SDR Television v1.0.6

Simon Brown • February 13, 2026

SDR Television v1.0.6


February 13th, 2026: A new kit, lots of receive improvements since the last official kit. As with any software project, there's always room for improvements and new features, but for now here's a stable solution which works well with the QO-100 satellite.


Downloads are at the bottom of this page.


Release Notes

v1.0.6


Transmit

A FIR filter at the end of the IQ generation processing was too narrow and too sharp, must have been degrading reception of signals created with previous kits. This filter is now wider and uses fewer taps.


Pluto Support

(This is part of SDR Console.) The FIR filter support for the Pluto has been corrected:

  • Images reduced if not completely removed.
  • Transmit now works reliably when the Pluto bandwidth is greater than 2 MHz.
  • The digital filter uses a FIR design from Analog Devices, taken from the file ad9361_baseband_auto_rate.c in the libad9361-iio library.
  • The analog filter is unchanged. It will appear wider than expected to allow for roll-off.


With QO-100 and other DVB-S2 operation there really is little if any need for any filtering.


v1.0.5


Receive

  • Added optional inversion of the incoming signal inversion (swap I and Q).


Transmit

  • Now setting the Quantization Parameter (QP) to the default value of 26. I had come across this before but never really understood what it does. I was just querying the value, not trying to set it.


https://www.oupree.com/knowledge/Whats-Quantization-Parameter-QP-in-Video-Encoder.html


v1.0.4


Receive

  • Improved initial frequency detection when searching for a signal.
  • Optional advanced signal detection options.
  • Found and fixed a bug causing a lockup when a 188 byte packet checksum failed.

v1.0.3


Testing

  • Added optional Gaussian noise when in loopback mode, this is for development use only.


User Interface

  • Added display of elapsed time to the Receive Audio window. Gaps in reception of up to 10 seconds are allowed. Later use of AI may support a 'speech quality' metric, determined from quality and technical content.
  • Added tuning bars in the spectrum, these show the frequency and symbol rate for the current mouse position.
  • Added extra categories in the Log window, now Main, Radio, Transmit, Debug.
  • Audio and video windows optionally hide controls when the cursor leaves the corresponding window.


Receiver

  • Added initial Gardner timing error detection (TED).
  • Changed AGC algorithm, target output now ~0.7 using 32-bit IEEE floats.
  • Redesign #1 of the IQ to Transport Stream (TS) processing, still plenty of refactoring to do.
  • Changed default LDPC algorithm.
  • Fixed BCH implementation which was not correcting any bits, also not detecting errors.
  • Changed default matched filter (RRC) defaults.
  • Added Quadrature Imbalance correction.
  • Interpolation filter roll-off dynamically updated with the value in the base-band header byte MATYPE-1. This value is also shown in the Decoding overlay and Decode Status window.
  • Refined the list of receive filter bandwidths.


AGC

  • Added selectable reference level.
  • Added alternative algorithm, Feed forward (the default algorithm is Feedback). Feed forward is experimental.
  • Searching for a signal in the noise uses considerable CPU, especially at higher symbol rates. The spectrum data is now used to detect the possible presence of a signal, thus saving CPU while a signal is not present. When a signal is believed to be present:
  • The arrows at the top, bottom of the bandwidth display are filled in,
  • The receiver is enabled.


Transmit

  • The transmitted BB Header roll-off value in byte MATYPE-1 now matches the roll-off value used in the filter, rather than preset to 0.35.
  • Removed 12-bit camera formats, problem discovered using a new DELL laptop.
  • Added optional transmit signal inversion (swap I and Q).


Pluto

  • Pluto RX FIR Filter gain set to 6, example: "RX 3 GAIN 6 DEC 1 TX 3 GAIN 0 INT 1 ..."
  • Removed Pluto/Libre bandwidths below 1.5 MHz.
  • Changed filter taps for bandwidths above 2MHz, was 64 now 128. Signal is now cleaner, ~40dBm SNR.


From the AD9363 product sheet: "The AD9363 transmitters use a direct conversion architecture that achieves high modulation accuracy with ultralow noise. This transmitter design produces a best-in-class Tx EVM of −34 dB, allowing significant system margin for the external power amplifier (PA) selection."


v1.0.2

  • Improved receiver sensitivity, still not as good as it can be.


v1.0.1

  • Fixed fatal bug in receive audio AGC when the output device sample rate was 192kHz.

Download

This minimum version of SDR Radio is shown below. Only download if SDR Television displays an error message when starting.


SDR Television

Download v1.0.6 from either:


SDR Radio

V1.0.6 requires a SDR Radio 64-bit kit build 3972 February 10th, 2026 or any newer kit.


