Thank you for this new preview release, which many of us havebeen anxiously
awaiting. Here are my initial impressions:
I noticed something strange with this new version. What maypossibly be
overmodulation, tending to cause a wobbly or garbled signal, sometimes dropping
out (clipping?). I don't think it was conditions, although that may have some
minor effect. Several stations I monitored in the opening moments of running
the new version were very obviously eating their microphones, and sounded,
well, terrible. Their RF signals were strong, S9 +20 db, but the audio quality
left much to be desired. On the plus side, I could somewhat clear up the
distorted signals by opening up my receiver to a full 5 khz bandwidth. But even
then, signals were not solid, often dropping out, possibly due to what I
perceive as a clipping effect. Perhaps my terminology is not quite correct,
however I amjust reporting what I am hearing. Perhaps there are better words to
explain the poor signals. My first impression is that transmitted signal
quality and overall reliability was substantially better with the initial
preview release. Perhaps it is pure coincidence, or I am mistaken. It does seem
that transmit audio level settings are more critical in this release.
Something else I noticed is a pulsing sound on the transmitted signal
(listening on the radio, prior to demodulation) of some stations. This may be a
matter of latency on the computers in question. Although anecdotal, as my
previous comments, this pulsing seems to be in association with dropouts,
despite an excellent RF signal. I do not recall these problems with the
initial preview release, which just worked, and worked well, out of the box.
I will keep a watch on things and report any additional observations. I am not
beingcritical. Just trying to be thorough as a software tester and consumer.
Once again, thanks very much for making this second preview release available.
Much appreciated.
Best regards,
Gary, K7EK
On Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 04:36:58 AM EST, Mooneer Salem
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi all,
This is the second preview release of FreeDV containing the new RADE mode. For
more information about RADE's development, check out the blog posts on the
FreeDV website:
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-feb-2024/
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-march-2024/
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-april-2024/
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-may-2024/
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-june-2024/
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-july-2024/
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-august-2024/
* https://freedv.org/mooneers-freedv-update-august-2024/
* https://freedv.org/mooneers-freedv-update-september-2024/
* https://freedv.org/davids-freedv-update-september-2024/
Changes versus the first preview release:
* Signal to noise ratio (SNR) is now displayed while receiving RADE signals.
* Received signals are now reported to FreeDV Reporter (without callsigns) once
per second. Once a callsign is received (at the end of the transmission), the
callsign is reported to both FreeDV Reporter and PSK Reporter.
* Fixed bug preventing sync indicator from turning green with RADE.
* Visual Studio Redistributable is now installed if your PC does not already
have it. (This is required for the Python packages FreeDV uses.)
* Fixed bug preventing Request QSY button from being enabled in RADE mode.
* RADE has been renamed to RADEV1 in the UI and FreeDV Reporter.
* macOS binaries are now signed and notarized, avoiding the need for the
workaround in the previous build.
* Fixed issue causing FreeDV to segfault on exit when RADE is running.
* Python files are now precompiled to improve startup time.
* Core RADE code is now in C (versus Python).
* Uninstaller now fully cleans up after Python.
* Audio chain is cleaned up to improve audio quality.
* README has been updated to clarify Linux instructions and to provide a link
to a script to auto-build with RADE support. (Thanks @barjac!)
* Maximum SNR displayed in the main window is now 40 dB to reflect real-world
testing.
* "devel" in the version string is shortened to "dev" and incremented to "dev2"
to reflect the second preview build.
Limitations:
* Multiple RX mode is not supported. If you choose RADE and push Start, that's
the only mode you can work; you'll need to stop, choose another mode and start
again to work FreeDV with the existing modes.
* Squelch cannot currently be disabled with RADE. It's unknown at this time
whether disabling squelch is possible.
* Due to compilation problems, 2020/2020B modes are disabled.
* There is currently no Windows ARM build; this will hopefully be included in a
future preview build. You may be able to use the 64-bit Intel/AMD Windows build
in the meantime.
* Minimum hardware requirements haven't been fully outlined, so your system
currently may not be able to use RADE. Future planned optimizations may improve
this.
Other notes:
* The below builds are significantly bigger than previous releases. This is due
to needing to include Python and the modules that RADE requires. Planned
porting to C/C++ will eventually negate the need for Python.
* The Windows build includes Python but not the modules that RADE requires. As
part of the install process, the version of Python built into FreeDV will go
out to the internet to download the needed modules.
* As development is expected to happen quickly, these preview builds have a six
month expiry date (currently July 30, 2025).
* 32-bit Windows is no longer supported due to its likely inability to work
with RADE.
More information and download links can be found at
https://github.com/drowe67/freedv-gui/releases/tag/v2.0.0-20250130.
Thanks,
-Mooneer K6AQ_______________________________________________
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