Qt-DAB-6,8

Since the first version of 6.X was uploaded, a lot of changes were made. One of the - for me - more annoying things was the mess that was made of the "ini" file. So, one of the changes is that the structure of the ini file was (re)designed, and
made into clean paragraphs.
The drawback is that the new ini file is not compatible with the old one, therefore the ini file for the 6.8 version is named differently.
It means (a.o) that settings done for older versions - in particular the home position for using the TII decoding - has to be redone.

When starting the first time, a warning will appear to indicate that the home location is to be filled in.

A second visible change is that the software now records for each channel the service selected, and - on re-enetering the channel -
will (try to) restart the service.

As before, files generated by the software, i.e. slides if they are saved, the tii text file and the log file - if enabled - appear in the folder (or directory ffor Linux) "Qt-DAB-files", in the user's home directory.
The configuration and control idget has a button "path" when touched, allows setting a different path for that file

Minor addition: I found out that some young people had trouble figuring out which direction e.g. 330 degrees azimut was,
so I added a compass to the dxDisplay, showing the direction of the strongest signal, i.e. the one used in processing

12-11 small update, some settings in the new ini file were incorrectly handled
15-11 updates, some scanning functions did not work, skip (or scan)table handling modified and corrected

Qt-DAB-6.X

The sources in the previous version of this release dated from April, and, while writing, it is ctober. Too many changes have been applied to consider those sources as truly indicating the 6.X release as it has been developed.

While 6.X is considered to be a (more or less) stable release, from time to time some updates are applied. Since April we had the addition of better TPEG handling, journaline processing, removing some errors, adding a DX button, etc etc.

For (most likely) current and future functionality, look at the README and the manual.
The precompiled version have - as usual - the code for accessing and uploading the TII database included, as well as support
for most devices that are known to me. The manual is updated and now contains even an appendix telling how to add a device to the implementation. Note that soapy is not installed in the AppImage, due to compatibility problems with the soapy libraries on different distributions

The precompiled versions (and the manual) date from october 12
small update : a lower limit is set on the spinbox for TII thresholds, setting that to 0 is not allowed.
Small update: rewrite of the "log" handling, the log is written in the logFile
Small update: addition of a "folder" icon that - when touched - tells the system to show the folder/directory where Qt stores the generated data, such as the tii file, the log file, audiofiles etc
15-10: small error that prohibited functioning of appimage on U24
17-10 display of largest distance on the map
21-10 issue with mono solved
30-10 fresh appimage uploaded

Qt-DAB-6.5

After some time indicating the version as Beta. it is now time to freeze the functionality and move on.
Copared to the most recent Beta version there are not mmany changes.

The changes are such that maintaining V4 was not realistic, saving V5 succeeded.
As usual (for some time now) there are two 32 bit windows versions, one with support for V4 dabsticks (which seems to
make the software a little deaf when using older type dabsticks) and one for support for V3.

The 64 bit Windows version is compiled with V4 support in. The known issue is that in this versions not all types of slide can be displayed.

Further development will be done in the version in the directory "qt-dab-RC"

Qt-DAB 6.5Beta

Qt_DAB 6.5Beta is the logical successor of 6.40. The most important visible change is the "double view" in what was the ensemble list. The list now shows either the ensemble list - with a mark for those services that are included in the favorites list - or the
favorites list - with for each service the channel where it was found.
Furthermore, Qt_DAB now has support for accessing a spyServer (although one needs quite some bandwidth to use it).

It turned out that some virus scanners (falsely) detected something in the Windows installers. Removing all optimization flags in the compilation seems to have solved that. Of course the Linux AppImage is optimized maximally.

As usual, two windows installers (with different libraries included for RTLSDR V4 support and for support of only older versions) and an AppImage for use in Linux x64, a manual is updated and included in the sourcetree and in the list below.

The installer 6.5Beta contains the RTLSDR library supporting the V4 versions, the installer with V3 in its name has support for the older sticks.

