#Black cat systems dx toolbox full#
#Black cat systems dx toolbox software#

Don’t forget to make sure the upper frequency is high enough to cover the entire ALE spectrum, about 3 kHz. Zero Frequency kHz in the Edit menu can quickly do this for you. You’ll want to make sure the lower frequency is an integer kHz value (or 0.5 kHz for those ALE channels), so edit the frequency as needed. Adjust the min and max dB sliders as necessary for good contrast.įind an ALE signal in the waterfall and drag around it with the mouse cursor (can’t find any? Go to another I/Q file). After a moment, a waterfall for the entire file will appear. Select one of your SDR I/Q recording files from the list of files in the list on the left side of the main window. Go to Select Demod File Directory in the File menu and select the directory where Black Cat ALE will be monitoring for new WAVE files. Then right click on that entry and select Set Path and select the directory to use. Create each entry by right clicking on the list and select Add Entry. Open Settings in the Edit menu, go to the Demod Directories tab, and create one or more entries for where demodulated WAVE files should be stored, including at least the directory Black Cat ALE will be monitoring. Set the directory for your SDR recording files, using Set Recording Directory in the File menu It will ignore any files that already exist in this directory. The name of these files must end in “.wav” or “.WAV”. Black Cat ALE will start looking in this directory for new WAVE files. Select Monitor File Directory from the File menu. Select Set Directory To Monitor For New Files from the File menu, and choose the directory in which sdrRewind will store demodulated WAVE files. Then come back when it is done and view the results. So even if the demodulation and decoding process will take some time, you can set it up, then walk away and do something more productive while your computer is busy processing the data.

In the case of Black Cat ALE, it can be configured to monitor a directory looking for new WAVE files, and automatically process them. It’s also possible to define a set of frequencies and process several SDR I/Q files at once, generating a collection of WAVE files which can then be fed into the decoding software. It can also demodulate to WAVE files, which can then be fed into your decoding software. Select a signal of interest by dragging a rectangle around it with your mouse, and sdrRewind will demodulate and play back the audio, either to your speakers or a virtual audio device feeding a decoder. This is more than adequate to see the various transmissions contained in the recording.

Rather than just play back an SDR recording file, it allows you to select any of your SDR I/Q recording files, and display a waterfall of the entire file at once, as one large waterfall, with a temporal resolution of one second per line. SdrRewind may take a little more explanation. It decodes ALE transmissions from either audio fed into a sound card input (live decoding) or from WAVE audio files.

#Black cat systems dx toolbox full#

In this article, I’ll show how sdrRewind and Black Cat ALE can team up and speed up the process of finding and decoding ALE (Automatic Link Establishment) transmissions.īlack Cat ALE is a full featured multi-channel ALE decoder for Windows and macOS.

#Black cat systems dx toolbox software#

Modern software can dramatically speed up the process. This works, but is a slow process, no better than monitoring in real time. Much of the time, they play the recordings back through their SDR software. Many DXers record large swaths of the radio spectrum, and then go back to analyze the recordings, looking for signals of interest. IPhone app to calculate RF Link Requirements