Hi Mark- I'm the friend Owen refers to; I just built a Soft66ADI. I keep meaning to do a blog post about it, but I'll summarize here.
I really liked the form factor of the Soft66; the software-selectable BPFs and the fact that the control software is open source really sealed the deal for me. I ordered the unassembled kit, with the aluminum enclosure for which it was intended. The build instructions were baffling in parts, due to being written by a native Japanese speaker (JA7TDO, the kit's creator). They're not incomprehensible, but he chooses some strange words sometimes. Added to this is the fact that the schematic lacks component values, IC labels, and occasionally flat-out contradicts the PCB and parts supplied. For instance on one of the BPFs, the schematic showed a capacitor, the PCB seemed to call for a capacitor (e.g. C23), but the parts list had C23 as an inductor. I emailed JA7TDO and asked him about this, he confirmed that the inductor was the correct part. The voltage regulator IC was listed as one thing on the PCB, and something else entirely on the parts list; if there had been more than one device with a similar package this would have been a show-stopper. Issues like this lead me to advise against ordering this as a kit. So far I have not been able to get mine to work in xlinrad, Rocky, or any other SDR software, but this might be due to the lack of a decent receive antenna. If improving the antenna doesn't yield results, I'm afraid I'll have to haul out the oscilloscope... I dread this because the schematic is worse than useless, and requests to the author for advice have so far yielded very terse replies, which left me with more questions than answers. Finally, there's no indication of test points or any voltages or waveforms I should see at certain points, so I'll have to puzzle it all out on my own. I really ought to dig out that softrock rxtx kit and finish it... anyway, hope this helps. Robert AK6L On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Owen B. Mehegan <o...@nerdnetworks.org>wrote: > > Message: 17 > > Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:35:19 -0500 > > From: "Mark L. Hammond" <marklhamm...@gmail.com> > > Subject: [amsat-bb] Anybody use a Soft66ADD SDR? > > To: Amsat - BBs <amsat-bb@amsat.org> > > Message-ID: > > <5d8cecfe1002101035x35f07d7dpc047e54cf120a...@mail.gmail.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > > > Found this today, look interesting. Prices are quite reasonable (if > > not cheap). Performance is the question.. I suppose the quality of > > the system sound card is a big issue. > > > > Anybody here own one or seen one in use? > > > > How about piping a 10.7 MHz IF into it for VHF/UHF? > > > > http://zao.jp/radio/soft66ad/ > > > > > > -- > > Mark L. Hammond [N8MH] > > A friend of mine just bought and assembled one. He said that the > instructions > were pretty poor... the parts list and schematic didn't always match up and > he > had to do a fair amount of head-scratching (and I think > bang-head-on-desk-ing) > to get it built. He was not impressed with that aspect. I haven't yet heard > how well it's working as a radio. I'll ask him and let you know. > > -- > Owen B. Mehegan (KJ6AKQ) > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
