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Dvb Card Sound Cards & Media Devices Drivers

After setting up my new Yaesu FT-950 with the DMU-2000, I decided to incorporate a more robust pan-adapter than provided by the DMU. The DMU works fine, within its limitations - frequency spectrum display only, no waterfall, no direct mouse or keyboard interaction. It could have been much better, based on the current state of development of SDR. The following is a chronicle of my experiences setting up the system for my FT-950. Details of the various steps in the process are contained in the links and references for the various components.

Including an external pan adapter requires access to the receiver's IF prior to roofing filters in order to have a wide enough bandwidth. Sound cards typically sample no more that 192KHz, yielding a maximum display bandwidth of 192KHz through the SDR interface. The FT-950 uses up-conversion to about 70MHz for the first IF and SDR receivers or Pan Adapters usually have a maximum frequency of 25 to 30 MHz, so some sort of down-conversion is necessary. The RFSpace IF-2000 board does just that.

IF-2000 IF interface board

By installing the IF-2000 interface board in the FT-950 where the DMU interface board would go, an output at 10.55MHz is made available. ( Link to RF Space IF-2000.) The DMU still works in all regards, except for the frequency spectrum display. I simply removed the DMU interface card and replaced it with the IF-2000 card, as directed.

The IF-2000 specifications are:

• LO Frequency: 80.000 MHz
• IF input: 69.45MHz
• IF Output: 10.55MHz
• Response: +/- 0.5dB @ +/- 500KHz
• Input return loss: -20dB
• Draws power from the FT-950
• Output by means of a coax pigtail through the rear of the FT-950

The IF-2000 is very easy to install, following the included instructions.

IF-2000 Interface Board

SDR Pan Adapter

The next step is to include an SDR pan adapter. Several options are available, including one of the Softrocks or a dedicated pan-adapter. I already had a Softrock RX Ensemble, so that is where I started. This option works fine, but is an overkill, since much of the functionality of the RX Ensemble is not used. I wanted to have the RX Ensemble available separately so I purchased one of the Softrock Lite IF kits from Craig Westerman, W6DVC. Constructing it was very easy and it worked quite well. The only downside is a slight center 'hump' and lack of robust image rejection.

Looking around on the internet I found the LP-PAN, which is designed specifically as a pan-adapter and is available for several popular transceivers, including the FT-950. Some versions are available as kits, but the FT-950 version comes only factory-assembled and adjusted.

Softrock RX Ensemble

Performance of the combination IF-2000 and LP-Pan is outstanding. No center hump, flat response and good image rejection (more on this later). ( Link to LP-PAN ). This is by far the best way to get pan-adapter capability for the FT-950.

LP-PAN IF Pan Adapter

Sound Card

Softrocks and LP-PAN are direct conversion IQ sampling receivers that rely on software to perform IF filtering, audio decoding, and other typical receiver functions. The output from LP-PAN is a pair of quadrature analog audio signals with at least 192KHz of bandwidth. PC sound cards are usually used to convert the analog signals to digital data streams.

The computer to be used for the pan adapter is fairly recent, with an MSI motherboard that uses a RealTek on-board audio subsystem. This actually worked fairly well, however, some issues still remained, especially lack of flat response across the full spectrum and only moderate image rejection. These on-board sound cards, while good for audio frequencies are really not designed for flat response all of the way to the full 192KHz sample frequency. The answer is to add a high-end audio interface card, such as the E-MU 0202 external box or the E-MU 1212 internal sound card. There are other cards available, but are generally more expensive.

E-MU 0202

The E-MU 0202 works great, but has some peculiarities. The released drivers are specified up to Vista 64bit, and a beta Windows 7 version has been released. I am still using Windows XP on this machine, so I encountered no major problems - I did have to reinstall once, and sometimes the unit starts up in USB1.1 mode. Startup in USB 2.0 can be forced by pressing the monitor button while turning on the power.

Others have reported getting the Win 7 version to work as well. - probably worth a try. There are gain settings for the inputs, which should be set to the minimum (full counterclockwise position). I now have a great looking display, with no center hump, flat response and very good image rejection with the PowerSDR - IF or any of the WinRad versions. Link to E-MU 0202. Link to beta drivers for Win 7: Beta drivers for 0202.

