Warm Paws for Coders
Simon Brown • December 28, 2024
Heated Mouse Mat
If, like me you have cold hands then a heated mouse mat is essential. Before I bought this I had two options - either wear thin arthritis gloves or heat the room to a silly temperature.
Anyway, this popped up on Facebook with an Amazon link, so I bought one. This now makes coding even more of a pleasure as not only are my hands warm, the heat also rises onto my face and head so it's bye-bye cold.
It's not a substitute for a two week holiday in the Caribbean, but possibly the next best thing.
Here's a Amazon Link, if it fails, just search for Heated Mouse Mat.
Why didn't I think of this a few years ago?
Version 1.5.1 This is a mainly cosmetic update to version 1.5, nevertheless well worth installing.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
Major Change Scroll down to the SDR Radio information. The bandwidths available for SDR Television when using a Pluto / LibreSDR have changed.
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.
UI Refresh And More...