By Simon Brown February 13, 2026
February 10th, 2026 Pluto Correct the FIR filter definitions, this has improved reception.
By Simon Brown December 27, 2025
Follow These Steps If you're unsure how you add a radio definition to SDR Console, here are the steps you must follow. Start SDR Console (quite obvious really). From the Home tab on the ribbon bar, in the Radio panel click Select Radio , the Select Radio window is displayed. At the bottom right of the Select Radio window, click Definitions... , the Radio Definitions window is displayed. At the top left of the Radio Definitions window click Search , a list of all supported radios is displayed. Select the radio you want to add, for example Airspy, SDRplay. In this example the RX-888 will be added. When you select an option from the list in step 4, either a radio is found or not. If the radio is found, a window is displayed with the option of adding the new definition. If the radio is not found, an error window is displayed. If this is a radio connected by USB, make sure the USB port can supply enough power. After adding the definition, click Save in the Radio Definitions window. You can now select your radio in the Select Radio window. That's all folks! SDRplay If you are using a SDRplay you select SDRplay > V3 in step 5 above. Make sure you have also installed either SDRconnect , SDRuno or the latest API (currently 3.15 at the time of writing).
By Simon Brown December 19, 2025
Version 1.5.4 This release fixes a bug, improves the user interface. Download link is at the bottom of this page.
By Simon Brown November 1, 2025
November 1st, 2025 Analyser Analyser tag window change, as suggested by Jim. Analyser tags now saved and restored correctly. Analyser font size now supports small, medium and large. Analyser loads saved projects faster. Saving project now much faster and uses less memory. More display lines available if you have enough RAM: Less than 16GB then 50,000 lines. 16GB to 32GB then 100,000 lines. 32GB or more then 250,000 lines. Fixed minor font issue with definition window. Fixed issue scrolling when more than 32768 lines in display. Data File Playback Selecting a playback folder now creates the list of files much faster. Emulation Added a diagnostic check for the use of emulators. This code only works on W10 and above, so I dynamically load IsWow64Process2 from kernel32 which avoids issues on older versions of Windows. In the logfile you see something like this: 05:23:48.185: Vendor ....: GenuineIntel 05:23:48.185: Brand .....: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 265K 05:23:48.185: - 05:23:48.185: x86 Emulation: 05:23:48.185: Process .......: 0x0000, "Not emulated" 05:23:48.185: Architecture ..: 0x8664, "AMD64" 05:23:48.185: - Favourites Updated the default 60m bandwidth. Changed Broadcast :: VHF CCIR title to Band II. Groups now have user-selectable files. Default definitions renames to main. Changed the ribbon bar, Selection entry to Options (see image below). The dropdown options have been replaced with a single window, allowing more room for text. Locked Receivers If the program is stopped or a favourite created when a receiver is locked, this caused problems with the receiver being locked but no indication. With this kit receiver lock state is not applied in a favourite definition. Logfile Automatically save the logfile when closing, really added so I can check program responding correctly to Shutdown and Restart. Old logfiles are purged after the program has been running for one minute. Logging Added logbook FA option as below, FA is the command to read/write RX1. Narrow FM Added 150Hz CTCSS squelch tone. De-emphasis is now optional, selected from: Ribbon bar, Receive, Mode..., Narrow FM. Persistent Display Got a crash inside the persistent display logic, my sanity checks weren't good enough so have improved this. Remote Server After connecting to a remote server, the input fields can now be edited to change connection parameters. Ribbon Bar View panel tidied up. Signal Meter (SMeter) Added more presets for the Signal meter, Ribbon bar, View, Spectrum, Signal Meter. Spectran ECO Changed SPECTRAN path order to pick up DLLs from the SDK folder rather than the main folder. Status Bar GPU, Audio entries on status bar now optional, selected from Program Options, Performance, CPU Memory. System Shutdown / Restart If SDR Console is running when the system shuts down or restarts then SDR Console closes gracefully. What happens - five seconds after SDR Console receives the SHUTDOWN message a timer calls the OnClose() processing, so you have five seconds to about the shutdown / restart. Text Size Fonts now scale correctly when a non-default Accessibility > Text Size is selected (see image).
By Simon Brown October 29, 2025
SDR Television v1.0.1 October 29th, 2025: Fixed a fatal bug in the receive AGC if the output soundcard sample rate is 96kHz or 192kHz. Downloads are at the bottom of this page.
By Simon Brown October 25, 2025
Previous: Version 1.5.2 This release fixes a bug, improves the user interface and adds a new calendar. Download link is at the bottom of this page.
By Simon Brown October 12, 2025
And the award goes to...
By Simon Brown October 9, 2025
Version 1.5.1 This is a mainly cosmetic update to version 1.5, nevertheless well worth installing.
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.