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n3lrx
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« on: December 19, 2006, 09:27:32 PM » |
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I ordered a SoftRock today.
That should be allot of fun to play with. I haven't checked into the Linux version of the software yet, but I've still got an XP box at home that I can use it on until I can figure it out on Linux. Hopefully the old klunker Linux box that I use as my Mail Server has enough horsepower to run it if not in full graphics mode at least maybe as a background service to record on demand so I can start keeping air-checks in case anyone wants to hear how they sound. I'll also try to work on that project of capturing audio data on demand.
Should be fun anyway I use it.. Should be a nice tool to keep tabs on my own station as well.. It'll be nice to be able to see my signal on a scope of sorts.
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kf6pqt
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« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2006, 01:28:46 AM » |
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What center frequency did you request? I need to do some reading up, then order one of those!
-Jason kf6pqt
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W6IEE, formerly KF6PQT
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n3lrx
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« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2006, 01:45:30 AM » |
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The closest he had to 3885 was 3840 but he said there should be no problem tuning upto 3885. Might be a little narrow, but we'll see. It all has to do with the sample rate of your sound card I think. Tony said a common 96khz should get me up to around 3888. Others claim to have stretched them further. I don't know what the extreme limits are of it yet. I'll certainly find out!
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2006, 08:18:22 AM » |
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I'm not a fan of hanging a softrock or sdr1k off an antenna. I posed this question to U. Rohde and he directed to his latest ham XCVR ($10K) where the dsp was after two IF conversion stages. If the converter looks like there are intermod problems you may consider hanging off the IF of a receiver. I do this off the 455 kHz output of my RA6830 and use a color burst crystal divided by 8.
I2PHD software is very easy to get going. SDR1K takes about 60 meg of
billware.
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n3lrx
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« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2006, 10:48:56 AM » |
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Yeah, I noticed it does require allot of crap.. I've got the hard drive space so that doesn't bother me much. I like the look of SDR1k but I'm not opposed to trying the other.
Anyone know where some Linux SDR software can be found? All my searches come up with a Source Forge link but there is nothing there to download.
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2006, 12:42:17 PM » |
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Join HPSDR gang I think some guys are looking at it.
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n3lrx
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« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2006, 04:00:17 AM » |
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In our correspondence I also invited Tony to check in here.
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KA8WTK
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« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2006, 12:20:04 PM » |
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You are going to have fun playing with the SoftRock. I sure enjoy mine.
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Bill KA8WTK
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n3lrx
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« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2006, 06:02:32 AM » |
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Well,
The SoftRock 40 V6.2 came in today, I've got all of it built except for winding the coils. The inductor is the easy part what's going to be a pain in the scrot is the transformer. It's a single primary and a bifilar secondary.
I'll tackle that after a nap too tired to keep count on the winds. I've been up all night putting this thing together so far so good.
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n3lrx
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« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2006, 09:50:06 PM » |
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Now it's just a matter of finding a few part in the shed to make it work. I've got them around here somewhere. If not I can easily get them. Looks pretty neat so far. Small postage stamp sized PCB and the good news is most of it is real parts! Some parts are SMD but at least they're big enough that I didn't need 100x magnification to work on it.
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #10 on: December 28, 2006, 11:16:27 PM » |
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measure the resistors before you install them colors hard to read do to poor contrast.
Very nice otherwise.
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n3lrx
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« Reply #11 on: December 28, 2006, 11:30:01 PM » |
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Yup.. Did that. It's all built. Now I just need to bastardize an old pair of headphones or something for a audio cable, and get a decent Antenna in the air.
I thought this thing plugged into the USB port but I guess not. It gets all the info directly from the audio sample fed to the sound card. Pretty interesting.
If I like this idea I might even consider getting a SoftRock TXRX.
A FlexRadio would be nice but it's a little out of my budget.
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #12 on: December 29, 2006, 01:48:40 PM » |
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The early SRs got power from the USB but still needed the cable to the line in.
USB has a bit of noise so now you need a wall wart of some other source.
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n3lrx
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« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2006, 03:28:12 AM » |
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Oh well, I dunno if it's just that my sound card is 'unsupported' or if I did something wrong.. None the less it don't work..  At least this was only a $12 project, I'll be seriously pissed if my E rig doesn't work! It was fun while it lasted.. |
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #14 on: December 30, 2006, 10:44:02 AM » |
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Most people screw up the transformer. You should be able to see a signal on a scope for both I and Q. Tony must have sold 1000 kits by now and everyone is happy including myself.
It is pretty easy to make a mistake with the small layout. I use a stock sound card in my shack dell but it needs to be at least 800 MHz. for I2phd to play. I'm running a 1 GHz Dell.
Make sure you have the right input selected or try other inputs.
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n3lrx
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« Reply #15 on: December 30, 2006, 02:47:10 PM » |
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I don't doubt Tony's work, I doubt mine! lol I probably did screw up somewhere..
I'll dig into it deeper and find out where. I tried both line input and mic. Both are active and no sound from either. Sound works with other sources of sound.
Also at 12vdc the 7805 gets a little warm. I might back it down and run it at 9vdc. I checked voltages and they are all at about 4.9vdc so I don't think there are any shorts loading it down. I'll find my screw up somewhere.
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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #16 on: December 30, 2006, 03:15:09 PM » |
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make sure the oscillator is running. many users find poor solder joints are the problem.
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