03 November 2008
Perseus and Vista 64bit (Unsigned Drivers)
If you have Vista 64bit then by now you have found out that the drivers for the Perseus hardware are not signed and as a result you cannot install the device under Vista.
Now a warning, I'm not liable if following this breaks your computer. You do it at your own risk, but I haven't broken anything from doing this trick in the many times I've done it, and on multiple PCs to install programs that did not come with signed drivers.
There are however a couple of workarounds that will allow unsigned drivers to install BUT there are a couple of points to remember. This is a workaround and as such requires some skills with a PC, if you're not happy playing about inside the OS then it is best left until the signed drivers are released, if you are happy about making changes then read on.
Firstly, there are some updates to the 64-bit OS that enforce the check for signed drivers.
KB932596
KB938979
KB941649
KB943078
And of course SP1*
If this is a clean installation of Vista, don't install them. If they are already installed, un-install them from the control panel and reboot.
Now open a command prompt with elevated privileges - you can do this by right clicking the cmd shortcut or if you have the command prompt on the start menu as a shortcut right click that and choose 'Run As Administrator', with a command window open type or paste this command into the window:
bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
Once you have run this command close the window and reboot the PC. You now should and without having to press F8 at boot time be able to load unsigned drivers.
There are other commands that work as well as this on pre SP1 Vista 64bit installs. From an elevated command prompt you can try:
bcdedit.exe /set nointegritychecks ON
-or-
bcdedit.exe /set TESTSIGNING ON
People I have spoken with have had various luck with either or all of these commands. I assume that different installs need different methods!
* Please Note: This hack does not work for systems running SP1.
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02 November 2008
Griffin Tuning Wheel - Perseus and Vista
If you're running a PC with Perseus and you want a little extra control over the 'radio' tuning then the Griffin Powermate is a fantastic multimedia USB device to use.
You can set the Powermate to tune up and down and move the tuning steps in the display window in the Perseus software.
Under Vista if you're running as a 'User' with UAC enabled you may need to right click the start-up short cut and choose 'Run As Administrator' for it to work properly. Make sure you also download the latest drivers from the Griffin website. The ones on the CD that come with them (even now) are older and do not work under Vista properly.
To set-up the Griffin to work with Perseus follow these steps:
- Open Perseus.
- Right click the Powermate icon in the taskbar and choose 'Powermate Editor'.
- Click 'Applications' then click 'Add'.
- You will see perseus in the task list, click it once, then click 'Ok'.
- Then highlight perseus in the left hand Applications list and setup the options for the wheel as the below picture shows:
Once you have the same as above just close the Powermate editor window. Your settings will be saved.
Now go to the Perseus software and focus the mouse over the main FFT window. Once done the Powermate wheel should tune up and down in the steps you have chosen as the default for the mode you're using.
To change the step move the mouse cursor over to the frequency display and then hold down the Powermate while tuning the wheel - the mouse will move left or right and that's how you choose the step - release the middle button and then the wheel should tune the digits up and down that you have highlighted.
It tales some getting used to! But is worth the effort if you need the feel of a real knob to tune. In Windows by default the Powermate wheel does the volume up and down, a short press to mute and a longer press to sleep or hibernate.
The latest Powermate (XP/Vista) drivers are located here and there are some listings on eBay here should you fancy getting a hold of one or try your local PC retailer. Note: You can get a black or a silver Powermate - they are both the same just the black one is a little more expensive and MUCH harder to purchase.
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Perseus YouTube Videos
A collection of YouTube videos that feature the Perseus SDR receiver. Once I have the recorder software working properly under Vista I will post some home brew videos of SDR DXing.
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22 October 2008
Perseus Converter 1.01 Available
This program was known as PRSMaker and can be used to convert a CSV list (like the one from http://www.eibi.de.vu/ or one built by yourself) into a eibi.txt and userlist.txt compatible TXT file.
Version 1.01 is now available which can be downloaded here: http://guindasoft.impreseweb.com/radio/radio.html
This version fixes a formatting problem in the TXT file which caused the Language and the Remarks information in the MEM window under Perseus to display incorrectly.
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04 October 2008
ITU-R Terrestrial Monitoring
If you're a utility DXer you might be familiar with the ITU database, it is a free service from the ITU-R Terrestrial Monitoring service which they publish to the web.
The files are in PDF or DBF format and are free to anyone to download. You will need a PDF reader or support for DBase files. Most versions of Microsoft Excel should be ok and OpenOffice will work for Unix users.
The file header has all the details you need to work out the abbreviations they have used.
They are updated on a semi regular basis, you can download them from here. The archived records go back to the 1st Jan 1997 and include HF broadcast, utility and unknowns.
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