[Flexradio] (no subject)

[ecellison]

Flex-Radio-Friends   Re-Flex-ion   The SDR-1000/PowerSDR has come light years in just a few months since I have been a part of the forum. I have contributed very little towards any finite advancement of the “The Radio” but I guess as it says on the Flexi, I am the Goodwill Ambassador. Perhaps just ‘glue’.   Just about anyone could see that this phenomenon is a paradigm shift of the first magnitude when Gerald first introduced the hardware for sale. Steve Ford hinted at it a number of times in his QST review of the SDR-1000, but still did not pinpoint the actual shift in the paradigm. Ironically, the paradigm shift is not the “Off the Shelf” hardware. It is the fact that every customer becomes a part of every radio that is sold. The SDR is a UDR or User Defined Radio. Some may influence the product more than others, but EVERYONE who buys one or plays with it, becomes a contributor, and part of the radio, even if they only want answers to questions!   The shift is accelerating and becoming even more thrilling (at least to me).   Here is a summary of current projects or projects that perhaps only I am dreaming about and proposing. In no particular order.   On the air 20 meter SSB net with high quality audio or ‘audio checks’             Someone volunteered to be net control on Teamspeak, but I can’t remember and did not note who it was. Perhaps tail-end a TenTec or other radio interest group net. Who volunteered? Let’s get it going. We need a weekly net even CW and someone to act as net control consistently.   SDR on a disk             A brilliant marketing and training idea first suggested by Ken N9VV. Put together for the first time by Craig – KC2LFI. 225 disks produced by several folks, and distributed at Dayton. I don’t think the Big 3 have anything that comes close. We need a constantly current distribution point for prospective buyers, many more wideband I/Q recordings in a downloadable repository. Different languages translations. Perhaps a custom console which is kept up to date, and disables some of the things which only attached hardware can do. Volunteers? Anyone can contribute by recording wideband I/Q and submitting to Flex-Radio-Friends.net ftp site in the I/Q folder. Think of being able to tune moon bounce, meteor scatter, aurora, drm, practice CW. Practice contesting, and just practice using the SDR as I am doing! This is a paradigm shift and product class in itself.   Live instruction manual(s)             I sat and listened on Teamspeak the other night as a new SDR owner joined us ‘Old crows on the IP power line’  who were there. He was having difficulty following the written operations manual. Several folks came to the assistance of the person including Ken – N9VV who masterfully ‘walked’ the user through image rejection and frequency calibration. Ken’s enjoyable demeanor and hard learned expertise in setting up the rig was a pleasure to listen to! Interactive and helpful which has become a hallmark of Teamspeak and the FRF group? What we need here is to combine those talents in a recorded session. It can use the free tools we have investigated on Teamspeak and have become standard. I.e. TightVNC, Teamspeak, and on screen media recorder. (I think Craig has a freebie on the FRF ftp site.   QST article             In my year of hanging around you genius folk, I have seen hundreds of potential articles for major publications. Everything from the UCB to the Median Noise Blanker and many other contributions. I’m sure Tony’s – KB9YIG “QRP SDR Sampler” will be a feature of some future issue of a magazine! I would propose that we collectively as FRF users submit for publication, probably in QST, an article perhaps called “UDR or User Defined Radio for the Masses”. Incorporate the Rain Scatter stuff by Northern Light, the demo disk, Teamspeak tickler, 10W QRP amp, UCB and others. A sampler of SDR stuff. High fidelity SSB etc. Watsa? Anyone want to be an editor?   SDR with a 1.16 * 10 (-12) GPS Discipline Clock TCVCXO frequency standard.             That produces an SDR 1000 radio accurate to 1 Hz in 10 GHZ. This can already  be done with an HP 3801(?) for around $200 on the surplus market, but would be and is a current initiative by Alan – K2WS and myself to investigate other alternatives besides surplus. There are several designs for the 10 MHz discipline tco out there, and perhaps Tony can whack off a copy of the circuit.  Alan will have a report on Teamspeak Saturday forum on 6-25-05. I have already purchased the Rockwell Jupiter GPS Receiver 12 CH Board NEW w/ BONUS of an external antenna! For $49 off EBay. Bill KD5TFD and I were playing around with Google after the forum last night and found about 20 of these GPS OEM boards with Serial interface and 10 kHz slave oscillators, on E-bay. With this add-on, the PowerSDR modification would make a laboratory grade, oscilloscope, frequency counter, spectrum analyzer and ???!   SDRDXPEDITION I’m shooting from the hip here, but why in the heck not?  Anyone interested in an SDR only DXpedition? I always vowed that I would be on the point end of the frey rather than the shotgun piker at the competitive end at least one time in my life! Doesn’t have to be too exotic, and must have toilets and showers for me to go!  Larry – WO0Z you up for it? Would be just retribution after having gone through your DXCC with PowerSDR betas and G3RV! What is on the most desired list?  I think we could package a laptop(s), SDR-1000, the software, and a modified connected version of the Delta 44 in a 1000 mp form factor for the trip on a shrimp boat! (I’m not prone to seasickness) Pitcairn?  Would put the SDR-1000 on the map! Perhaps we could have one of the natives set up an SDR and a satellite Internet connection on a rare atoll, attach the solar cells and battery we operate remotely via TCP/IP. They could come back 2 weeks later and ship the stuff back to us. Along the same veins, why not an SDR 1000 on the ISS and IP connectivity? Do-able, but back to the semi serious.   Programmer Training             We, the newbie’s to programming, need one of you programming experts to get us started. I know you guys are busy writing code for the SDR with enthusiasm, however, an hour a week on Teamspeak with TightVNC connection would help us smarties, without knowledge of the IDE to get started! There are many interested. Bob – KD5KDN and John KC5NRA have indicated willingness, but not the time! (smile) anyone else wants to show us how to get started. Perhaps after the 0100 Saturday forum for 1 hour?   I’ll have more later. This is fun! I got away from the Tube before it was too late!     Eric – AA4SW