Saturday 12 March 2011

Software Radio...

Well, I finally did something with the SDR I picked up at the Ripponden Rally last year.

It's now in the case of an old optical receiver that I picked up from another rally probably 5 or more years ago.  It is screened and has two compartments inside, seperated with some good thick steel.  Complete with feed-thru caps.

The SDR is in one side with 12v DC as well as I/Q fed through the caps.  In the other, larger side, one of my Icom PCR-100s now resides.  This is one I tapped the 10.7MHz IF - once I've ordered an Si570 VFO for the SDR, I will be able to tune to 10.7MHz and use the rather wide bandwidth (230kHz +) of the IF out and the RF front end on the Icom.  The PCR tunes from 0-1300MHz, via a serial link, and is a fairly decent performer on HF, and V/UHF.  I assume its very deaf on high UHF but I've never tried.

So far, progress is limited to mounting the PCR-100 in the case - I have yet to hook up power, antenna, audio out etc.  I am awaiting Jan from sdr-kits.com to get back to me on pricing for the Si-570 VFO.

Some links for you:

Cross Country Wireless [SDR]:
http://www.crosscountrywireless.net/

Icom PCR-100 IF Out:
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/PCR-100#10.7_MHZ_IF_Output

SDR-Kits Si570 VFO:
http://www.sdr-kits.com

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dave I know this post is very old. But can you tell me how well the PCR-100 did after you modded it? this mod is what I have been researching and a lot of the search engine links on the internet are too old and have expired