JAGUAR FOR MW

"THE FUTURE OF DX IS HERE"

Introduction to Jaguar SDR - Ilpo Parviainen

INTRO

"Jaguar is hyper assisted DXing. It's like fishing in open ocean with a huge net which is also selecting your preys. Its easiness for recognising offsets and the huge database embedded means he knows before you what's on the dial and tells you where to go and catch it. It's only patience and luck (for the id, eventually), no intuition and very little experience needed. The main expertise you need is to grasp all the software tools for maximum efficiency. It has been invented in Scandinavia, where conditions are such that almost every night you can fill some Terabytes, and you would need to live 1000 years to review all of it.

If SDR vs live DXing killed a good part of emotion in this hobby, Jaguar is finishing the job."


NOT REALLY...

Jaguar can be used also without the extensions - and just for plain live DXing as well. And the emotion has not disappeared anywhere, on the contrary: we believe that station hunting with Jaguar is as exciting as before - and actually MUCH MORE FUN. And I could bet a big sum for an experienced MW DXer getting bigger fish than a rookie also with Jaguar !


IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS NOTHING BUT ROCK ...

Those were the days ! Since the early days of DXing up to early 2000's things were pretty much the same in DXing - the rock solid combination of "Man and Radio". And a logbook. Along the timeline the hunger for DX results increased: one receiver was not enough, In LEM248 back in 2007 we had 2-4-8 rigs (I had 2, JHU 4 and RS 8 receivers running simultaneously).


... BUT THEN LEIF HELPED US IN INVENTING THE WHEEL AND THINGS JUST BEGAN TO ROLL ...

The Stone Age of MW DXing ended around 2004-2005 when the first SDR hardware appeared to the consumer market. A few years later Microtelecom's Perseus appeared and amazed the MW DX community with its performance - still today it is one of the best MW SDR's available.

Back in 2010 I got my own piece of Perseus hardware but the Perseus software was way too clumsy for my taste. I wondered if something could be done for it and decided to study DSP related things on the Internet. I didn't realize back then that this decision defined my own future for years to come: since that I have spent much more time with programming than DXing itself.

Early steps:

- Initial steps with the support of Leif sbrink

- Not so much BLOOD, but lots of SWEAT and some TEARS

- Big moment: first demodulated signal out - AIR Delhi 666 - "Me happy"

- First version in 2012: Better GUI "for myself and my radio team mates"

- In the next few years jungle drum has brought new users every year

Hectic development, experiments, failures - but also victories !


WHAT IS JAGUAR TODAY ?

"Community driven software development project for Perseus SDR hardware"

- For Windows only

- V5 published in Q1/2020, V6 in Q4/2020 and the V7 prototype in Q1/2021

- Written in low level C (using Win32 API, GDI, GDI+ and OpenGL)

- The number of code lines: ??????

- A very small executable size: V7 JAGUAR.exe is only 701kB ("KISSF" - Keep it Simple, Slim and Fast)

- Two Jaguar versons available: Jaguar Lite (freeware) and Jaguar Pro ("feeware", 150+ users)

- Keeping low profile (no marketing etc) but ...

... everyone who is interested is welcome to the Jaguar Team


WHY JAGUAR ?

General purpose SDR software vs. Medium Wave dedicated software

We have redesigned everything from the scratch

.... Jaguar doesn't look or feel like an SDR

Jaguar looks more like a PC game than a "scientific software"

.... We are trying to fade out all "engineering"

Jaguar has 24x7 runtime support (including Windows OS update toleration and a special powersave mode for battery driven setups)

Generic SDR software (HDSDR, SDR Uno, SDR Console, etc): excellent support for live playback and single archive file playback but struggling if you have 5TB disk full of recordings ....

... but Jaguar instead ...

"The more you have recordings, the better Jaguar will serve you"


HOW TO USE JAGUAR ?

Four usage modes (can be combined):

- Standard ("mouse clicks")

- Mouse wheel scrolling (lots of "scrollers" in jaguar)

- Keyboard key shortcuts

- Mouse as a remote controller (full control without touching the keyboard or moving the mouse cursor)


In addition:

- The simplest SDR player ever created: "MIDGET"


WHAT'S SO REVOLUTIONARY IN JAGUAR ?

The big change in MW DXing: Eyes have become as important as ears.

For a MW DXer overnight history spectrum images are like X-ray images for a doctor: if you notice an anomaly in the image, it is an alert to a doctor and a MW DXer (bad thing for the patient, good thing for the DXer).


CHALLENGES

-"Steep learning curve"

.... But after the initial shock users normally notice that Jaguar is actually easier than any other SDR software

.... However if user is a perfectionist and wants to understand and use every feature => then there's a steep learning curve (nobody masters all the features included - but nobody needs them all)

- Skills, time, documentation

- Keeping every user happy (!)


CRITICS

- "Hyper assisted" - "Here's a new catch for you, Sir"

- "Too different ..."

- "Too difficult...." -- Note: If someone finds a way to implement any Jaguar feature in an easier way, it will be implemented that way!


KUDOS

- Nico "Marconi of the Modern Times" Palermo for Perseus
- G nter Lorenz for the wonderful work for www.mwlist.org
- Leif sbrink for the help in the beginning
- Pelle Orinius for the free world class C compiler

- And especially ALL THE GUYS in the Jaguar Team: Jaguar has become (and is still becoming) better and better thanks to your ideas, suggestions and support


WHAT'S NEXT ?

From V7 onwards ...

- Audio and spectrum enhancements

- Studies on space wx vs. real MW cx correlation

- Finding the successor for Perseus hardware

- Logging and database related development

- Multiple Jaguar instances on one PC

- More MW spectrum tools

- ... and much more ... !


AND AFTER THAT ?

Video clips ! Integrating visual elements to our audio clips for YouTube videos and reception reports => software that assists you to become the director of your own video clips.

BCOS Example #1

BCOS Example #2

BCOS Example #3

BCOS Example #4


SUMMARY

Jaguar project is exploring the final frontiers in our dear hobby and developing ...

... The best tools for station hunting on MW

... Documentation for saving and presenting DX results

... "Alien Technology" in DXing

Our team is enjoying 'Jaguar Sound, Love and Life' today because

"None a wi nuh know weh
tomorrow may bring cah Di
future deh hours away
Jaguar Sound imma live dem life today
kolah live dem life today"



73 / IPA