I have a Perseus, but want to do some stuff that isn't possible with the std GUI software.
Initially, I want to choose a bunch of frequencies to track & record the signal strength of a signal on a frequency, 24x7. Since carriers aren't exactly _right_ on a specified frequency, need to have a sludge factor of +/- 100 Hz to find the thing nearby and then track it. If it goes beyond +/- 100 Hz, then it can be forgotten about.
The input would be a list of frequencies and a name of the log file. The output would be the frequency, date, time, and signal level. Maybe shift from listed frequency, but since my Perseus doesn't have one of those high precision oscillators, I wouldn't put too much into adding freq drift.
In the GUI, the Perseus can go up to 1600 kHz of bandwidth received & demodulated, but they have a little program that displays the entire 0-40 MHz spectrum, but not in great detail. Which tells me this thing can go very wide, but in limited means. All I want is amplitude. If I have to restrict to 1600 kHz, well, not ideal, but will still work with that.
Down the road... want to do more and be able to specify freq + bandwidth and record AM/SAM signals. Scattered across the band, possibly simultaneously on a schedule.
And all via CLI only, on Mac, FreeBSD and/or Linux. No fancy GUI nonsense.
So The Question® is, where to begin?
I have a book on DSP, can do Perl and some minor hacking in C.
While I'd like to use the Perseus since I already have it, I would not object to buying a less expensive SDR that may be easier to program.
Would also like to get an SDR with the 10 MHz reference to study the frequencies of the stations, incl the time & freq standards. How does WWV's signal shift by the time it gets here?
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