Modes

Modes

All modes are available!

Selection

This software supports the commonly used modes, to display the modes in the receive DSP pane click the … button and check [X] the modes you want to use.

Mode-specific options are available in the ribbon bar: Receive, Mode.
Group Mode Notes
Amplitude Modulation (AM) AM Standard AM demodulation
SAM Synchronous AM
ECSS-L, ECSS-U Exalted-Carrier Selectable-Sideband
Continuous Wave (CW) CW-L, CW-U Either lower or upper sideband
Frequency Modulation (FM) Narrow FM 530µs de-emphasis, optional 300Hz high-pass filter, 3000Hz low-pass filter
Wide FM No de-emphasis, maximum bandwidth 48kHz Use Wide FM with CW Skimmer, DSDPlus etc
Broadcast FM Full FM Stereo and RDS/RBDS support (more information below)
Single Sideband (SSB) Lower Sideband Upper Sideband Standard SSB demodulation, maximum bandwidth 4kHz
Double Sideband Both sidebands, rarely used
Wide (Upper, Lower) Standard SSB demodulation, maximum bandwidth 48kHz

Step Sizes

Each mode has customisable step sizes, uses when scrolling with the arrow keys or using the mouse wheel.

Broadcast FM

Broadcast FM is not just a mode - it's a project in its own right. From the Receive pane in the ribbon bar select Broadcast FM.


The RDS / RBDS decoder is very sensitive, the result of too many weeks of coding effort.


3.0.19 has an improved Broadcast FM menu, shown here.
Main Button
  • Toggles display of the Broadcast FM spectrum.
Menu
  • Options - displays the options property sheet (below).
  • Stereo - enable stereo reception. If the signal is not strong this stops a stereo transmission rapidly switching between mono and stereo.
  • Spectrum - show or hide the spectrum display
RDS
  • Enable - show RDS infomation.
  • Show PI code.
  • Show Database  - display the RDS database, a log of stations received with the RDS / RBDS data.
  • DX mode - show decoded text during weak signal reception with only partial field received.

Options (RDS vs RBDS)

Either select Options from the broadcast FM menu or in the Spectrum window (below) click … to display the Broadcast FM options:
  • RDS / RBDS / audio selection,.
  • Extra information.
The difference between RDS and RBDS can be summarised as:
  • RBDS is used in the USA and South Korea, RDS in the rest of the world.
  • De-emphasis: 75μs used by RBDS, 50μs by RDS.
  • Program type lookup tables are different.
 More information is found on Wikipedia.

Windows

The windows are:
  • Spectrum - with the overlay mask as show on Wikipedia,
  • Extra information - a count of the RDS groups (packet types) decoded so far for the current station,
  • RDS / Audio options such as:
    • De-emphasis (different between the USA and rest of the world),
    • Decoding sensitivity and
    • Size of the RDS overlay.
Example are shown below.

RDS Logfile

To display the RDS Logfile select Database, Show from the Broadcast FM drop-down menu.

Use the RDS logfile to automatically log stations when RDS (RBDS in the USA) data is available and the Program Identification (PI) Code can be decoded. The PI Code identifies the station but not the site when the station is part of a network, for example all BBC Radio 2 stations use the same PI Code.

The database uses SQLite, can be exported in a variety of formats.

Narrow FM

Narrow FM is used for communications, has 530µs de-emphasis, an optional 300Hz high-pass filter and a fixed 3,000Hz low-pass filter.


If the 300Hz high-pass filter is not selected then you will hear any CTCSS or DCS tones which are part of the received transmission.
Share by: