[K6BW] SoftRock40 Testimonial

[Bill Smith]

Here is one of the first QRP-L reports of the $25 SoftRock40 receiver.  This
is the kit we are planning to build as a club construction project.  With a
little experimentation, it can be made to cover more than the indicated
frequencies as all the "hard work" is done by the computer.

"I have my Softrock40 running.  It's plugged into an external USB hub for
power, and hooked up to my B & W broadband folded dipole.  I can find no
birdies within it's limited tuning range - 7.030 to 7.080 as specified in
the AMQRP info.  It is extremely sensitive, and copies signals within that
range as well as my K2 does, and that's saying something.  The K2 has by far
the best receiver of any rig I've ever owned.

All this talk about computer birdies and pc noise is pretty much unfounded.
There is NO noise apparent with the scope on the DC voltage line coming from
the USB port.

The computer is a Dell Dimension 8100, Pentium IV @ 1.4GHz and even with the
covers off, I still cannot find any birds attributable to the computer.

I AM using just the bare-bones, unsupported SoundBlaster PCI sound card
that's built into the Dell's motherboard.  It performs adequately for the
Soft Rock 40, but I would presume to say that if one had an SDR-1000, this
card would definitely be struggling.  My sampling rate is only 48 KHz, and
it still does very well.

It works as advertised, and maybe even better considering the low end sound
card I'm using.

Jim - W0EB"