AmateurLogic.TV 15: Building The Softrock Software Defined Radio

George builds the Softrock Software Defined Radio. Jim introduces us to the International Beacon Project. Tommy demonstrates and explains all about the amazi…
Video Rating: 4 / 5

13 replies
  1. K7AGE
    K7AGE says:

    Great show. I have never did any surface mount soldering, it looks easier
    that I thought. Looking forward to the softrock demo on the next show. Keep
    up the good work. Maybe I can join in on some show. Randy

    Reply
  2. AmateurLogic.TV
    AmateurLogic.TV says:

    You would need to tap into the IF stage of the radio and then feed that to
    a SoftRock or similar receiver to use as a downconverter. The SoftRock kit
    is around $50. I will be covering a detailed example of doing this in a
    future episode.

    Reply
  3. AmateurLogic.TV
    AmateurLogic.TV says:

    The SoftRock acts as a downconverter. It steps the RF signals down to audio
    frequencies which are then fed into the soundcard. With a 96KHz samping
    rate soundcard I can see almost 50 KHz of bandwidth. Since most HF signals
    are around 3KHz wide, I can see about 15 of them at once. PowerSDR software
    allows me to select up to two of these signals to listen to at once. To see
    another portion of the band (or another band) the frequency of the SoftRock
    is changed. It really does work great.

    Reply
  4. PETEGK SALONIKA
    PETEGK SALONIKA says:

    lots of thanks, you guys doing a great job my best regards and thanks from
    Europe Greece 73′ Pete sv2mke

    Reply
  5. AmateurLogic.TV
    AmateurLogic.TV says:

    You got it! There are a lot of guys using 192 KHz cards. I have one but
    unfortunately it won’t work with the software I use.

    Reply
  6. Pepsifx357
    Pepsifx357 says:

    @gthomas That makes much more sense. So if I were to use, say, a 192khz
    sound card, I would be able to see more of the spectrum? And, obviously,
    even more with a sound card that could achieve 384kHz.

    Reply
  7. Pepsifx357
    Pepsifx357 says:

    I’m new to Ham Radio but I know a lot about audio cards on computers. If
    the lowest frequency on a 1.25 Meter band is 222.0 MHz then how can a sound
    card, which most have the highest A/D conversion of 96Khz, be able to
    decode radio signals? You would have to acquire a high cost audio mastering
    interface, that supports the DAD A/D conversion format to get to the 5MHz
    range of decoding.

    Reply
  8. Pepsifx357
    Pepsifx357 says:

    @gthomas So could you connect a regular radio to a down sampling device and
    use this software? If so, how much would a device like that cost?

    Reply
  9. Dennis Valliant
    Dennis Valliant says:

    I certainly enjoyed this show. Found out about it during a QSO with another
    ham when we were talking about building SMT kits. I’ve always been scared
    of them, but I’ll give it a shot. Dennis KI5IK

    Reply
  10. dcgibson55
    dcgibson55 says:

    The Degen DE1103 reviewed in this episode is an outstanding radio at an
    extremely low price. The USA version is called the Kaito KA1103. The only
    difference between them is that the USA version comes with a 120 volt AC
    adaptor as opposed to a 220 volt that comes with the Degen. I highly
    recommend it.

    Reply

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