Resources & Performance

Simon Brown • November 9, 2021

Resource Leaks

During the testing phase of version 3.1 two major resource leaks have been found and resolved. Resource leaks cause one or more of:

  • Steading increasing memory (Commit size),
  • User interface slowing, and
  • Program freezing.

XML

The XML library used was Microsoft's MSXML version 6.0. SDR Console was leaking memory and handles each time the library loaded or saved a definition. As XML is used a lot in SDR Console MSXML has been replaced with pugixml.

GDI Objects

A coding error from the early days of SDR Console version 2 has been found and resolved. GDI Objects were being frequency created but never released.

Monitoring

Use the Task Manager to monitor process size, handles and GDI objects. To select the columns shown in the display just right-click on the title bar (Name, PID, Status...), then click on Select Columns.


As you interact with SDR Console the Handle and GDI object count will increase but should now stay within this range:

  • Handles - maximum of 2,000
  • GDI object - maximum of 2,000 (in practice closer to 1,200).

SDR Television v1 (Release)

By Simon Brown • September 13, 2025
SDR Television This release is actually beta 6 with a few small updates, so I've left the beta 6 text here. I hope to start working on this in November 2025, adding the Gardner timing error detection which should improve the decoding with low SNR. Downloads are at the bottom of this page.

SDR Console, Beta Sept. 9th 2025

By Simon Brown • September 9, 2025
Hello Again I'm now back to 90% SDR Console support, so here's the first beta for at least eight months. Scroll to the bottom for a link to the beta kit. The source is fully archived, so crash dumps can be analysed.

SDR Television Beta #6

By Simon Brown • August 28, 2025
SDR Television Improved phase detection at the start of each frame (SOF, PLS) which in turn improves sensitivity. Added 2,000 ksps receive, confirmed as working with GB3NQ. Sensitivity still not as good as a Serit 4334 NIM as used in the MiniTioune receiver, what's missing is synchronisation timing, I will be using Gardner timing error detection (TED). This will be added in Q1, 2026 when this project is extended for terrestrial use. Downloads are at the bottom of this page.

SDR Television Beta #5

By Simon Brown • July 18, 2025
SDR Television Found and fixed an unused massive memory allocation (up to 10GB), may have caused systems to freeze. Fixed fatal bug in matched filter array allocation. Changed the default transmit bandpass shaping filter roll-off to 0.20 in transmit and receive. Please look at the images below and apply the change. SDR Pluto Now show the AGC gain and RSSI. Added Default link to select the recommended gain - Fast Attack, 0dB visual. Known Problems Add support for tracking transmissions with (?) non-standard PCR data, example is G8GKQ. Using Pluto & variants, sensitivity is not as good as a NIM (hardware tuner). Will compare with SPECTRAN ECO in a week or so.

SDR Television Beta #4

By Simon Brown • June 30, 2025
Unexpected Beta #4 I wasn't planning to release another beta, but there was an error with a download link in the Blog post for Beta #3, also a few worthwhile improvements have been made, so here I go.

SDR Television Beta #3

By Simon Brown • June 18, 2025
Major Change Scroll down to the SDR Radio information. The bandwidths available for SDR Television when using a Pluto / LibreSDR have changed.

Simon (G4ELI) Live!

By Simon Brown • May 25, 2025
BATC Net, May 22nd 2025 Here's a snippet from the British Amateur Television Club net on QO-100. I hope it doesn't scare you.

Simon's World Map 1.5

By Simon Brown • May 25, 2025
UI Refresh And More...

No More Wireless

By Simon Brown • May 13, 2025
After too much grief, I've decided to stop using Wi-Fi to connect the small NUC systems in the computer room to my network: DX Cluster (Ubuntu) SDR Server (Windows) User Forums (Windows) These servers are in constant use, causing the wireless transmitter on my TP-Link AX50 to fail. By switching over to a wired network there's less demand on the wireless transmitter and the whole network has become far more reliable. In future I will only use Wi-fi when there's no alternative. I'm keeping a spare router ready just in case the AX50 fails.