FT8 Demod preview

[srcejon]

Here's a quick preview of f4exb's new FT8 demodulator on 2m

SDRangelFT8.ong.png (184.72 KiB) Viewed 541 times

[srcejon]

10m is a bit busier it seems

FT8Demod10m.png (455.41 KiB) Viewed 523 times

[andyrs]

Hi all,

yes, shortwave bands are way more active. VHF and up are dead here too

20230128_150847.png (1.07 MiB) Viewed 511 times

About that map image, I'd like to propose a new locator-mode for display with FT8Demod * and maybe future ones too...
I think that general idea is obvious. Right now I simply replaced 'antenna' icon with 25% opacity green square, but for a proper representation (to fill the cell) each point would have to be geoprojected onto QTHgrid and mapped with many more than 4 steps of intensity to reflect activity (ideally with some kind of grandient I guess) This would probably require some kind of overlay over osm/mapbox. Are custom vector layers even possible in QtMap? I don't know really... Do you think it is doable? Would you consider this?

*- on that ocassion I'd like to thank Edouard for this latest demod and for entire SDRangel endeavor, and to you Jon for expanding it further.

[srcejon]

On github, https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel/issues/1561, Edouard mentions creating an additional feature plugin that could create some statistics, that can then be plotted on the map. I just added the station icon quickly, so we have something on the map until then.

Currently, the Map's swagger API doesn't support vector overlays, however, I've just been adding support for this (polygons and polylines), to allow airspaces to be displayed, so this could be used (it's nearly ready).

I like the styling in your image - did you create a custom stylesheet?

[f4exb]

Hello,

FT8 demodulator is now released in v7.9.0

Enjoy!
Brgds,
Edouard.

[f4exb]

Hello,

to complement what was said about the map. Yes there are issues with representing a 4 character grid as a single point:
- many callsigns may pile up on the same point
- it is not representative of the actual location that is anywhere within the square.

Brgds,
Edouard.

[srcejon]

to complement what was said about the map. Yes there are issues with representing a 4 character grid as a single point:
- many callsigns may pile up on the same point

Yeah - rather than one map item per callsign, it would probably be better if there were one map item per grid square, with the demod/feature grouping all the callsigns together (so the info box would display all callsigns heard in that grid square - or something like that).

[andyrs]

On github, https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel/issues/1561, Edouard mentions creating an additional feature plugin that could create some statistics, that can then be plotted on the map. I just added the station icon quickly, so we have something on the map until then.

I missed that one on github, but nevertheless your quick 'hack' helped me a lot, ha...

I like the styling in your image - did you create a custom stylesheet?

If by stylesheet you mean a single .qss file then no. There are a lot of changes in source files.

- many callsigns may pile up on the same point

Yes, for each square, some sort of combobox might be a solution.

[srcejon]

to complement what was said about the map. Yes there are issues with representing a 4 character grid as a single point:
- many callsigns may pile up on the same point

Yeah - rather than one map item per callsign, it would probably be better if there were one map item per grid square, with the demod/feature grouping all the callsigns together (so the info box would display all callsigns heard in that grid square - or something like that).

Although, having said that, this is already a bit of a problem for other map items, such as beacons, that pile up on top of each other. The map should have a better way of showing these, other than just "move to back".

[f4exb]

- it is not representative of the actual location that is anywhere within the square.

With this I meant it would be better to represent the grid as a surface but that's probably on the go. I did not check the Map feature recently.

Brgds,
Edouard.