E-MU now has an upgraded USB 2.0 audio interface, the E-MU 0204. Described as a successor to the 0202, the new 0204 adds another pair of 24-bit outputs. Price is similar to 0202. Link to E-MU 0204 product description.

SDR Software

A number of options for SRD software are available and more are being developed. I started with the WinRad variants, but quickly implemented PowerSDR IF Stage, available from WU2X.com. This is a variant by WU2X of the PowerSDR software developed by FlexRadio Systems. PowerSDR IF Stage has been specifically tailored to work with dedicated pan adapters and is interfaced with Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) for CAT rig control. Very detailed instructions on setting up PowerSDR IF Stage are available on the WU2X.com site. HRD is a very comprehensive CAT, logging, digital interface suite of programs available at
www.ham-radio-deluxe.com.

Conclusion

This combination of hardware and software is a very cost effective and useful addition to the FT-950. The user interface is greatly enhanced. The ability to see nearly 200kHz of spectrum at a time makes all the difference in quickly finding and tuning stations. Under contest conditions, active stations can be readily found and heard. A bonus not mentioned is the ability to use PowerSDR IF to provide a second independently tuned digital receiver within the 192KHz band.

My setup is shown in the photo below. The screen on the left has PowerSDR IF and HRD logbook is on the right. A screen shot of PowerSDR IF in action follows. Note the DMU-2000 to the left. The DMU is still valuable for easy access to the FT-950 menus, viewing waveforms and graphically evaluating SWR by band. If given a choice of the pan-adapter as implemented here or the DMU-2000, I would certainly opt for the pan-adapter.

References and Links:

Note: This is possible under GNU/Linux only.

Install the DVB drivers

If you want to be able to stream from a DVB card (a satellite card or a digital terrestial TV card), you need to install the DVB drivers:

• if you use a Linux 2.6.x kernel, you just need to select the right modules in your kernel configuration.
• if you use a dvb-card Technisat SkyStar2 rev. 2.8, you must download the latest release of the DVB drivers from the DVB-S(S2) drivers for Linux.
• if you are using a Linux 2.4.x kernel, you must download the latest release of the DVB drivers from the DVB drivers download page of the LinuxTV Project.

Dvb Card Sound Cards & Media Devices Driver

The following sections assume that you have a working linux-dvb installation, either from stock kernel 2.6 or from kernel 2.4 with DVB patches. If you have any problem with the linux-dvb drivers, please report the problem to the maintainers of the drivers, not to us. Thanks.

Stream with VLS

Note: VLS is currently deprecated and hasn't been maintained for years. It is strongly advised to use VLC instead, which now supports the same features as VLS, and many more. The only advantage of VLS is to support the dvbrc file syntax, and it requires a bit less CPU horsepower. However, we do not support VLS any longer.

Put a .dvbrc file containing the DVB channels (satellite or digital terrestial TV channels) you want to stream in your home directory (some are provided in the libdvb tarball for the satellite channels).

Run VLS with the following command line:

where:

• 'EUROSPORT' is the channel you want to stream as written in your ~/.dvbrc file,
• 192.168.0.42 is either:
  • the IP address of the machine you want to unicast to;
  • or the DNS name the machine you want to unicast to;
  • or a multicast IP address.
• 12 is the value of the TTL (Time To Live) of your IP packets (which means that the stream will be able to cross 11 routers).

Stream with VLC

Note: VLC has many more features than VLS. First you can use the advanced stream output options such as transcoding and all kinds of output supports. Second VLC can take advantage of the Common Interface supported by some DVB adapters to descramble one or several services. Currently released versions of VLC only support the low-level API so some adapters won't work (budget-ci cards work, twinhan doesn't). Some CAM modules aren't compatible with some DVB cards, check the linux-dvb documentation for more information. So-called 'professional' CAM modules are able to descramble up to twelve services, whereas customer-oriented modules are often limited to one or two services unless otherwise specified.

