At 05:54 AM 4/26/2006, Larry Loen wrote:
Dan Hammill wrote:
[snip]
>
>
>I am also patiently waiting for the UCB project to spring back to life, for
>I also have a strong desire to build a 50 thru 1296 (or higher) contest
>setup based on a SDR-1000 IF. No use in buying more transverters if the
>control hardware isn't available - nor do I want to reinvent my own unique
>flavor of UCB.
>
>
I would like to make a public appeal for Flex Radio to produce,
manufacture, and sell either the UCB, the Poor Man's UCB, or some
similar product.
I believe there is substantial demand for it, meeting _at least_ the
following needs:
1. UHF/VHF transverter switching.
2. Receive antennas on HF (currently inhibiting my progress on 30
meters and preventing me from deploying beverages on 80). Manual
switching between transmit and receive antennas won't work in even the
slightest pileup.
3. Hooking up a variety of HF amplifiers that (as we learned in Belize)
will overload and burn out the amplifier relay circuit of the SDR.
Lacking this, could Flex point us to a suitable product in the
marketplace we could buy and reasonably expect to adapt?
There are quite a few inexpensive USB or serial port controlled relay boxes
out there. Check with companies like www.labjack.com or www.dataq.com . A
bit more upscale might be www.measurementcomputing.com. There's also a
number of companies catering to the control and robotics market with fairly
inexpensive relay controllers: www.sixbit.com www.ontrak.com
www.electrokits.com
Just google USB Relay controller and you'll get dozens of hits.
I suspect, though, that the serial port versions might not have the
response time you'd want for rapid semi-break-in switching. At 9600 bps,
it takes a millisecond to shove a byte out to the interface, and most
require multibyte commands.
Something else to look at might be the "smart relay" boxes out there
(essentially small Programmable Logic Controllers" PLCs) that have inputs
and outputs and can do sequencing and timing. You could feed some of the
signals from the SDR1000 extension connector to it, and it could do the
sequencing and logic.
Since products of this kind are pretty hard to come by, a few
enhancements might be in order. These will improve the compactness
(and, therefore, the contestability and DXpeditionabilty) of the base
product:
1. A simple amplifier (read-- compact and inexpensive) so that a wider
variety of microphones can be used with the Delta 44 and who knows what
else we'll eventually have.
2. A modest 12 volt power distribution strip. Many devices are 12
volts and one hassle in a portable operation is hooking them up and,
more importantly, powering them. In Belize, I had a separate, if modest
12 volt power supply for the Extigy card. I suppose I could have rigged
up a solution without this, but the truth is, if I could have had an
adapter cord of a known length, plugged at a predictable location vis a
vis the SDR, it would have been simpler, doubly so if it represents a
device I'm likely to need anyway. The "attractive" alternative is the
SDR's own power terminals, but that solution doesn't "scale." Two or
three simple "power posts" of the same type that's on the rear of the
SDR would do the trick. That would leave one with two "spade" type
connectors on the SDR proper and the ability to put this product atop
the SDR, a table, or even the sound card itself.
I have *everything* hooked up with powerpole connectors.. Yes.. there's a
bunch of adapters from coaxial power plug to powerpole, but then, I
tape/glue/attach the coaxial connector to the jack, so the gear now has a
powerpole pigtail. I also carry a bunch of connectors and a crimper.
I would gladly pay between 50 and 100 dollars for such a product and I'm
presuming its cost to manufacture isn't nearly so great. All that's
really needed is a suitable amplifier for the HF amp T/R and,
secondarily, opto-isolated relays of the X2 interface, I presume.
Obviously, including the second set of needs would justify a price
nearer 100 dollars. If the costs are unreasonably higher than I
suspect, then I'd pay more.
For off the shelf solutions, today, you're probably looking at more like
$100-150 for the relay box. The parts are relatively cheap, but by the
time you put it on a board, put it in an enclosure, add a user manual, ship
it, etc. you're up to the $100 point. ($100 selling price => $10 parts cost)
I'm going to DXpedition to Aruba and Belize in the fall and whether I
take the SDR this time is actually in the balance. My wife doesn't want
the extra hassle (both DX stations are fully equipped and if I leave the
SDR at home, we can probably go "carry on only", a big plus). It would
help if I could have a solution that is a lot more plug-and-play.
