Never write another reception report again!
An important milestone in computer technology for the radio hobbyist has been reached. The drudgery of having to spend hours listening to shortwave radio stations to pick out sufficient program details in order to write a reception report to get a QSL card has finally ended.
Introducing the Fabulous Automated Networked Confirmation Organizer
This revolutionary new software has several components:
After installation of the software, connect your radio to your computer with an audio cable. FANCO then listens to the received audio, and determines what songs are being played (similar to Soundhound and Shazam) as well as using speech recognition to transcribe spoken text and station IDs. Advanced DSP technology eliminates all forms of noise and QRM, allowing for perfect copy even under poor SIO 111 conditions. An interval signal detector is also available, so stations can be instantly ID'd.
By adding the appropriate serial link cable between the computer and radio, FANCO can tune the radio, following a table of station schedules to listen to. Much like programming a VCR, you can specify what broadcasts to listen to and request QSL cards for. WWV propagation information can also be used to automatically select the optimum frequency for each station.
When a Software Defined Radio (SDR) is connected to FANCO, even more capability is realized. FANCO can directly process the output of the SDR in real time, scanning thousands of radio frequencies. This allows it to immediately identify each transmission, cross checking against the built in database of transmissions. The speech recognition software can also directly ID the station, in case the transmission is not in the schedule database, or is a station such as a pirate. Reception reports for each station received are automatically generated and sent. This allows the user to potentially send hundreds of reception reports per hour.
An add on package for amateur radio stations is also under development, and is scheduled for release by field day. In addition to automatically identifying every ham radio station the air at once, there is also a Contesting Mode. The software takes control of your transceiver, and runs the entire contest for you, contacting stations, taking details and serial numbers, and then computing your finally tally and sending out the data. Less time in the shack, and more time watching Rockford Files reruns.
A companion software package is also available for station operators. It parses the received reception report emails, and verifies the logging details. By using the same audio analysis software, it is also able to check audio recordings attached to the email, to confirm the recording is of the station. Once all of the details are confirmed, an eQSL card is automatically generated with the listener name, date, time, frequency, and other details, and sent back via reply email. The entire process takes a matter of seconds.
Use of both of these programs simultaneously allows for complete automation of the process. Computers on both ends handle everything, completely eliminating the need for human involvement. The 21st century of shortwave radio listening has finally arrived!
For those favoring a more traditional approach, Virtual Knobs are also available. These knobs plug into your computer, and while they don't actually have any effect on what the software does, they do provide the illusion of control and participation in the listening process. By the end of the year, an optional Boatanchor package will also be available. This 175 pound solid steel box contains 23 simulated vacuum tubes. It does not improve reception in any way, but does require 15 minutes of wait time to warm up, and also increases drift in received signals.
Fabulous Automated Networked Confirmation Organizer is available for Windows 3.1 through Windows 10, MacOS 7.6 through macOS Sierra, every version of Linux and BSD known to exist, MSDOS, as well as CP/M.
Topic: Fabulous Automated Networked Confirmation Organizer (Read 4194 times)
