Monday, March 28, 2011

Procedure for SoftRock SDR Receiver Start Up

Here is W4BXI's account of starting up a SoftRock Ensemble RX II SDR receiver from KE4ID at his station.



Version 1.0 March 23, 2011

1. USB Line is NOT connected.
2. Barker & Williamson Folded Dipole Antenna connected to Receiver Saver. No antenna tuner.
(B&W FD is the default antenna (no DC power) on the RCS4).
3. Turn all units ON (PC, power speakers, Receiver Saver, and SDR Black Box)
4. Receiver Saver is fully connected with PTT and power wall wart.
Beware: This protects the SDR receiver ONLY if the PTT is closed during Transmit! ... it must be connected!
5. NOW -- Plug USB cable into one of the FRONT USB sockets of this Dell PC; not the rear USB sockets. (Apparently the rear USB sockets are bad),
6. At this point I did hear faint amateur CW from the Va QSO Party! No other receivers or transmitters are on! I promise.
I guess this was the case because the software, or a version of it, was installed in the PC since the last power up.
7. NOW Screen Click ON the PowerSDR v2.0
8. I still hear faint amateur CW.
9. START the Power SDR now...from the software menu.
10. I do NOT hear the amateur CW now!.
(I presume the newer version of the Software/Drivers is now resident)
11. In Power SDR go Setup/Import Database/import/OK
12. Push START button on Power SDR.

Additional from KE4ID

1. After doing this, go to the PowerSDR toolbar and choose --->Setup--->General.
2. Under SDR-1000 config, be sure that the USBtoI2C box is checked. If not, click it to check that box and click okay. Did that do it?
3. Now, if it tunes, but you don't hear anything: Go to Windows "Volume Control" and open it.
4. Choose--->Options--->Properties--->SoundMax Digital Audio--->Recording
5. Choose "Line In" and be sure that is checked. Choose it and close the window.

=============
It works!
===============
DO use Stereo out of the PC audio!
=================================
Other comments from KE4ID
I have seen the SDR-1000 operating manual in at least a couple of places.
Here is one: http://www.nitehawk.com/w3sz/SDR-1000_Operating_Manual_v1.8.0.pdf
Here is another: http://support.flexradio.com/Downloads.aspx?fr=1
=============

Earlier Problem - Results:
The freq display seems not to resemble what I am hearing.
At times I have faintly heard WWV, but not today.
I can input a freq, but it does not change what I hear.

I tried the Setup/Calibrate/Freq. It tells me "Peak is outside valid range"
"This value is outside of the specs of the osc. Do you want to try to use this value? YES/NO"
I have tried both...

(To be honest, I am only using one speaker out of the PC. Your pair of speakers are low volume. It appears I do get the same audio)

John
W4BXI

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