended recordings, but that the pricier
Excalibur Pro can. What is your experience there? Two of the DXers at the PEI
expedition last fall were jumping through hoops using Splinterware or some such
in order to record while they caught a few moments of sleep. It wasn't a
computer issue.
Meantime, dead simple Spectravue was reliably performing that service for the
remaining two DXers who were using RFSpace radios.
Do I recall that Perseus' native software has some difficulties in that
direction also? Simon Brown's SDR Console now handles Perseus I've heard, but
I haven't any experience with its timed recording capabilities, and if I did, it
would be out of date, as that software is constantly developing.
best wishes,
Nick
Quoting Bruce Portzer <bportzer@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
Hi Anthony
I've owned an Excalibur for the past two years, and very recently added
a Perseus to my radio collection. Both are quite good receivers. I'm
not aware of any Mac software to run either radio, although there may be
third party software I don't know about.
I've been generally happy withe the User Interface that comes with the
Excalibur. I'm much less impressed with the Perseus UI, but I've only
been using it for a couple of days and may need to give it more time.
I haven't run into the recording issue Nick mentions. I routinely use
the Excalibur to record 2 MHZ sections of spectrum (MW & SW) with no
problems. That's with a quad core (i5) CPU in my PC. The problem could
nonetheless occur with older, slower PCs (single CPU and possibly some
low end dual core PCs).
Bruce