Hi Bill
Those on the topband reflector who are interested
in trying a cheap high-performance software
defined radio for 160m may be interested in the following.
Kits of parts (including PCB) for the SoftRock
Version 6 with 160m components will be available
from Tony KB9YIG by mid-March and if anyone is
interested, they can email Tony at
<mailto:raparks@ctcisp.com>raparks@ctcisp.com
. Tony believes this is the best version so far
for 160m operation. The kit costs $14 US/Canada
and $15 for DX ? and contains some surface mounted device components
I have been using a Softrock Version 4.0 on 160m
for a couple of months now, using VE3NEA?s free
Rocky software ? see
<http://www.dxatlas.com/rocky/>http://www.dxatlas.com/rocky/
- and a Pentium 4 PC. An 24-bit M-Audio D44
soundcard is used for the analogue to digital
conversion and provides a bandwidth of
96KHz. The combination of Rocky and the Softrock
provides a highly sensitive bandscope, using a
polyphase fast Fourier transformation algorithm
that enables you to clearly see S2 or S3 signals
and that you can spread across your computer
screen, and a digital filter that is variable
from 500 down to 60Hz by a ?drag? of a mouse.
The version 4 of this little SDR ?sampler?
provides a dynamic range of 98dB and has replaced
my FT1000 for searching 160m for weak
signals. For every four weak signals I can see
on Rocky, I can usually only find one of them by
careful tuning of the FT1000 (unless I cheat and
peek at the Rocky bandscope). The
?sensitivity?/ability of the Softrock to find
weak signals on 160m is as good as my FT1000.
If you want to try SDR, these little kits are
great fun ? although a watchmaker?s
eyeglass/magnifying glass is a useful accessory for making/checking joints.
Vy 73
Steve, VK6VZ
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