Software for COHIRADIA: Details and problem-solving

Dear friends of COHIRADIA,

In order to keep the main COHIRADIA thread compact, from now on all technical contributions about software will be concentrated in this new thread. So if you want to discuss software problems and solutions or maybe contribute new code, please reply here and not in the main thread. Examples could be:

•     Extending the functionality of the COHIRADIA_RFCorder
•     Extensions or standardization of the data format
•     code contributions (as soon as I have started the GITHub project)
•     new SDR solutions
•     possibly also ideas concerning signal processing and representation
•     ... and many more

The goal is to keep the main thread compact ad readable in the sense of general and historical aspects. Therefore in the future only issues like

•     interesting comments on recorded material
•     reports about the use of COHIRADIA on historical devices
•     other activities involving COHIRADIA (e.g. in museums, at events or similar)
•     general comments not related to technical details

should be posted there.

In any case, I am looking forward to exciting suggestions for improvement, problem solutions and discussions around the software.

With best regards

Hermann Scharfetter

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Alternative software for COHIRADIA:

The COHIRADIA files can also be played with alternative SDR software. For example, I installed sdr# version 'with community plugins' and then installed the plugin Rtl433-for-SDRSharp afterwards. For this purpose you have to create a folder \RTL_433 under \Plugins in the installation directory of sdr#. Then download the three dll-s from GITHub and copy them into this folder. After restarting sdr# this RTL_433 should be selectable in the main menu. After some familiarization with the interface you can play COHIRADIA files directly on your PC, if you rename the extension from *.dat to *.raw and choose cs16 as data format. sdr# offers a nice interface where one can select the single transmitter peaks from the spectrum by mouse and where one can also fast forward and rewind along the timeline. This is nice for analyzing recordings without needing a STEMLAB nor a radio.

Best regards

Hermann Scharfetter

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Dear COHIRADIA users,

There is now a new version of the RFCorder called RFCorder_v2_0, which can be downloaded from the software directory. The description is included in the zip file. Like version v1, the program can currently only play recordings, but there are a number of useful new features:

1. You can now also play IQ-files in wav-format. This is useful as all external archives of broadband files offer this format. Furthermore, all new recordings in the archive are now generated exclusively with wav headers. This allows the files to be played back on the PC with common SDR software such as SDRUno or SDR# and metadata can be transferred to the RFCorder and displayed much more compactly.
2. You can now jump back and forth on the timeline with a scroll bar, making it very easy to find different points in the recording.
3. The current time is displayed correctly, according to the actual time (UTC) at the time of recording. Of course, this only works with wav files, not with *.dat files.
4. There is a logarithmic signal strength indicator. If the signal is too weak (bar turns yellow), you can use the 'Gain' control to increase the gain within limits (logarithmically).
5. The play button is now a 'Play/Pause' button.
6. There is an endless play button.
7. There is a simple resampler that allows you to resample non-COHIRADIA recordings to one of the sampling rates required for STEMLAB. This significantly increases compatibility with commercial SDR formats.
8. I recommend all users who only want to play back files on their radios (no own recordings) to install this program version, as the old versions will no longer be maintained in the future. A version with recording function is in preparation.

As this is a major change compared to the previous version, it may well be that there exist still small bugs. I would be grateful for any reports on bugs, as they help to eliminate problems quickly.

Have fun with the new tool

Hermann Scharfetter

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