[Elecraft] K3 and SDR Integration

[Alexandru Csete]

On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:22:53 +0200
"Simon Brown (HB9DRV)" <simon at hb9drv.ch> wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bill Tippett" <btippett at alum.mit.edu>
> 
> >         W0YK's comment about missing the Pro3 bandscope
> > reminded me of this.  I hope someone (K8ZOA, HB9DRV,
> > N4PY or ?) will look into integrating SDR software (Rocky,
> > PowerSDR, etc) with the K3 and Softrock hardware on the
> > K3's 8.215 MHz IF output.  What I would love to see is:
> >
> > 1.  A bandscope display (good sensitivity and resolution).
> > 2.  The ability to place a cursor on a signal of interest.
> > 3.  Clicking the cursor moves the K3 VFO to that frequency.
> > 4.  Perhaps add a waterfall display for weak signal work.
> >
> 
> I personally think that going the SDR route is overkill - and requires a
> ton of code. But - having had a bandscope on my IC-7800 (now sold) I
> would dearly like a bandscope. I do hope that Wayne and Eric and their
> friends will investigate and design this once the dust settles later
> this year.
> 
> I honestly don't want to get inside the SDR code - I just don't have the 
> time. At one stage I was planning to do this but I'm having to spend 
> significant time on my commercial activities.
> 
> An Elecraft or Elecraft-approved bandscope with a serial or USB
> interface would be my preference so that I can integrate it with my
> software.
> 

Sounds like something one could do with a cheap pc-based oscilloscope,
such as the bitscope http://www.bitscope.com/ (cheap considering that they
promise 100MHz analog bandwidth and 40MS/s sampling).
You can get them with RS232, USB, or ethernet interface. The software
interface docs are available on the website and they even give you an
interface library for windows and linux :-)

73
Alex OZ9AEC