My modification to Argo

**Ben Hutchinson** · Fri 15th Jul 2011, 04:39

Argo is yet another spectrogram software, and a decent one at that. I tweaked it a bit to make it better though. Tools used were:
Gimp
Photoshop
HxD Hex Editor
Resource Hacker

Attached to the post is a zip file containing my modified version.

**John_D** · Fri 15th Jul 2011, 18:17

Unfortunately I tried this with my VISTA Ultimate and the program crashed.

**Ben Hutchinson** · Sat 16th Jul 2011, 05:10

Try installing a normal copy of Argo, and then replace the EXE file with my version of it.
The original version can be downloaded from here http://www.sdradio.eu/weaksignals/bin/argopak1_134.exe

**G6NHU** · Sat 16th Jul 2011, 09:05

It would be useful to know what your modifications do, screenshots maybe?

**Ben Hutchinson** · Sat 16th Jul 2011, 09:48

The zip file contains a readme file that explains it.

**G6NHU** · Sat 16th Jul 2011, 13:37

I have no computers at the moment, just mobile devices. Would it be too difficult to say here what the tweaks are?

**M0WAO** · Sat 16th Jul 2011, 17:40

A message from the modder, Ben Hutchinson KE7IZL.
Last known official update to Argo was back in 2003 (based on copyright metadata for the EXE file).
It seems the author never got beyond Version 1.0 Revision 134. Using a combination of Gimp,
Photoshop, HxD Hex Editor, and Resource Hacker, I made a few changes to the EXE file which I
consider to be useful. I discovered than instead of just the 3 palettes accessable from the menu,
there are actually a total of 6, but 3 remain unused. Using Photoshop and HxD, I was sweapped the
the last of the 3 of the normal palettes (a multicolor palette) with with another multicolor
palette that I liked better (one of the 3 unused palettes). I replaced the second of the 3 normal
palettes with my own (black-green-white gradient). And lastly, I replaced the first of the normal
palettes with a linear black to white grayscale palette (I'm surprised that wasn't the default in
the original version of the program). Except for the last of the 3 original palettes that I
replaced (which I swapped with one of the unused palettes), I had to make the other 2 in Photoshop
using the gradient tool. I also altered the menu text for selecting palettes to better describe
the palettes.
I also updated the copyright and author info using Resource Hacker, so as to reflect the fact that
I modified it. I still left the original program authors names in, but also added my own name, and
the date I modified it as a secondary copyright. While I give the original software authors full
credit for their program, I also take full credit for the modifications I made to it.

Original palette slots were:
Palette Description Menu Text
#1 black-blue-white Standard
#2 darker version of #1 Darker
#3 blk-blu-grn-ylw-red Lighter

Palette slots after my modifiction are:
Palette Description Menu Text
#1 black-white Darker (Grayscale)
#2 black-green-white Standard (Greenscale)
#3 blk-blu-grn-ylw-red-pnk-wht Lighter (Multicolor)

I've also included a REG file containing my saved settings from the program the last time I used it.
I found these settings to be best over a wide range of signal amplitude levels for a pure sine wave.
This was how I calibrated my settings for it, and figured I'd share it with others who download this
version of the software. Just doubleclick it to add it to the registry before you run the program.
Then it will start up with those settings when you run the program.

**G6NHU** · Sat 16th Jul 2011, 19:49

Thanks for posting that.

Strangely enough, the thing I like most about Argo is the standard palette! I've found that other QRSS capture programs have a palette that no matter what I do, I can't make it look as good as Argo's default blue.

**Ben Hutchinson** · Sun 17th Jul 2011, 18:19

Originally Posted by 2E0WAO

A message from the modder, Ben Hutchinson KE7IZL.
Last known official update to Argo was back in 2003 (based on copyright metadata for the EXE file).
It seems the author never got beyond Version 1.0 Revision 134. Using a combination of Gimp,
Photoshop, HxD Hex Editor, and Resource Hacker, I made a few changes to the EXE file which I
consider to be useful. I discovered than instead of just the 3 palettes accessable from the menu,
there are actually a total of 6, but 3 remain unused. Using Photoshop and HxD, I was sweapped the
the last of the 3 of the normal palettes (a multicolor palette) with with another multicolor
palette that I liked better (one of the 3 unused palettes). I replaced the second of the 3 normal
palettes with my own (black-green-white gradient). And lastly, I replaced the first of the normal
palettes with a linear black to white grayscale palette (I'm surprised that wasn't the default in
the original version of the program). Except for the last of the 3 original palettes that I
replaced (which I swapped with one of the unused palettes), I had to make the other 2 in Photoshop
using the gradient tool. I also altered the menu text for selecting palettes to better describe
the palettes.
I also updated the copyright and author info using Resource Hacker, so as to reflect the fact that
I modified it. I still left the original program authors names in, but also added my own name, and
the date I modified it as a secondary copyright. While I give the original software authors full
credit for their program, I also take full credit for the modifications I made to it.

Original palette slots were:
Palette Description Menu Text
#1 black-blue-white Standard
#2 darker version of #1 Darker
#3 blk-blu-grn-ylw-red Lighter

Palette slots after my modifiction are:
Palette Description Menu Text
#1 black-white Darker (Grayscale)
#2 black-green-white Standard (Greenscale)
#3 blk-blu-grn-ylw-red-pnk-wht Lighter (Multicolor)

I've also included a REG file containing my saved settings from the program the last time I used it.
I found these settings to be best over a wide range of signal amplitude levels for a pure sine wave.
This was how I calibrated my settings for it, and figured I'd share it with others who download this
version of the software. Just doubleclick it to add it to the registry before you run the program.
Then it will start up with those settings when you run the program.

I just noticed several typo's in my Readme, while looking at your copy of it here. This is embarrassing.
Ok, I've fixed that now, and have replaced the attached zip file in the opening post with one that contains a copy of my readme file from which I have removed the typo's.

**Ben Hutchinson** · Sat 23rd Jul 2011, 20:00

Ok, I've now produced an improved REG file for settings with what is in my mind a better default with a better dynamic range. Previously the same setting where a pure sinewave reached maximum amplitude the brightness on a spectral line just maxed out, but a signal spread in bandwidth (any modulated signal) would look dimmer (often much dimmer) than maximum on any one spectral line (even though the waveform itself was at maximum amplitude for the soundcard). To combat this problem I created several additional settings including a wide dynamic range (WDR) setting by adjusting the the contrast and sensitivity controls, which I now use as my default. I also created 4 different AGC settings. 3 of them use various combinations of sensitivity and brightness that are less than WDR, and one uses the specific combination contrast and sensitivity settings used with WDR (thus WDR+AGC), which is also a very good setting, and in some cases seems to be better than WDR by itself.

This set of settings has again been exported from Regedit as a REG file. This new REG file has now replaced the original REG file in my zip file. The new zip file has now been attached to this thread's opening post, in place of the earlier zip file.

However the way my settings work well in Argo may very well (at least in part) have to do with my computer's general sound settings. For reference, here's my computer's sound in settings.

And sound output settings (and of course I used my computer's sound output to test its sound input).