Wednesday, May 25, 2016

SDR Time

I decided while playing with HDSDR software (link here - This downloads HDSDR's Installable) that instead of making HDSDR work with my current radios, I would instead purchase the SDRPlay RSP1 to use as a stand alone radio. If it turns out to be the bees knees I'll get another one to enhance using my Yaesu MarkV, the scope for seeing the entire band looks to be awesome.


I ordered the SDRPlay last night, looks like I'll get it next week. In the mean time I'm going to bring a 20m antenna and some coax with me this weekend to prepare for using this with my laptop. 8mhz of bandwidth requires decent horsepower so I'll be using it with my HP Omen laptop which has a high end i7 and 16gigs of memory.


I gave HDSDR a spin using the sound card from both the Icom and Yaesu and connecting via RS232 and came away impressed so I'm looking forward to seeing how this whole SDR thing plays out. I'll post a review when I have some time put into it.

Side note, I'm also looking to purchase either the Icom IC-7300 or Yaesu FT DX 3000 some time soon. I'm keeping the Yaesu Mark V, it's simply too awesome to let go of, plus it was a gift, I don't sell gifts. I may replace the Icom 746Pro next year with the newer Icom 7100 so I can use it in my SUV. That's it for now, I have posted more this month than the past 3 years, I'll try to keep it up!









Friday, May 6, 2016

Added A New To Me Icom 746Pro To The Shack

It has some tuning issues but when using the computer it works perfectly. I bought it on eBay so we have a portable rig to take to the RV if needed. It's nice to be able to record from both radios, capturing some great QSO's and a few not so great ones featuring the loon up in Canada, his tirades when he's been drinking could be turned into training recordings for new Ham's in how not to behave when on the air.

I can control both radios from my PC, I can also remote control them from the internet so I can listen from the RV which is nice.

That's it for now, hopefully I post more than once every two years going forward.