Soundcard Interface Update
after much work, I got the VX1700 interface working. It would appear that the connection convention is a bit strange. From the service manual, Data OUT on the Data Jack…
SDR# as a visual panadaptor
It was a fun contest – this year’s sweepstakes threatened to not be a sweep for me – then again, i didn’t put a serious effort into it. I used…
USB Soundcard Interface
So, after much fussing and messing around with a rigblaster, I had had enough – I knew there must be a better way to interface to my FT1000. First, with…
Connectors… BNC, N, TNC, UHF, SMA… what?
OK, so everyone has their favorite type and installation method for RF connectors. While I’m not going to address everything, I’m going to describe my setup a bit, and the…
VX-1700 VFO mode
The VX1700 is a fairly nice radio, but it has one shortcoming from a flexibility standpoint – the VFO is not enabled by default, nor is it a simple software…
Return Loss, Part 2, or SDR VNA
After my last post on return loss, I ended up scouring eBay for a return loss bridge – or a set of directional couplers – to measure antennas and other…
Shack Reboot
I decided that it’s time to reconfigure the shack… this time using dispatch consoles. The main purpose is to limit the surfaces I can pile things on – and cut…
BC 780XLT IF Tap
Several years ago, I modified a Softrock kit to operate at 455 kHz. The main purpose behind this build was to add the ability to connect it to a receiver’s…
VRS 750 Interface Cable Build
Several months ago, I stumbled upon an eBay special on VRS-750’s. I picked one up for $50 – at that price, it was worth having a backup on the shelf.…
RSSI correlation
One interesting aspect of the BCD-996 and similar radios is the digital command and status protocol. In digging into the software, I learned that there is a RSSI (Relative Signal…