Conventional Receiver Plugin

Purpose

This plugin provides an interface to a conventional receiver that outputs demodulated audio and has CAT control via an RS-232 port. Most radios used by the Hams fall in this category, including the ICOM, Yaesu, Kenwood and Elecraft transceivers.

Note

This plugin makes use of the OmniRig engine. Make sure that you have the latest version of OmniRig installed on your system.

Settings

  • OmniRig Radio

    Select to use Rig1 or Rig2 in OmniRig for CAT control.

  • Soundcard

    Select the soundcard that will be used to input the audio signals from the radio.

  • Soundcard Channel

    Specify which channel of the stereo soundcard to use.

  • CW, SSB and DIG Settings

    Each of these settings has three parameters:

    • Passband High, Passband Low - the upper and lower cutoff frequencies of the filter in the radio.

    • Dial Offset - the audio tone that corresponds to the dial frequency of the radio.

  • Exlcusive, Latency

    Experimental, do not change.

Explanation

The Conventional Receiver plugin inputs audio signals in the range of 0 to 6000 Hz, but most radios produce the audio that occupies only a part of this range. For example, the radios in the CW mode typically have a 500-Hz filter that suppresses all signals outside of this range. The CW Settings, SSB Settings and RTTY Settings parameters tell the program what part of the input spectrum is usable in each mode.

Other plugins use this information to show only that part of the spectrum on the waterfall, to decode signals only in that frequency range, etc.

Examples

  1. In the CW mode, the CW Pitch setting in the radio is 800 Hz, and the filter bandwidth is 500 Hz.

  2. The settings should be:

    • Dial Offset: 800 Hz
    • Passband Low: 800 - 250 = 550 Hz
    • Passband High: 800 + 250 = 1050 hz

  3. In the SSB mode, the filter passband is 300 - 2700 Hz, and the radio displays the frequency of the suppressed carrier (0 Hz audio). The settings should be:

    • Dial Offset: 0 Hz
    • Passband Low: 300 Hz
    • Passband High: 2700Hz

Status Bar

The Conventional Receiver plugin shows an icon on the status bar that indicates the current status of the CAT control interface. Place the mouse cursor over the icon to see information on the tooltip. Click on the icon to open the OmniRig setup dialog.