Cross Country Wireless, UK have just released a new SDR receiver and SDR program. The Sentinel 2 SDR receiver is based on the SDR-4+ receiver covering 0.85 to 70.5 MHz but uses CAT control emulating an Elecraft K3 over a USB serial port. Using a USB serial port driver that can be easily installed either by download or Windows Update avoids any installation problems. Using CAT control also allows the Sentinel 2 to be used with existing SDR programs like HDSDR and also directly with CW Skimmer and other digital mode programs. The web page includes three YouTube videos showing operation and a quick view of the settings with the Sentinel SDR, CW Skimmer and HDSDR programs. The price remains the same as the SDR-4+ receiver which will continue in production for the foreseeable future. The Sentinel 2 receiver has the same relay switched RF filters and RF overload protection up to 150 W as the SDR-4+. Cross Country Wireless have also released the Sentinel SDR program. This uses CAT control to control the Sentinel 2 but it also has some interesting features. From the web page: As the Sentinel 2 is a true zero IF receiver clicking on the display moves the frequency of interest to the center of the display. The display is 48 kHz wide and there is a zoom facility to enlarge the display to 12 kHz wide with greater resolution. This is particularly useful for CW operation as clicking on a CW signal moves it into the filter which can be a narrow as 50 Hz. A fine tuning knob with 10 Hz steps is perfect for precision tuning and is ideal for use with touchscreens and mouse operation. In addition frequency entries can be made by typing the frequency into any of the Memory, VFO-A or VFO-B text boxes and clicking recall or update. In Memory 1, 2 and 3 clicking on Save saves the current frequency for later use. Transceiver split or crossband operation is already ready for use. Options to pause the display to save CPU cycles and change the display color to black and white are also included. A UTC clock in the top program bar and a button to the latest Space Weather bulletin complete the program features. The program also has the latest version of the CCW HF noise measurement software so that it can be used to send local RF noise data to the RSGB HF noise measurement campaign. This program can be used with Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10 and is freeware. The software also has transmitter functions for the development of new SDR transceivers. A remote PTT port on port 8500 allows the SDR program to interface directly with CCW APRS Messenger and Digital Messenger programs without any messy unreliable comm port bodges. The web links to the new web pages are: Sentinel 2 receiver http://www.crosscountrywireless.net/sentinel_2_sdr.htm Sentinel SDR program http://www.crosscountrywireless.net/sentinel_sdr_program.htm
