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[WA1GFZ]

Can't wait for Mercury but my Exciter board arrived Saturday and the software was posted last night. Hope to be making Rf soon. Hopefully Phil will modify his interface to talk to HPSDR.

[KF1Z]

Can't wait for Mercury but my Exciter board arrived Saturday and the software was posted last night. Hope to be making Rf soon. Hopefully Phil will modify his interface to talk to HPSDR.

Phil isn't writing the interface anymore... well not the GUI anyway...

An excited "user" has been doing that lately. (Cathy, from the UK)

Phil is still doing the server and related files (FPGA code etc.)

[W3RSW]

Been looking at Phil Covington's website; sure is one heck of a nice package.

Seems like for awhile there you were getting very significant improvements, almost weekly.

Would you now recommend Phil's board now vs., say, the SDR-IQ?

Had an electronics course in college using complex numbers, etc. in the '60's but did not include quadrature analog splitting and processing.  Read a ton lately thanks to the references and have learned a lot.

Thanks for fleshing out a very informative thread.

[KF1Z]

Well, that's a tough question....

I owned the sdr-iq, as you gathered from the thread....

The major drawback right now, is the QS1R does NOT have a band-pass filter/preamp/atten board...

The IQ it's built-in.

BUT... the IQ is good to 30mhz... the QS1R is good to 60mhz, and also can be used in undersampling apps to 300ish mhz.


The Spectraview software allows for recording of up to 190khz of RAW RF data (or audio)

Right at the moment, this is not implemented in SDRMAXII for QS1R.
(software changes nearly daily)

At this moment SDRMAXII allows  50mhz panadapted bandwidth!! (neat tool)

That is even greater than the SDR-14.


So....
I would reccomend the QS1R over the SDR-IQ or SDR-14....
With the pre-conception that it WILL be better than either of those in the near future...

I suspect (don't know for sure..) that all the bells and whistles that were planned for the SDR-IQ/14 are already implemented....


You could also follow some of the discussions on the yahoo group....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qs1r/

Bruce


PS
Phil has, with the help of Alberto (I2phd?) added support for Winrad software with QS1R.... preliminary still (there's 2 of us that haven't been able to run it yet...)

[W3RSW]

Very interesting.
Yes, I was perusing Alberto's winrad site and followed the development from 192khz soundcards to direct usb2 porting.   Also the yahoo group..... "8 of us have gotten it to work, sort of... "  What fun.

Your comments are very helpful.  This is going to be challanging.  Not wishing to dedicate ever more expensive and faster computers to my computer junkque museum, I'm looking into stand alone SDR's too.  Lots of neat stuff appearing out there.

But for some reason Phil's site seems to be the most edgy, heh, heh.  I don't know why, but I'm partial to stuff from Ohio State.  Years ago I toured there when they were running an experiment approaching absolute zero by the method of nuclear magnetic resonance of paramagnetic salts.  I remember picking up a board (about the only thing I was immediately familiar with) and one of the techs said, "yeah, thats a power supply, very dirty...."  Boy was I impressed; that's the world I wanted to enter.   .. "dirty power supplies" no less.

[KF1Z]

Rick,
Just in case you're worried about having to have a super computer to run QS1R...

You don't need one!

The QS1R is NOT a veracious cpu/memory eater...

Most of the work is handled by the Cyclone III Fpga on the board.

I run a AMD 64 Athlon x2 , 2.7ghz  dual core proccessor, and 2gb ram.
(with windows xp SP3)

And the memory usage is normally around 47mb, and cpu load around 15-20%


I think there are folks using 1ghz, single core machines and they work fine.

The processing is much different than things like the Flexradio (soundcard based).


I didn't check cpu/ram load while running the 50mhz  BW sample rate, but I am ALWAYS running internet and other apps at the same time ( only have the one 'puter)


(Eventually the QS1R will be able to run "stand alone")



Anyway, I thought I'd add that info.....


Bruce

[W3RSW]

Thanks Bruce, yeah it looks like a 1 gig machine is adequate if'n your running all that stuff at once on your maching. I think you mentioned most of that to someone in an earlier reply on this thread.  Phil's SDR board seems to have way more bang for the buck in not only the ADC specs but FPGA performance and from your remarks and the yahoo thread his and Cathy's software is fast catching up.

Sat in the sun y'day, and read thoroughly Richard Lyon's "Quad. Signals, Complex, But Not Complicated."  Not only was it well written but clarified a lot of the math I'd had some time ago. The diagrams were excellent.

 Believe it or not the first problem in chapter two, "Alternating Current Circuit Analysis" of my old electronics text is, "Prove that e^ja = cos a + j sin a," where a is the angle of the vector.  Well Richard's paper brought all that back with a crash, thence leading into quadrature E "very elegantly."

Hey, I see they call vectors, "phasors" these days ; carry over from "Star Wars?"... just kidding.

I sure don't want to go the appliance route to SDR's.  Many, of course, are awaiting development; there is a valid market there, but I think you learn a lot more with a 'component,' build it and understand it approach. 

Unfortunately, it sounds like a lot of the learning curve hangs up on the same old PC thing though.. .conflicitng drivers, interfaces, hanging operating systems, etc. Too bad but that's the world of software denizens.  I've always been more of a hardware guy.  "Computer Smyth" was my bag...; it got superceeded, of course by the blizzard of post 68000 technology.

[WA1GFZ]

all SDR configurations are limited by the preselector performance. Need about 40 db more  dynamic range to get past it. Phil makes The best so far.