As (almost always) some virusscanners (Windows of course) merk the 6.5 installers as infected, most don't.
Since with 6.40 no such signals were received, I added a freshly compiled 6.40 version - generated with the same tools, the same source tree, with the only difference in the GUI handler - and a 64 bit version (from the latter it is known that it does not handle all slide formats. If your virusscanner does not show the same behaviour on the latter 2, be convinced that it is a false positive.
All versions presented here are built on the same day, from the same sourcetree with the same toolset

In the most recent updates an erroneous rounding in the computation of distances and corners was corrected and the color selection was changed: it turned out that Qt provides a menu for that.
Firthermore, the color of the font used for showing the name of the selected service and the dynamic Label can now be set by clicking on the name of the selected service (just above the slide position)

Qt-DAB-6.40

In Qt-DAB 6.40 a transition is being prepared to move from 32 bit Windows programs to 64 bits.
In the release the scanning code was largely rewritten and the scan button on the main widget now only controls the visibility of a scan-monitor. Furthermore, the number of buttons on the main widget is reduced. While the schedule button is moved to the configuration and control widget, the content button, the technical widget button and the mute button are replaced by "clickable labels", resp. the label containing the ensemble name for the content button, the label containing the selected service name for the technical display, and the newly introduced speaker label for the mute button.

The label indicating the computer load disappeared, as well the the label telling the estimated TII. After all, the name of the transmitter is given - if available - on the bottom line of the widget

This repo contains two 32 bit versions, one for the rtlsdrV4 library, the other one for the "old" V3 library. The 64 bit version is compiled with the library for the rtlsdr V4 devices

Note
The latest AppImage has - experimental - a device entry "spyServer" and is a development to use the excellent spyserver software for remotely accessing devices like rtlsdr and airspy. Obviously, the Airspy HF will be refused as device since it cannot provide the minimum required samplerate (the Airspy one will do of course).

With some help from Youssef (Airspy) a (very) first version of the device interface for the spyserver is now also running under
windows (the regular 32-6.40 version). There are 2 instances, one for a 16 bit transfer and one for 8 bit.

Be aware of the bandwidth: the datastream contains samples with a rate of 2.5MS/s. Using the 16 bit transfer, there are 4 bytes per sample (two int16 values), so the bitrate will be close to 80Mb/s. Using the 8 bit transfer, the rate is app halved of course, however, the samples are less accurate.

I added an experimental version, labeled with "E". The main difference with previous versions is that the ensembleList is replaced by a table that contains
a. the currently active ensemble,
b. the remaning elements of the favorites

To be able to distinguish, the table has three columns, the second one tells the channel, the third one is a marker, if set the service is (also) part of the list of favorites.
Of course, if a service from the current ensemble is also a favorite, it is then marked as such but it does not appear a second time in the list.
Note that selecting a service from the favorites (in another example) will show a reordering of the list

Comments are welcome

Qt-DAB 6.30

Since 6.25 there are many changes, internally and visible, so it was time to freeze a release.
The most significant visible change is that what was called presets is now renamed "favorites" and is places in a
separare widget. Adding a servicename to the favorites is simplified: under normal settings, clicking with the right mouse button
on a service name in the ensemble window or in the scan list widget will add that name to the favorites.
Since this change was added to the 4 and 5 version as well, there are renamed.

Having the right library for the dabsticks seems to be an issue, that is why the (Windows) V6.30 is available in two versions, the regular 6.30 version uses the library that was developed for a.o the V4 dabsticks, the Qt-DAB V3 version has built-in support for the "old"
driver for "older" versions of the support library for rtlsdr based devices. Note that the 2 versions are identical, apart from the library that is linked in, their appearance is also identical. The Windows V4 and V5 versions are linked with the "old" support library.

For Linux x64 there are appimages, created on an Ubuntu 20 running VM.

The manual (attached) is updated to reflect the changes (well, at least hopefully).
A separate document exists - also attached - that gives some guidelines on building an executable. Note that it is
written on the afore mentioned U20 system, libraries may have other names on other distros. That document contains
a section on how to add a device to the list of supported devices.

