In true ham fashion, where we are typically so tight ( money wise), that we squeak when we walk, I found a really neat little device that opens many SDR doors, for next to nothing, relatively. My primary HF rig at home is a Yaesu FT-950. I've been looking at the DMU-2000 from yaesu for the panadapter features like bandscope & waterfall display. The DMU-2000 provides that, plus waveform visualization, swr, & other features, I'm not as interested in, and costs about $1200. The device is this software defined receiver that I found on Amazon. It's actually sold as an over the air TV receiver. This is about the size of a large USB memory stick and plugs into a PC USB port. It has an antenna connection and includes a small antenna. This thing operates from like 24MHz through 1700MHz. My FT-950 utilizes a 65.45MHz IF and includes a simple TMP coax connection on the IF board for the DMU-2000 connections. 65.45MHz is within the range of the device and when combined with free software, I can get an effective panadapter with some rig control through the standard CAT interface as well. I just ordered one and am sourcing some cables to interface it to the radio. I originally put two in my cart, but decided I would do some testing before I wasted another $10 on a second one.
Fascinated with this SDR, I began searching for more info and found some other interesting projects, such as AIS receiver that utilizes openCPN for plotting. Might be the absolute cheapest way to get AIS. Here's a link for more info on the AIS utilization.
I thought you guys might be interested in this and would like to hear your opinions.
Fascinated with this SDR, I began searching for more info and found some other interesting projects, such as AIS receiver that utilizes openCPN for plotting. Might be the absolute cheapest way to get AIS. Here's a link for more info on the AIS utilization.
I thought you guys might be interested in this and would like to hear your opinions.