Hank, the price goes up to $200 in about a week and a half. I think it's worth that. I see that the Soft66AD costs $125, plus shipping from Japan, but you have to put it together yourself. If you do that, I would advise you to use better surface-mount techniques than the ones recommended on the Soft66 website. Never, ever use a soldering iron. I like to use an electric griddle as a hot plate, along with a Weller butane soldering iron with a hot air blower tip. Monitor the temperature using an IR thermometer from Harbor Freight tools. I've described some techniques that work well on my blog, but nothing beats using a solder stencil.
The LD-1 works quite well down to about 1 KHz, and does work at lower frequencies but with some spurious responses due to the low LO frequency. That could be fixed by changing the filter bands, and I might consider offering that as an option. I can't quite tell from the Soft66AD docs exactly what the frequency coverage is, he seems to make some claims that don't add up, but his english makes it hard to tell. I do use the AD9834, the same DDS chip that he does, but I actually use two of them. Both are programmed for the same frequency, but one is programmed for a 90 degree phase shift relative to the other. Start them at the same time, and you have an I / Q LO. Also, I've found a simple technique to greatly reduce the spurs from the DDS chips. I'm keeping it close to the vest, but it works. Modes like DRM are a function of the SDR host software you run on your PC. Rocky does not do DRM, but Winrad does. Whatever radio you decide to use, take a look at Winrad. --- In [email protected], "hank smith" <hanksmi...@...> wrote: > > will my softadh cover these same frequencies? > also what is the normal price after your introduction? > Hank > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "ni9n" <peg...@...> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, January 23, 2010 6:11 PM > Subject: [soft_radio] LD-1 Discussion on Garage-shoppe.com Blog > > > > Thanks to those who have placed orders for or expressed interest in the > > LD-1 software defined receiver, which I am now shipping. Two of the first > > lot of five are still available (I will be assembling them in the morning, > > so they don't show up as in stock yet) and I have just ordered parts for > > the second lot. Those should be ready to ship later in the week. > > > > To recap the LD-1's features (which are fully described at > > www.lazydogengineering.com/LD1home.htm ) it is a soundcard-based SDR like > > the Softrock-40 and similar SDR's, but with a dual-DDS local oscillator > > using two Analog Devices AD9834 DDS chips. It will cover the entire 530 > > kHz to 30+ MHz range. On the low end it will probably work below 530 kHz, > > but I haven't tested it there. It may go as high as 37 MHz, but I haven't > > tried that, eiter. It is USB controlled, either from Winrad or from its > > own stand-alone application. While I haven't done any formal performance > > measurements, it seems very comparable to my FT-817. Except, of course, > > being an SDR it runs rings around any conventional receiver when it comes > > to operator convenience and agility. > > > > I don't want to distract from the main topic of this discussion group, so > > I would like to encourage anyone who is interested in the LD-1, or DIY > > surface-mount projects, small-scale product developement, ham radio > > entrepreneurship, etc. to visit my blog at www.garage-shoppe.com. > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > >
