Sunday, March 15, 2009

QS1R Recording Function


RF Recording for the QS1R has been in the works for some time, and a few of us have (politely, I hope) queried the whereabouts of this critically important feature. While it is still  not ready, Phil Covington has written a dll for use with Winrad, which appears to be quite useful. Winrad's latest version as of March 15, v. 1.42 build 49, supports QS1R without problems. One can choose frequency spans from 50 to 1250 kHz, and RF recording is done by pressing the VCR-type recording button. The file saves by default to the winrad directory.

The picture is a bit misleading since it was screen-dumped from a remote connection. Winrad tends to be rather graphic-intensive, so updating via remote is difficult. Hence, the bandwidth window is "empty".

So, we can finally record RF from this excellent receiver! But I am hoping that the "real thing" isn't too far away.

5 comments:

4nradio said...

Nice to see your observations about the QS1R recording, Bjarne. Can you make any overall comments about QS1R vs. Perseus performance on weak signals?

My only experience with the QS1R was over a year ago, and it was a sub-par performer with "hanging" (stuck) AGC on impulse noise like static crashes, and was "deaf" compared to Perseus on weak signals. We were getting barely discernable, threshold speech on stations that Perseus resolved into weak but clear audio.

I know the QS1R software has come a long, long way since the early private beta that was released with the first handful of prototype units.

73,

Guy

Unknown said...

Have you used Winrad/QS1R more? How do you think WinRad behave remotely? I tried with Windows Remote Desktop and I´m was not really satisfied. You run LogMeIn? Does that work ok with Winrad?

Bjarne Mjelde said...

The QS1R/Winrad combo is not a useable option. If Covington fails to implement RF recording by September, I will have to sell the QS1R and buy another Perseus. Which is a pity since the QS1R is a fantastic receiver, but very much a lame duck when it comes to serious DX.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the comment. Except that winrad doesn´t have the best usability for MW-dxing, is there something else you refer to?

Bjarne Mjelde said...

Like you, I am having trouble running Winrad via remote control (logmein). And Winrad's user interface is sub-par, especially compared to the Perseus software. The current QS1R executeable, SDRMAXII, is an excellent GUI, but as long as there is no recording option, the QS1R is no better than an ordinary conventional receiver.