SDR - Contesting & Bandscope

The DH1TW web site covers two topic areas that may be of interest to hams interested in exploiting SDR capabilities.

- A presentation about the applications of SDR for contesting incorporates a nice high-level summary of the technologies and SDR products that may facilitate contest activity.

- The implementation a 20 kHz wide bandscope using an inexpensive SDR kit connected to an IF stage of the FT-1000MP transceiver is documented.

The latter application is discussed regularly in Yahoo's Softrock-40 Interest Group for various receiver / transceiver brands and IF ranges.

SDR-14 Receiver

This receiver is the "big brother" of the SDR-IQ. It also samples directly the RF band of 500 Hz to 30 MHz using a 66.6 MHz ADC, but includes a direct input port to also allow sampling of signals up to 230 MHz. Like the SDR-IQ, it converts the digitized signal data to I and Q format for transfer to a PC via USB 2.0 interface.

It provides a spectrum display of up to 30 MHz wide and uses SpectraVue (proprietary) software. Software drivers are available for Windows and Linux for use by developers. The SDR-14 web page provides additional details.

The SDR-14 was reviewed in the December 2005 issue of QST. Its price class as of this writing was $1099.

SDR-IQ Receiver

This receiver covers the range of 500 Hz to 30 MHz using a 14-bit A/D converter running at 66.6 MHz. The signal data are converted to I and Q format for interface to a connected PC via USB 2.0 rather than the commonly used sound card interface.

It provides a spectrum display 190 kHz wide and uses SpectraVue (proprietary) software. Software drivers are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems for use by developers.

More details are here. The price class at this writing is $499.

Applications of the SDR-IQ and SDR-14 are described at the RFSPACE NEWS BLOG.