Tim,
Count me in for the working group. I spent the last 10 working years in
working groups/think tanks for software/systems analysis, design and
implementation.
73... Jon W1MNK (30 years and they never gave me a Deep Blue, just a
lousy Thinkpad :-)
On 6/28/2010 11:07 PM, Tim Ellison wrote:
And here we stand at the edge of a paradigm shift chasm....
The evolution from hardware based radios and their rudimentary software controls via CAT to an
integrated software based radio system where the radio is abstract and the interface to the
"electrical world" is provided via a "black box" that has limited smarts is
upon us. Actually it has been here for a few years, but the number of followers were too few
(limited market share) to make a difference to the ones writing contest software.
What it is going to take is a twofold effort. The first is DI where the UI is
not integrated or bound to the rest of the radio system allowing one to easily
integrate the logging capabilities in order to eliminate the focus issue.
Second is going to take a new class of loggers/contest software where they take
the information from the SDR UI, process it (for dupes, multipliers, etc..),
provide feedback to the SDR UI and then store the QSOs in their database when
told to via the SDR UI.
CAT could do this, but a much better protocol is needed and a standard created.
I have thought a lot about ADIF over IP. ADIF already has a data dictionary
for 98% of the things logger/contest software needs. Add some extensions for
message passing (as opposed to data element transfer) and you have the makings
of a new SDR-to-ancillary process protocol.
The interface should not be called CAT, as that is demeaning. In terms of a
language, CAT is a bunch of grunts and gestures. This protocol needs to be
fluid prose; elegant and beautiful. It will have to be an API so third-party
vendors could easily integrated it into their software. This isn't rocket
science
Once the tools are in place, then great things can be constructed. I hope that
something like this will evolve out of this group.
It is time to starting thinking of how to build a bridge across the chasm and
breaking ground, as this can be done before DI is complete. You don't know
what middle layer you need to talk to, just a clever message syntax and rules
for reliable message passing.
Anyone up for establishing a working group?
-Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Jack Haverty
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 10:31 PM
To: Don
Cc: Flex Edge
Subject: Re: [FlexEdge] Field Day, Focus and Contest Skins?
The problem is that the current control interface to any 3rd party
program is through "CAT", which simply doesn't provide access to the
Flex' unique capabilities. It was designed for Knobby Radios, and does
a pretty impressive job in that world. But in the Flex SDR world, it's
limited.
E.G., there is no way for N1MM to say via CAT "put the text "K3FIV -
Mult!" on the PSDR panadaptor at 14.236 in bold red font" Nor is there
any way to tell PSDR "set up a filter from 600 to 2300 Hz" (instead of
200 to 2100) to mask out QRM from a strong station slightly lower in
frequency than a target station.
Similarly, the CAT interface doesn't have a mechanism for PSDR to supply
the current panafall display to the 3rd party program to integrate with
th3e 3rd party program's own GUI display.
Knobby radios can't do such things, so it's not in the interface. So,
right now neither program can deliver all the power of the software and
Flex architecture in a single GUI. The 3rd party interface - CAT - is
the main limitation. A 3rd party programmer simply cannot write the
code to use a Flex capability that the CAT interface doesn't make
available.
Hopefully, DI will have a new interface which is rich enough so that
these kinds of things are possible and intriguing, and attract 3rd party
SW developers to write the appropriate code. I wouldn't be surprised
to see a "PowerContester" program with a GUI, interfaced to DI for all
the neat signal processing functionality, where DI has no GUI active at
all.
We just have to be patient...
Hmmm, I used to do real-time programming, many many moons ago....
73,
/Jack de K3FIV
On Mon, 2010-06-28 at 18:52 -0700, Don wrote:
I'm not much of a contester, but it seems to me that this is where a 3rd
party software company should shine.
Why not contact the "N1MM" authors or whomever ? and tell them that there is
a market out there.
For me I can wait 1 or 2 (3) years for Flex's (DI), but if you're in a
hurry - hmmm...
kd6hq
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