In the September 18 Qt-DAB update unidentified TII codes were shown, but not logged. Today Jan Van Katwijk updated Qt-DAB and codes not matching with the database entries are now saved in the tii-files.txt log which can be found in the C:\Users\XXX\Qt-DAB-files folder. (Linux: the file is in the tmp directory in the subdirectory Qt_DAB-files.) Data in this file are NOT deleted after a session. The tii-files.txt file will get bigger and bigger and the user will have to manually delete it if it becomes too large. Mind you TII codes are only logged in the DX mode.
A few days ago Petr Kopecký released AbracaDABra 2.5.92 (RC) with some new features. I’ve been using AbracaDABra for quite a while mainly for casual listening while doing other stuff on my computer. AbracaDABra is easy to use and in my view not really a DAB DX tool like QIRX or Qt-DAB. But this has changed with version 2.5.90 and up! You can download AbracaDABra from Petr’s Github release page. AbracaDABra is great with a RTL SDR stick. You can also use Airspy, Soapy SDR or RTL_tcp.
What’s new in 2.5.92? ° Audio can be (un)muted via the tray icon. ° Ensemble info can be exported in a .csv file.
Starting with 2.5.90 (beta) great features like a map and TII decoding have been added.
Via the settings (1) (3 dots) and the TII tab you can add your location (3) and import data from the fmlist. Do check the ‘Show spectrum plot’. Activate the map and spectrum plot (2) via the three dots and TII decoder.
At the top left of the map (4) all TII info can be seen and sorted. Clicking a line will highlight this code on the map (6) and vice versa! Highlighting a TII at the top left or on the map will activate an info box (7) at the bottom right of the map. Unknown TII codes are shown too.
An info box at the top right (5) of the map shows Ensemble, ECC, EID and the channel.
MIND YOU: the TII and map features only work in expert mode (Settings–>Others).
With great Indian summer weather and some time to spend on the hobby today some modifications were made.
My Körner 15.11 performs excellently, especially after the maintenance I did last June. A few weeks ago I had a look at some old mails from Peter Körner in which he pointed out the 15.11 coax balun shouldn’t touch the boom directly as this could influence performance negatively. So I made sure this was fixed, but admittedly I couldn’t find much difference in the 15.11 performance. Then again I guess this fix won’t hurt performance anyway.
ULNA3018 DAB MK V DAB preamplifierULNA3018 DAB MK V DAB preamplifier case
When doing these small upgrades the antenna mast was lowered to almost ground level. I did some comparing of DAB signal strengths on very local strong muxes with very stable signal levels. The new ULNA3018 MK V did slightly better than the good old RTLSDR LNA, but only slightly. So I was rather pleasantly surprised by the performance of this cheap RTLSDR Wideband LNA. With the mast up again the brand new ULNA3018 MKV does well with strong overall signal levels.
MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km 89.30 2019 G BBC Radio 2, Holme Moss (EN-WYK) 529km 88.50 2020 G BBC Radio 2, Pontop Pike (EN-DUR) 611km 91.50 2024 G BBC Radio 3, Holme Moss (EN-WYK) 529km 95.30 2027 G BBC Radio 4, Meldrum (SC-ABS) 847km 93.10 2029 G BBC Radio Scotland, Meldrum (SC-ABS) 847km 100.30 2032 G Classic FM, Pontop Pike (EN-DUR) 611km 100.50 2034 G Classic FM, Meldrum (SC-ABS) PI logged: C2A1 847km 94.50 2038 G BBC Radio 4, Peterborough (EN-CAM) 387km 95.10 2038 G BBC Radio Norfolk, Stoke Holy Cross (EN-NFK) 292km 100.10 2041 G Classic FM, Sutton Coldfield (EN-WMD) 484km 88.60 2046 G BBC Radio 2, Bow Brickhill (EN-BKS) or Hereford / Ridge H? 389km 88.70 2047 G BBC Radio 2, Meldrum (SC-ABS) 847km 89.40 2048 G BBC Radio 2, Durris (SC-ABS) 812km 90.10 2051 G BBC Radio 2, Peterborough (EN-CAM) 387km 90.70 2051 G BBC Radio 3, Pontop Pike (EN-DUR) 611km 90.90 2052 G BBC Radio 3, Meldrum (SC-ABS) 847km 91.10 2057 G BBC Radio Wales, Llangollen (WA-DBG) ID R Wales 586km 94.90 2105 G BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Belmont (EN-LIN) 423km 95.40 2106 G BBC Newcastle, Pontop Pike (EN-DUR) 611km 96.00 2107 G BBC Radio Shropshire, The Wrekin (EN-SHP) 533km 97.20 2118 DNK DR P3, Rangstrup/Gammel T ndervej 28 (sdk) PI logged: 9203 547km 99.90 2120 DNK DR P4, Rangstrup/Gammel T ndervej 28 (sdk) 547km 88.10 2124 G BBC Radio 2, Sandale (EN-CUM) 672km 93.30 2136 G BBC Radio 4, Llangollen (WA-DBG) 586km
Today Jan Van Katwijk released an update of Qt-DAB-6.X. You can download this version for Windows and Linux on his Github release page. Do check out the manual too.
What’s new in today’s version?
° Unid TII codes (which were not in the database that can be downloaded into Qt-DAB from the fmlist) were not shown at all. They are now. ° Reed Salomon error repair added to the TPEG services processing. ° Minor corrections.
