Topic: Project DSP (Digital Signal Processing)
DSP enable any Global Tuners Radio or your own radio!
To buy a narrow (500 Hz) CW filter for an Icom 8500 radio costs more than US $200. For some radios like the PCR 1000/1500/2500 etc, such a narrow filter is not even an option!
By making use of free, specialized software, and using low-noise connections, we can for very low cost, enhance any SSB/CW radio with DSP adjustable filtering, panadaptor, etc etc.
I was more interested in finding a solution for SSB/CW, but the principe is the same for any mode.
The easiest (and noisiest) way is to connect the Line-in of your soundcard to the Line-out/audio out of your radio. This can be done with a plain cable.
To get any Global Tuners radio to have DSP on SSB/CW I used my standard soundcard for Line-in and an additional low cost USB soundcard to just hear the DSP processed audio. Signals separated by as little as 60-70 Hz can now be wonderfully heard without the sronger one covering/interfering the weaker one.
One can now SEE the signals and choose which they want to hear. You see a signal on the panadaptor, then pick and tune! And all this on any Global Tuners radio, be it Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, you-name-it.
To get things to work at a higher (i.e. quieter) standard? Use a Virtual Cable for connecting the Global Tuners radio to your second inexpensive sound card (e.g. about £10 from ebay)!
For a visual, sofware used, and initial settings e.g. for CW, please visit:
http://s705.photobucket.com/albums/ww56/Calico-photos/?action=view¤t=Examplecw1c.jpg
(You may need to Ctrl+ scroll mouse wheel to ZOOM-IN!)
Hope it works for you too !
Happy DSP-ing then,
Calico
Cheers Norbert, have you tried it then I wonder ? :)) When I find some time I will try and do a little video and upload it somewhere. Greetings to Vienna!
For SDSpike (Steve) and / or anyone interested,
Program is PowerSDR-IQ. Tried various versions to get it to work. The one that I prefer and worked fine for me was pretty old version 1.12.20, because it allows me to choose SDR fixed frequency. This means, I can "sort of" synchronize the software with any receiver's frequency including any Global Tuners radio and then have a relevant panadapter display to what my GT tuned frequency is. VFO freq will allow up to 65 MHz.
When running the Windows installer, choose SDR fixed frequency (you will see an icon of a USB RX device) and for soundcard choose "not supported", unless you happen to possess one of the options.
It may take a little time if not familiar with such software to familiarize, but once this is done, the filtering power is breathtaking!
It gives receivers with weak front end, a new life ! As a matter of fact, the wider the first mixer's IFs allowed bandwidth, the more interesting, as we can see and pick more stuff to travel around peak-tuning.
Key is to get quiet, noise free connections, and when you get analyzed receiver's audio off, to see S-reading about -200dBm
Find preferred version of Power SDR-IQ at
http://code.google.com/p/powersdr-iq/downloads/detail?name=PowerSDR-IQ%20v1.12.20%20Setup.msi&can=2&q
Tried other SDR software (WinRad, SpectraVue and the like) but that worked the best for me at least.
Have fun, hopefully !
Tim
Last edited by Calico at Tuesday, 10-Nov-09 20:56:09 UTC