In response to my comments in another post, I have gotten a couple of emails that seem to indicate the perception out there is that it is somehow difficult to set up a SDR-1000.
I have 2 SDR-1000's and I have all 3 sound cards, so I have done a lot of "settin up". I also use one of my SDR-1000's as an IF for my VHF transverter, and I use each radio to control multiple linear amps. I designed a little breakout box to automate antenna switching as well. The point being is that I have some experience with what might be considered "advanced setup". The basic set up of the SDR is not more difficult than the setup of any radio. You basically hook up a key, a mic, a power supply, and a ground. The only extra setup is adding the cables between the sound card and the radio. For my SDR's I plug my mic straight into the sound card. I have the SDR's up on a top shelf, and I have the sound cards (FA-66 and a firebox) down on the desk next to my monitor. The sound cards next to the monitor allows me access to a phone jack for headphones as well as a audio gain control on each sound card. It makes it convenient to change mics if I want as well, as well as adjust mic gain. I use a condenser mic (for that hifi experience) and need the phantom 48V each of these sound cards provide. For CW I plug my CW key straight into the 1/8" jack on the back of the radio. I played with the "serial connection" method and I didn't find it any faster in terms of turn around than with the 1/8" jack. I use an external keyer, either a logikey or a usb version winkey. Presently I use the winkey since it allows 2 radios to be hooked up with software switching between radios. I don't use any relays or other means to key the radio, just the open collector in the keyer. When I had the serial keying method hooked up I had to use an FET buffer between the keyer and the port in order to get the port to work. The serial port method was really a fix for using the internal (software) keyer with a paddle and I don't think it was really intended for using an external keyer. Maybe some others could comment on their experience but I can't see any difference from 10 to 60 wpm between the 1/8 jack and the serial port when using an external keyer with the present iteration of the software. The more advanced set-ups such as transverters are easy to implement as well. It's a matter of adding the transverter to the line, and adding some data to a form in PowerSDR which tells the radio how to behave when hooked to a transverter. Very easy. To get control out of the SDR you need to hook things up to X2. For this I used an old 15 pin monitor cable cut in half and some RCA jacks. I have my linears connected to pin 7 and I use a foot switch and have a push button connected for PTT duties. This radio is not a hard radio to set up. What you do need is an Elecraft signal gen, and a good quality dummy load. You can get a good quality dummy load for cheap from here: http://ridgeequipment.com/store/index.html I use the 200W version but the cheapie 75 watter would probably work fine as well for the duty required for SDR tune up. These are good quality and are swept in terms of impedance well into GHZ. So if your on the fence about an SDR because it seems too complicated, fergetaboutit. The radio is not hard to get running and it is a ton of fun to use. I use mine in contests, weak signal DXing, rag chewing, PSK31, as a lab receiver, as a signal generator. I have a LP-100 meter and I'm in the process of hooking it up as a transmitting VNA as well. When reading the reflector do not take what is posted as common experience. If it was common experience there would be 50 replies to a topic instead of 5. The reflector is one of Flex radio's crowning achievements. The helpfulness and lack of rancor on this reflector is amazingly positive, and I think it encourages people to ask even the simplest or oddest of questions without fear of the retribution that often plagues list members on other less well behaved lists. It's a good radio which sells at a good value from a good company with a good bunch of people both expert and amateur willing to lend a helping hand when there is a question or trouble. It doesn't get much better than this. 73 W9OY ____________________________________________________________________________________ The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
