PJ2BVU SDR Page
I discovered Software Defined Radios when the SDR-1000 came out a few years ago. The SDR-1000 is the first amateur SDR on the market, it is produced by FlexRadio Systems and was developped by Gerald Youngblood - K5SDR.
I discovered the Flex Radio page by chance and did not regret it. While developping the SDR-1000 Gerald wrote a 4 parts article in QEX: A Software Defined Radio for the Masses.
If you want to know more about SDR, read this 4 part article which is on the Flex Radio site, here are the links - valid as of January 15, 2007:
A Software Defined Radio for the Masses - Part 1
A Software Defined Radio for the Masses - Part 2
A Software Defined Radio for the Masses - Part 3
A Software Defined Radio for the Masses - Part 4
I was very tempted to acquire a SDR-1000 but I had to pass it up having just bought a FT-897. The SDR-1000 was also in his early stages and had only a 1W PA.
Sometime in 2005, AmQRP introduced a low cost kit: the SoftRock 40, which is a tiny Software Defined Receiver for the 40m band. The oscillator is Xtal controlled and, depending on the sound board used, allows to receive a 48 kHz/96 kHz/192 kHz portion of the 40m band
SoftRock-40 V4
At the time the recommended sound board for the SDR-1000 was the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and I used this board with the SoftRock. For the software, the only one available at the time was PowerSDR - the Software of the SDR-1000 - and can be downloaded from the Flex Radio site. This is the standard version of PowerSDR, when setting it up just choose SoftRock 40 instead of SDR-1000.
Only 800 kits of the SoftRock 40 V4 have been produced and were sold in a very short time.
This receiver is really fantastic and the software is also terrific, with PowerSDR and the Sanata Cruz board I can see 48KHz on the spectrum display, tailor the filters ad infinitum - with a CW filter down to 25Hz. Each new release of PowerSDR is like having a new receiver: just install the software and voila.
Since then various programs have been developped for the SoftRock - or any SDR providing the I and Q channels:
Rocky
SharpDSP Console
KGKSDR
G8JCFSDR
SDRadio and Winrad
The 2 last programs were not developped for the SoftRock but works perfectly well with it.
Alberto stopped the developement of SDRadio with the introduction of Winrad which is for weak signal reception, a kind of Linrad for Windows.
Regarding Linrad it should work with the SoftRock but I did not test it yet
SoftRock RXTX, Front View
SoftRock RXTX - Top View
Today, January 21st 2007, I made my first QSO with the SoftRock RXTX using KGKSDR. The QSO was made in SSB, my RXTX Beta puts out 750mW. The QSO was with FM5WD and FM1BY and the distance around 900km. For the antenna I used my new loop antenna, being a 6m operator I did not have an HF antenna and not having any space to put up easily  a dipole I opted to build a magnetic loop, it works very well but the tuning is very sharp as it is a high Q antenna.

You can also see my log of the contacts made so far using the SoftRock RXTX.

Contesting with a SoftRock RXTX?
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