Note that the Qt-DAB system supports interfaces to various devices, the approach is that by selecting a device, an attempt is
made to read the required functions from the device library, so the device libraries themselves are NOT included in the
precompiled Linux versions. They are included in the Windows installers though (that is why there are 2 versions)

While having "skin"s is nice, there was one drawback. On deselecting a service in the ensemble display, the font of the deselected service was made black. While for most of the skins the background is black, it meant that the servicename was essentially invisible. The default setting now is "white". In the ".ini" file you can set the default servicename color to whatever you want with "fontColor=XXX", where the XXX stands for a stringname of a color. Version 6.30 - both the W installer and the AppImage included - contains on the configuration and control widget a button for setting the color. Note that the versions 4 and 5 will use that color.

Just a minor update, not enough for a new version number
Latest update: issue in scheduling,.

Qt-DAB 6.1

Qt-DAB 6.1 replaces 6.0. Apart from many changes in the code (invisible), there are a few mods made to the GUI.
A number of changes - the invisible ones - had effect of the 4.7 and 5.4 version as well.

Qt-DAB versions 4.7/5.4

The 4/7/5.4 version(s) differ slightly from the previous versions. First of all a few errors were removed, second, the history handler
is replaced by a handler for scanlists. The history - well funny - turned out to be less usefull when working from different
places, with different ensembles on the same channels.

The basic idea is that on scanning (single scan), a list with service names is generated and displayed in the scanlist. New is that touching a service name in this list with the mouse and a right hand mouse click, the service name is added to the preset list.
The configuration and control widget has a selector. When set, the scan list is empties on starting the scan.

Qt-DAB versions 4 and 5

An old plan was to upgrade the dabMini program, just an interface as simple as possible, just for listening to a service
Implementation of that plan ended up in a new GUI for Qt-DAB, and a version next tot 4.4

While called V5, it is functionally the same as the 4.4 version, just with a new front. Basically almost all controls are shifted to the
configuration window (which is called configuration and control window), and just a few buttons for interacting are left on the
main widget.
So, V5 is not a replacemement, and updates to the 4 version will - at least for now - be numbered 4.x.x

To be complete, I generated AppImages and Windows installers for both the 4 and 5 version.

Note that the qt-dab-5 version now has support for generating eti files. If there is (lots of)m interest, I'' add the same
functionality to the 4.4. version

I run under Windows the 4 and 5 versions next to each other, they have different identifications.
Note that the appImages and Windows installers are made from the most recent sources, not the sources in this
release version

The most recent versions are "coloured:, thanks to a Qt-stylesheet

The build from 27/10 has - apart from an additional checkbox for saving/not saving slides - support for the SDRplay v3 that is
(almost completely) rewritten and provides now also the C antenna for the RSPDx

Qt-DAB-4.4.1

A number of mods was made to map handling.
The most recent one is that selecting a transmitter on the map will show some details on the right side of the map window.
There are two types of "dots" for transmitters, transmitters in the current channel get a real "dot", the transmitters belonging to
previously selected channels another marker.
The configuration widget lets you choose between automatically starting a browser of touching http select, or manually, the current version here has a checkbox to select the option
and it lets you choose between viewing only the transmitters on the map of the current channels of also those encountered when visiting
other channels.
I did not change the pictures in the manual, may be later

READ THIS AS (WINDOWS) USER A recent change was to put the main widget always on top. This may cause problems: Windows creates new widgets in the center of the screen, the main widget, if positioned there, remains on top! Note that if the newly created widget asks for confirmation, and the main widget is (still) located in the center, you have a serious problem: you cannot move the main widget, and therefore cannot answer the question so everything will be blocked
While furthermore I do not want the main widget on top when doing other things, e.g. reading something or programming, so I added a
check box to the config widget to select or deselect the option. NOTE HOWEVER THAT THIS IS ONLY EFFECTIVE WITH THE NEXT PROGRAM INVOCATION