Some user installation experiences/observations of a Flex veteran who is just
getting back into regular use after being on an “off season” break from radio
in general. My 5K has been sitting pretty much idle for way too long. Other
non-ham projects have been a really big drag on my resources and time for the
last 2+ years. Those projects are now finally nearing completion and I'm
finding more time, $'s, and ambition to play more radio again.
One of the items that was back burnered for a couple years was acquiring a
newer machine to run things. The AMD Athlon XP3000 (2.2GHz) eMachine that was
purchased in the Fall of 2004 when I bought the SDR-1000 1W semi-kit is now
long in the tooth.. That machine has been the centerpiece of all my SDR
activities for almost 6 years (4 of them quite active). It has served me well.
It does OK even now with the 5K @192 kHz (1.18.x SW) . When I first started
using it PowerSDR would be in the 25% CPU range, by the time of the 5K's
arrival in late August 07 it had reached 50%-ish, and now more recently been
running ~70% (all 1.18 or earlier versions). So I was pretty much convinced
that it wasn't gonna do the job once I put the second RX board in the 5K, or
work well with PSDR 2.x. I tried a PB SVN version late last fall and it really
wasn't up to the task. So a week or so ago I ordered a new no name Phenom II X4
box with Win7 Home Premium on it. This
afternoon's task was getting the 5K up and running with that new machine.
Once I had the new machine up and running with a suitable 1394 card (at least
so far I think it is) I decided to embark upon the installation of PowerSDR
1.18.6 WITHOUT consulting the documentation (Read The Fine Manual)... The
reasons for this “seat of the pants” approach were divided up approximately as
follows:
33% Cockiness (“I'm a hotshot computer/SW guy so I can do this without RTFM”).
33% Laziness (to RTFM).
34% Seemed like a fun challenge, … just for the heck of it..
From start to finish it took me about 1.5 hours. I found myself bumping into a
number of “oh yeah, forgot about that” items (i.e. needing .Net 1.1). Basically
the infrequently dealt with “foundation” SW items that you need to have in
place to install PowerSDR itself were what I sort of forgot about. The 5K's
1394 driver went in without a hitch, PowerSDR installer itself reminded me
about needing .Net 1.1 SP1. Once that was installed PowerSDR installed and ran
without a hitch. The radio was already up to date with firmware compatible
with 1.18.6, so I didn't need to do that piece. And I decided to start with
1.18.6 since I didn't want risk needing to T-shoot both 2.x beta and a new
machine at the same time (I'm adventurous, not crazy). So the time spent on
this exercise in “seat of the pants” PowerSDR setup broke down like this:
50% - Searching for the needed SW that I knew I had somewhere.
30% - Getting the machines (where the SW that I knew I had somewhere was) setup
and running again so I could get that SW off of them.
20% - Loading the 5K drivers and PowerSDR SW itself.
What's the point of this post? Not sure there is one. But seemed like something
that might give others some perspective on just how hard (or not) it really is
to get a new box up and running with a current Flex model.
Next step PowerSDR 2.0 beta. After that the second RX board...
Duane
N9DG
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