MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km 89.30 1644 G BBC Radio 2, Holme Moss (EN-WYK) 529km 89.10 1645 G BBC Radio 2, Wrotham (EN-KNT) 311km 88.60 1646 G BBC Radio 2, Bow Brickhill (EN-BKS) 389km 88.10 1649 G BBC Radio 2, Manningtree (EN-ESX) 272km
Already owning two TEF6686 radios (1 – 2) I was fascinated by the concept of a ‘headless’ TEF: just a board and connectors. It can be neatly tucked away and hooked up to a webserver or to XDR-GTK software.
I was able to order one from Mihail Popa (ROU) with a case, an audiohat (if you want the audio on separate speakers via a jack) and two FM antenna and one AM antenna rabbit ears plug.
Hooking it up is pretty easy especially if you already have a portable TEF connected to the same computer. Mind you to connect the TEF668X audio in the audio configuration (W11 over here) to listen to this device and broadcast to the computer speakers to avoid audio feedback loops. Thanks Mihail for the advice. You can then use the same usb cable as used with a portable to connect the headless TEF to your computer and feeding it with data and audio.
If you want to continuously scan and record you should change two lines in the scanner.json file in the plugins_configs directory of your webserver. Make sure these two lines are set to false! “Autoscan_PE5PVB_Mode”: false, “Search_PE5PVB_Mode”: false,
My portable TEFs listen to COM3 while the headless TEF needs COM4 although both are connected to the same USB port (not simultaneously). You can easily change this in the webserver set-up tuner tab (device).
Updating the firmware is NOT like the updates on a portable TEF. You need this firmware and this bootloader from KKonrad.
I haven’t tried a firmware update yet as this headless is running the latest firmware.
What about the performance of a headless TEF? I compared it to my Deepelec DP-666 and found no difference at all. The headless TEF performs just as well.
A headless TEF is very often used by radio buffs who want to connect their TEF to a public FM-DX webserver. You can find numerous public TEF FM-DX webservers here.
Headless TEF top viewHeadless TEF front view with C-USB and audio JackHeadless TEF back viewwith rabbit earsScanning awayWebserver working hard
Petr Kopecký has just released AbracaDABra 3.1.0 with quite a few new features. You can download AbracaDABra 3.1.0 from Petr’s Github release page. Petr welcomes your feedback and bug reports on his Github issues page.
AbracaDABra 3.1.0 is not backward compatible from 2.9.2: you will lose the service list and audio recording schedule! It is therefore recommended to backup your current application settings. Check out C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\AbracaDABra. No worries if you upgrade from 3.0.0.
AbracaDABra now remembers the position of previously opened widgets. Enable this in the settings, tab ‘Others’.
Widgets position retained
New settings in the DAB signal overview widget. The spectrum refresh rate can be set and the SNR value can be viewed in a large font. Click on the three dots. Fit spectrum in view now also available in the DAB signal overview settings or by right-clicking in this widget as in 3.0.0.
New in DAB Signal overview
In the settings (TII tab) you can have the TII decoder remember (or not) to show transmitters that are no longer detected and also when no longer to show them (check the time-out and set the desired duration).
TII decoder settings
Service Programme Information (SPI) progress icon can be made persistent in the User applications settings. It can take a few seconds for the icon to (re)appear. Not all stations support SPI.
Setting SPI progress iconSPI progress
The Service logo can be shown by pointing your mouse.
A confirmation dialog pops-up when you want to clear service list.
Confirm clearing the service list
A timeout can be set in the Record raw data in the Ensemble Information widget.
Timeout set in the Record raw data
The antenna height has been added to the transmitter details in the TII decoder map.
MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km 88.50 0928 F France Culture, Bourges/Neuvy-Collines du Sancerrois (18) 439km 89.60 0928 F France Culture, Villers-Cotterêts/Fleury (02) 221km 89.80 0930 F Canal FM, Berlaimont/FPS Tower (59) 117km 91.60 0933 F Europe 1, Béthune-Lens/Bouvigny-Boyeffles (62) 159km 100.30 0935 F France Inter, Maubeuge/Rousies (59) 95km 101.30 0937 F ici Picardie, Hirson/Landouzy-la-Ville (02) 136km 104.30 0940 BEL BXFM, Bruxelles/Mont-Saint-Lambert (bru) 26km 89.30 0948 G BBC Radio 2, Holme Moss (EN-WYK) 529km 89.10 0949 G BBC Radio 2, Wrotham (EN-KNT) 311km 88.80 0950 G BBC Radio 2, Belmont (EN-LIN) 423km
For the last few months AFN Everberg on 101.7 has been experiencing lots of issues. Usually only a bit of distorted audio and full RDS (PI: 0000!), but since last week no longer even a carrier on that frequency. I’ve kept AFN informed about this, but to no avail. Fortunately Radio Salü from Saarbrücken/Schoksberg can now be heard over here.
Petr Kopecký has just released AbracaDABra 3.0.0 with some exciting new features. AbracaDABra 3.0.0 can be downloaded from Petr’s Github release page. Petr welcomes your feedback and bug reports on his Github issues page.
WARNING: AbracaDABra 3.0.0 is not backward compatible. You will lose the service list and audio recording schedule if you switch back to official 2.9.2! It is therefore recommended to backup your current application settings. Check out C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\AbracaDABra.
Input devices SDRplay support was added. It was tested running nicely on a RSP1A and a RSPdx. Mind you: SDRplay API 3.15 needs to be installed on your computer. 1 Of course AbracaDABra 3.0.0 also supports AirspyR2, RTLSDR V3 and V4, Soapy SDR and RTL TCP. I found the the Gain control working well both in Manual and in Software mode.
Device settings
RTL-SDR, Airspy and SDRplay devices can now be selected before connection. This allows you to connect to a particular device if you have more devices of the same type connected to your computer.2 SoapySDR is fixed and SW AGC removed as there is no universal way to implement it.
DAB signal overview The DAB signal overview has a new dialogue. Open it using the three dots or by clicking on the db indicator.
DAB signal overview
Spectrum calculation and visualisation causes higher CPU load. Borders between plots can be moved and you can hide one of the plots by moving it to very top or very bottom. The spectrum plot is interactive: you can move the plot by dragging with the mouse, zoom in or out with the mouse wheel. You can also zoom an axis by clicking on it: it turns blue to indicate selection. Clicking in the plot area un-selects the axis. Right click to restore the default view. Spectrum calculation and visualisation causes higher CPU load.
FMLIST ensemble .csv upload An exciting new feature: AbracaDABra can upload a small .csv file with ensemble structure to the FMLIST anytime you tune an ensemble. This action is indicated in the log with messages like this: 10:03:42.269 [I] Application: Uploading ensemble information (1164 bytes) 10:03:42.365 [I] Application: Ensemble information uploaded, thank you! This is of course a great help in keeping the FMLIST up-to-date. The .csv file is also uploaded when the scanner is running, but not so during normal band scan to keep the scan as fast as possible.
Scanning tool Another great new feature: offline mode in the scanning tool. Access this tool via the 3 dots. The AbracaDABra user can not only save the results of a scan but also load previously saved .csv files, thus not only checking scan results at a later date, but also showing them on the map. Note: the location is not stored in a CSV file, so your current location will be used to calculate distances etc. and the current TII database is used to display transmitter information.
Scanning tool
TII detection The spectrum visualisation is modified to show carrier pairs. When several transmitters in the ensemble network use the same TII code, the detector chooses the one that is more likely to be received. The TII detector can be configured as more sensitive or more reliable, default is sensitive. Zoom in using the mouse wheel and right click to go back to the default zoom.
TII detection pairsModified TII detection
Settings The .ini file (C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\AbracaDABra) is split: service list and audio recording schedule were moved to separate .json files.
New .ini files
Other changes ° SPI application loading progress is indicated in the application window. Make sure SPI is switched on in the Settings (User applications).
SPI application loading
° Audio output framework can be switched between Qt and PortAudio. PortAudio is the default setting.
Audio output
° Users can enable frequency correction int the DAB signal overview widget.
