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(OT) It finally died...

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Phil Kane-2

(OT) It finally died...

32 years ago I acquired a Kenwood R-5000 Communications Receiver
(LF-MF-HF) that had been used as a SWL RX and traded in by the original
owner. It must be nearly 40 years old and it finally died - synthesizer
and display quit and I have neither the facilities nor the dexterity or
visual acuity to make any repairs in it. (Sometimes we reach that point...)

Now I need to replace it. My K2 has a great receiver but limited to
ham bands - I do quite a bit of monitoring on HF outside of the ham
bands (SSB, RTTY, SITOR). I've used a Ten-Tec RX320D SDR but it was
made for SWL use and doesn't have the necessary sensitivity to do the
job and TT abandoned it years ago.

Anyone have a suggestion for replacement? Something like the receive
section of a K3s would be nice... :)

----

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon
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Jim Brown-10

Re: (OT) It finally died...

HI Phil,

I suggest that you take a look at various SDR RX options and the
half-dozen or so software programs written to control them. I have an
SDR-Play RSP 1, about $130 from HRO, and a FunCube Dongle ProPlus, about
$175 from the UK. These are both VERY versatile products, and have
surprisingly good performance. There's a brief outline of their
performance for chasing RFI in k9yc.com/KillingRXNoiseVisalia.pdf that
is focused on their usefulness as spectrum displays to identify types of
RFI, and to chase RFI. But they are good for FAR more than that. Here's
a better summary of what's available.

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/roundup-software-defined-radios/

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/big-list-rtl-sdr-supported-software/

ND0B, who has a serious VHF/UHF station and is one grid away from
completing the FFMA award for working all 6M grids in the continental US
(see his qrz.com page), says that he would not have worked our
expedition to the very rare CM79 grid without an RTL dongle and Simon
Brown's SDR Console software! He says it outperforms his Flex 6700 for
sensitivity and noise. Simon, G4ELI, is a fine programmer, and was the
author of the original Ham Radio Deluxe software, and a digital mode
TX/RX program to go with it. He sold that software several years ago
because support was pulling too much time away from programming.

http://www.nn4f.com/SDR-Console-SDRPlay-RSP_QuickGuideTips.pdf

http://sdr-radio.com/

I've been busy with other projects, so haven't gone beyond loading
software and verifying that everything works. I'd be willing to bet that
there's free software to do damn near anything with these radios!
There's software to trace aircraft beacons, decode broadcast TV in
various formats, SWL, and ham operation. To use them as a SWL RX,
simply plug the SDR into a USB port and listen on computer speaker,
headphones, or a stereo rig connected to an audio output of the computer.

73, Jim K9YC

On 7/2/2017 1:44 PM, Phil Kane wrote:

> 32 years ago I acquired a Kenwood R-5000 Communications Receiver
> (LF-MF-HF) that had been used as a SWL RX and traded in by the original
> owner. It must be nearly 40 years old and it finally died - synthesizer
> and display quit and I have neither the facilities nor the dexterity or
> visual acuity to make any repairs in it. (Sometimes we reach that point...)
>
> Now I need to replace it. My K2 has a great receiver but limited to
> ham bands - I do quite a bit of monitoring on HF outside of the ham
> bands (SSB, RTTY, SITOR). I've used a Ten-Tec RX320D SDR but it was
> made for SWL use and doesn't have the necessary sensitivity to do the
> job and TT abandoned it years ago.
>
> Anyone have a suggestion for replacement? Something like the receive
> section of a K3s would be nice... :)

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NK7Z

Re: (OT) It finally died...

Hi Phil,

I must second what Jim has to say about a general coverage rig and SDR.
I too use the RSP-1, and once it is in a metal case it is a really nice
rig.

The versatility is amazing. I am now using them for RFI detection, and
SWLing.

I also characterize my entire RFI background using the RSP-1 to create a
spectrogram of entire bands at a time. it spots every single RFI source
in the area at once, and displays the relationships they have to each
other.

See:
http://nk7z.net/sdr-rfi-survey-p1/
for an example of this.

My next project is to get the RSP-1 going on a Raspberry Pi.

73s and thanks,
Dave
NK7Z
http://www.nk7z.net

On 07/04/2017 06:26 PM, Jim Brown wrote:

> HI Phil,
>
> I suggest that you take a look at various SDR RX options and the
> half-dozen or so software programs written to control them. I have an
> SDR-Play RSP 1, about $130 from HRO, and a FunCube Dongle ProPlus, about
> $175 from the UK. These are both VERY versatile products, and have
> surprisingly good performance. There's a brief outline of their
> performance for chasing RFI in k9yc.com/KillingRXNoiseVisalia.pdf that
> is focused on their usefulness as spectrum displays to identify types of
> RFI, and to chase RFI. But they are good for FAR more than that. Here's
> a better summary of what's available.
>
> http://www.rtl-sdr.com/roundup-software-defined-radios/
>
> http://www.rtl-sdr.com/big-list-rtl-sdr-supported-software/
>
> ND0B, who has a serious VHF/UHF station and is one grid away from
> completing the FFMA award for working all 6M grids in the continental US
> (see his qrz.com page), says that he would not have worked our
> expedition to the very rare CM79 grid without an RTL dongle and Simon
> Brown's SDR Console software! He says it outperforms his Flex 6700 for
> sensitivity and noise. Simon, G4ELI, is a fine programmer, and was the
> author of the original Ham Radio Deluxe software, and a digital mode
> TX/RX program to go with it. He sold that software several years ago
> because support was pulling too much time away from programming.
>
> http://www.nn4f.com/SDR-Console-SDRPlay-RSP_QuickGuideTips.pdf
>
> http://sdr-radio.com/
>
> I've been busy with other projects, so haven't gone beyond loading
> software and verifying that everything works. I'd be willing to bet that
> there's free software to do damn near anything with these radios!
> There's software to trace aircraft beacons, decode broadcast TV in
> various formats, SWL, and ham operation. To use them as a SWL RX,
> simply plug the SDR into a USB port and listen on computer speaker,
> headphones, or a stereo rig connected to an audio output of the computer.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC