Perseus22 SDR - Are We Getting Somewhere?

 At long last, version 1.4 of the Perseus22 software is here—almost exactly five months after version 1.3 dropped. You can check out the updated release notes here. My biggest issue with earlier versions was the basic IQ recording and playback options, but that’s finally sorted—though the scheduling feature could still use a bit of work. The biggest surprise? You can eventually be able to access Perseus22 files using other software!

My original review of the Perseus22 is here. Although it’s based on version 1.1, not much changed in terms of improving my SDR experience in versions 1.2 and 1.3.

Now, let’s see how the IQ recording feature holds up this time around.

Starting an IQ recording:

Before, you had to enter a file name before starting a recording—just like the old Perseus software. Not anymore. Well, you still can if you want, but if you pick 'Time to Use in Filename' in Settings, you can kick things off straight away with a date- and timestamped file name. You’ve got the option of using your local time (probably based on your PC settings) or UTC. You can even add a file label to the file name, like I’ve done in the image below.

Just a heads-up: the maximum recording time is capped at 60 minutes, which, to me, doesn’t make much sense if you’re aiming to record an entire night.

Playback of an IQ recording:

Another huge step up from version 1.3! The playback bar is nice and long, making it much easier to slide the cursor with accuracy. You can drag it back and forth on the playback bar and keep an eye on the time displayed just above it. But I don't think it's a good idea that the timer (highlighted in yellow in the image) shows local time. When we’re DXing, we clearly want UTC—not local time! It’s not such a big deal if you’re in Europe, but it’s bound to cause confusion if you’re several time zones away.

Navigation is pretty well thought out. I’ve already mentioned the sliding cursor on the playback bar. The 'VCR' controls—Play/Pause, Stop, and Loop—are all easy to understand. The Fast Forward and Rewind controls skip ahead or back by 1/10th of the file length with each click. For very long IQ recordings, it can be tricky to pinpoint the exact spot you want to check. It would be better to have an option to jump 10, 20, or even 60 seconds at a time.

The A and B controls let you set a loop within the recording, and they’re simple to apply and remove. If you’ve set a loop, you can use the Save control to save that loop section as a new IQ file. The downside is you have to name that file manually—it really should have been date- and timestamped like the original file. Still, the idea is solid.

Overall, recording and playback has seen major improvements compared to the earlier version of the software. To be fair, it started off as quite basic

Scheduled IQ Recordings

The scheduler has a pretty traditional design, clearly geared towards DX-ers who record IQ files casually rather than methodically. The only recurrence option available is "Daily," which feels quite limiting. Adding an "Hourly" option would’ve been a massive improvement. As it stands, you’ll end up spending loads of time setting up hourly top-of-the-hour recordings with this scheduler.

Mind you, if you’ve set up and enabled all the entries, make sure to hit that "Run" button in the bottom-right corner. Don’t forget!

Calibration

Some of you might remember that I wasn’t impressed with the calibration options in previous versions. Well, that’s now been improved—and in quite a clever way. There are two options: you can either use a DAB+ MUX signal (available in most of Europe and certain other areas), or go for a signal you ‘trust,’ like WWV on 10 MHz. Many Jaguar users, for instance, set up a Bodnar mini-GPS to 'transmit' just outside the MW band (e.g., 1705 kHz). The manual option is still available though.

According to Elad, the .p22 file header has been updated to 64 bytes, making the files compatible with third-party software. In fact, the latest version of WavViewDX is already working with Perseus22 files!

API?

No word whether an API will be offered or not.