[W3RSW]

Yeah, your right. An outstanding product.
Finally soaked up Wepman and Hoffman's "RF and IF Digitization...", the one that HUZZ said was somewhat dated.  It clarified stuff from a more practical standpoint.
 I've requested to join the Yahoo group and am seriously considering buying Phil's board.  Curious like you to see what his preselector board's going to look like - and cost too, of course.

[W3RSW]

Took the plunge Bruce.
 - Phil's Board's on order.
Sounds like the software's improving by orders of magnitude into a very fine SDR.

For starters, I'll lash up some 500kc bandpass filters for 160, 80 and 40.  Shouldn't take much at rcvr. power levels.

Hey, even a "zeroth" order LC circuit, somewhat single signal couldn't hurt to play with.

3's,
Rick

[KF1Z]

Rick...  Cool, I think you'll like it....

Don't know if you realize yet, or not....

Phil HAS NOT come up with a way to mute the thing yet!
(I mean for use with a transmitter...)

I asked him about it, and he's trying to come up with a good way to do it..

Right now, I'm just using the normal relay at the RX, and using the "mute" button in the software... so, 2-switch operation for now...


I may stick a relay at the soundcard output to make for 1 switch op.



I still haven't figured out how Phil didn't design that into the board...>?

Oh well.... one simple shortcoming...



BTW, today I tried to use my Icom R-75, which I WAS pretty happy with...

In QSO with Steve..QIX, and a couple of others... Nick, kg2ir, Terry PFY etc...

And I couldn't stand the audio!!!

I HAD to switch back to the QS1R, before my ears started to bleed...


The QS1R is now FAR superior to the Icom R-75....


Bruce g

[WA1GFZ]

Bruce I was making 30 khz wide audio on AM with Penny yesterday. BTW Today HPSDR Phil told us about the new A/D converters coming out with even better performance. He also said his exciter is running.

[KF1Z]

He hasn't mentioned the exciter for quite a while on the qs1r group....
Then only said "It is planned..."

The last time frame he gave on the filter/pre-amp board expires in the next week or so.. but no news on that yet either..

I suspect that things are moving a little slower than he hoped...



Cool on Penny.... strap a quick and dirty 10 watt leenear on it... and I bet I'd be able to work you ... 
Might take a whole hour to build...

500mw probly won't quite make it.

[KF1Z]

Frank,
Just went to hpsdr list archives and found Phil's posts that you referenced...

Interesting...

He mentions recording his I/Q files to replay through his exciter...


The I/Q recording/playback feature is supposed to be added to the software he releases, but we haven't seen it yet....


All in time I suppose..........

[WA1GFZ]

I plan to get on tonight on 160 with a local. I have a number of different amplifier strips so it will just be a matter of time before I increase power.
Not radio time of the year for me.

[WA1GFZ]

First transmission on 160 went across the yard to the other antenna but didn't make it to w1cki last nithe too much static.

[W3RSW]

a new record !

-transpasture communications no less. 

Yeah, 160's pretty much static land for the next three or four months.  This fall when the great, stalled high's dominate the east we'll be sitting pretty again.

Getting excited waiting for the arrival of Phil's board.

[N1ESE]

Has Phil abandoned HPSDR altogether or is he still working with the group? 

[WA1GFZ]

Phil has a regular post at HPSDR.

[N1ESE]

Yet another SDR receiver -

http://www.ssbusa.com/perseus.html

[WA1GFZ]

That one has been around for about a year and came out of Italy. Also a nice radio but has the earlier 80 MS A/D. They are also HPSDR members.

[N1ESE]

That one has been around for about a year and came out of Italy. Also a nice radio but has the earlier 80 MS A/D. They are also HPSDR members.

Man, so many SDR's out there.  I just found a couple more projects I haven't heard of yet.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Here's one: The WonderRadio kit - http://www.sdrtec.com/index.htm

[KF1Z]

Here's one: The WonderRadio kit - http://www.sdrtec.com/index.htm

Another soundcard based SDR.
(also uses the parrallel port for control.?)

Souncard based SDR is old technology, and is limited.... although interesting, and inexpensive.
(provided you already have a GOOD souncard, and relatively fast computer)

But, at $480... throw that into a leenear, and you'd have an "about as good as a flex" transciever.

Over all, not a bad deal really...


There are dozens of SDR projects out there....
Many of them will rank somewhere between the softrock, and the Flex.
Lots are kits.... yes almost all are SMD.

Some, like the "DDS Controller"  can be used as a reciever, or as a DDS... spectrum analyzer etc.
I bought, and built this one last year... cool kit! (total cost about $175.)
http://wb6dhw.com/AD995x.html
(I believe there are more updated projects now too...)
I am using it as a frequency source mainly... 0 to almost 200mhz...
All controlled by the 'puter, over the usb port.


Lots of neat stuff out there... I have either built or bought 9 different SDRs.
Some really really cheap (softrock), some not so much (QS1R)...
3 were "transcievers".
All fun and/or usefull in their own way.


The key is to start relatively small and inexpensive... then decide where to go from there....

I was really turned off by HAVING to have a computer to have radio....
But now... with my Icom R-75 on ebay (last analog RX I own)......
I don't see turning back..   I'm hooked!

[N1ESE]

But now... with my Icom R-75 on ebay (last analog RX I own)......

Should have bought this when you offered it to me months ago.

I may end up with a QS1R yet.. also leaning towards HPSDR but I dunno.