Hi Bill, I hope this helps. Dave WB4ONA... A 6-Step Plan for Getting Started with SDR
1. Download and read Youngblood's "SDR for the Masses" a 4-part QEX article. Freely available to all from: www.arrl.org/tis/info/sdr.html This will explain what's going on with these direct-conversion SDR's that are so popular these days. 2. Start with one of the two current Softrock receiver kits. As of June 2008: Softrock-Lite V6.2 which is a very low-cost single band crystal-controlled reciever, and Softrock-Lite + Xtall V8.3 which is a 9-band synthesized receiver, the Silicon Labs Si570 synthesized clock generator acts as the L.O. On the V8.3 kit, basic control of the receive frequency is accomplished via a DIP switch and a PIC microprocessor containing 16 fixed pre-stored frequencies. Information on how to buy the kit should be contained in the "sticky" messages on to the left of the photo on the homepage of this forum. Some kits may not be available at all times, check the homepage or ask what kits are available on the forum. Most likely you will get a prompt reply from Tony KB9YIG, the Softrock kit manufacturer. I would start with the simple low-cost crystal controlled receiver, then move up to the synthesized receiver. I believe there is a synthesized transceiver in the works. There is also a single band crystal controlled RXTX V6.2 transceiver available. 3. Examine the schematics of the current Softrock receivers mentioned above in the Files area of this forum: Files > SoftRock v6.0 docs > SoftRock Lite docs Files > Lite+Xtall v8.3 4. If you are unfamiliar with assembling Surface Mount Technology (SMT) kits, Google for tutorials; here is a link to an SMT tutorial that's pretty good: http://www.curiousinventor.com/guides 5. Download and play with some SDR software. Rocky software is very popular with the Softrock radios. Some others are WinRad, PowerSDR, SDRadio, and etc. Here's a link to Rocky: http://www.dxatlas.com/ 6. Most any PC sound card will "work" with these SDR's, but you will get significantly improved performance with high quality, low-noise, high dynamic-range, cards. Higher sampling rates give you more receive bandwidth as well, ideally you want 96kHz card bandwidth, but 48kHz will work too. Many experienced SDR users employ Delta-44 sound cards from M-Audio, www.m-audio.com which cost around $150 USD a piece. Tony sells a low-cost interface that eases connection with the Delta-44 sound card as well. However some report decent results with lower cost Creative Sounblaster type cards. Search the this forum for many threads on this subject. Perhaps to start-out, jut "try" your PC's sound capability, then decide if you want to invest further with a high-end add-on card. Keep in-mind, with sound cards, you pretty much get what you pay for these days. --- In [email protected], "usna71" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hello: > I am very interested but overwhelmed with information and don't know > where to start. Is there a guide for the beginner? Where would I > start? I operate Amateur, CAP, and MARS. > 73 > Bill > KB1MOV >
