[Elecraft] Connecting CWSkimmer to my K3

[Bill Conwell]

Hi Mark,

 

Coincidentally, I just got Skimmer running for first time this weekend, from
the IF of my K3.

 

You don’t need to sweat the sound card sampling rate if you run it off the
IF.  The CW Skimmer software – in the K3 IF mode – only processes +/- 12 khz
around the frequency to which the K3 is tuned.  So a sampling rate of 48 KHz
is more than you need.  (But you do need a sound card with stereo mic or
line inputs – lots of laptops have only a mono mic input.)

 

I am having a problem with images on strong stations that I hope will cure
itself over time.  (The CW Skimmer software does an on-going analysis of
balance between I and Q channels, and develops correction factors over time
to perform accurate I/Q balancing.)

 

My particular setup is an Ensemble II SDR ($92 assembled; $67 as a kit)
connected to the K3’s IF output.  I set the CFGSR software (which controls
the SDR’s si570 synthesized oscillator) to 8227 KHz.  (The K3 IF is at 8215
KHz.)  I’ve tuned my K3 to 7.025 MHz and left it there since the weekend,
developing a flow of several hundred spots in that time.

 

Next on my project list is to try connecting the antenna directly to the
SDR, rather than driving the SDR from the K3 IF.  For that, I ordered a used
E-MU 0204 external sound card off EBay this week - $101.  It has a 192 KHz
sampling rate, which should allow band-wide skimming.

 

73,

 

/Bill, K2PO

Portland, OR

 

Ø  Good Morning, This is Mark Griffin, KB3Z and I am seriously considering
using CWSkimmer with my K3. 

Ø  But it seems that some of the sound cards that I might use are not
available. I have heard about the 

Ø  SDR-IQ, but I don't think I can connect that to the IF Output on the K3
and still use it for CWSkimmer. 

Ø  Has anyone used CWSkimmer with their K3? And I hate to ask a stupid
question, but how did you connect 

Ø  everything to get it to work? Any help or suggestions, would be
appreciated. Mark KB3Z