VLC must be compiled with --enable-dvb and you need the linux-dvb headers installed in your system. An example command-line is as follows:

The example above shows the minimum set of options needed to stream out two services. Here is a list of frontend options, depending on the frontend type:

• common options
  • dvb-adapter: specifies the adapter to use in case you have several adapters in your machine (by default use adapter 0)
  • dvb-device: specifies the name of the DVB device to use (should not be needed with a standard linux-dvb installation)
  • dvb-srate: specifies the symbol rate of the modulated signal, in symbols/s
  • dvb-inversion: specifies whether the signal is inverted or not (default is automatic detection)
  • dvb-budget-mode: enters a special mode where all PIDs are retrieved by the driver; it should no longer be necessary as VLC should filter wanted PIDs
• satellite frontend (QPSK)
  • dvb-frequency: specifies the frequency to tune to in kHz; according to the frequency range, VLC auto-detects the band to use: S (2.5-2.7 GHz), C-lower (3.4-4.2 GHz), C-higher (4.5-4.8 GHz), Ku (10.7-13.25 GHz) or direct BIS frequency (0.95-2.15 GHz); it is mandatory to supply the dvb-srate option to satellite frontends
  • dvb-voltage: specifies the voltage to apply on the IF; most LNBs behave differently when supplied with 13 V or 18 V; universal LNBs select vertical polarity with 13 V and horizontal with 18 V; you can also select 0 V if your LNB has another power supply (default is 13 V)
  • dvb-tone: specifies whether to send a 22 kHz pulse tone to the LNB; universal LNBs switch to high-band when this pulse is sent; by default VLC automatically adopts the correct behaviour if the frequency supplied is in the Ku band (other bands do not need this)
  • dvb-fec: specifies the code-rate to use for Forward Error Correction; type in the first number of the code-rate, for 2/3 use --dvb-rate=2, etc. (default is 9, meaning automatic detection)
  • dvb-high-voltage: enables a special mode of the DVB adapter to compensate for the voltage loss in very long cables (AFAIK it is present in the API, but no DVB adapter actually implements it)
  • dvb-lnb-lof1, dvb-lnb-lof2, dvb-lnb-slof: specifies the frequencies of the first and second local oscillators, and the frequency at which the 22 kHz pulse should be activated to enable the second oscillator; by default VLC uses the values for universal LNBs if the frequency supplied is in the Ku band (other bands do not need this)
• cable frontend (QAM)
  • dvb-frequency: specifies the frequency to tune to in Hz; it is mandatory to supply the dvb-srate option to cable frontends
  • dvb-modulation: specifies the modulation of the analog signal; valid values are -1 (QPSK), 0 (automatic QAM, default), 16 (QAM16), 32 (QAM32), 64 (QAM64) 128 (QAM128), 256 (QAM256)
• terrestrial frontend (OFDM)
  • dvb-frequency: specifies the frequency to tune to in Hz; it is mandatory to supply the dvb-bandwidth option, all other parameters are optional
  • dvb-bandwidth: specifies the bandwidth of the OFDM channel (6, 7 or 8 MHz depending on the country)
  • dvb-hierarchy: specifies if the OFDM channel uses hierarchic information; allowed values are -1 (no hierarchy), 0 (automatic, default), 1, 2 and 4
  • dvb-code-rate-hp, dvb-code-rate-lp: specifies the code-rate to use for higher and lower hierarchies respectively (default auto, same syntax as dvb-fec)
  • dvb-guard: specifies the guard interval; valid values are 0 (automatic, default), 4 (1/4), 8 (1/8), 16 (1/16) and 32 (1/32)
  • dvb-transmission: specifies the transmission mode; valid values are 0 (automatic, default), 2 (2K) and 8 (8K)

We also ought to explain the other non-dvb-specific options of the example command-line:

• ts-es-id-pid: this option is necessary if you use the #duplicate stream output filter to split the multiplex in several outputs; there is no need to use #duplicate neither ts-es-id-pid if you have one program only
• programs, program, sout-all: there are several ways of specifying the services to select (and optionally descramble):
  • programs: used to specify one or serveral programs to select; VLC selects all known elementary streams of these programs; this is the currently recommended way
  • program: used to specify one program to select; it differs from using programs with only one program in that this option only select the first audio stream, and no subtitle stream; it should be used if you plan to switch programs and audio with a GUI
  • sout-all: tells VLC to select all programs; this is discouraged because of the extra CPU load needed to demultiplex unwanted programs, and because it is not compatible with CAM descrambling
• The other options are standard stream output options and are described in the other chapters of this documentation.