So, I love my Flex Radio 5000A. I love PowerSDR, and I love everything about operating a software defined radio. However, it always bugged me that the PowerSDR software comes with the US band plans loaded, because there is a BIG difference between their plans and the rest of IARU Region 2, much less ours (Canada’s). So, I spent a couple of hours with the RAC Band Plans and K9DUR’s Band Text Editor and modified the XML database to reflect Canada’s Amateur Radio Band Plans for 160m – 70cm (excl. 1.25m). This mod will work with any version of PowerSDR that uses the XML database file.
Go to the Downloads page to get the file.
To install these mods:
- Close PowerSDR and turn off your Flex Radio.
- Find and open your PowerSDR XML database file.
- If you’re running Windows XP, you’ll find this at “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\FlexRadio Systems\PowerSDR vX.X.X\database_fXK_SERIAL#.xml”
- If you’re running Windows 7 or later, you’ll find this at “C:\users\username\AppData\Roaming\FlexRadio Systems\PowerSDR vX.X.X\database_fXK_SERIAL#.xml”
- Make a backup of that XML file.
- Find all entries starting with <BANDTEXT> and </BANDTEXT> and select/highlight it all.
- Open the bandplan,txt file you’ve downloaded from this site.
- Select and copy all of the text from bandplan.txt
- Switch over to your PowerSDR XML file (where you have selected the appropriate text) and paste the data you’ve copied.
- Save the file.
- Turn on your Flex Radio, and start PowerSDR.
You should now see the appropriate RAC Band Plan labels when using PowerSDR going forward. Keep the bandplan.txt file in case you need to perform these steps after future upgrades. If you have any problems, feel free to contact me and I’ll see what I can do to help you.
vy 73 de VA3QR