KB9YIG﻿﻿

KB9YIG

6/20/2015

Episode 046 - Tony parks - KB9YIG

After a career in electronics engineering, Tony Parks, KB9YIG, returned to ham radio, after thirty years, to find it very different than when he first started in the 1950s. Upon returning in 2000, Tony discovered software defined radio or SDR, where he saw an opportunity to build starter kits for HF SDR receivers that became the Softrock SDR kits. Tony joins Eric, 4Z1UG to discuss SDR and Softrock.

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Tony is the owner and proprieter of FiveDash, Inc. makers of the SoftRock SDR radios.

Real Name: Robert Anthony Parks - his mom called him Tony from Anthony - and it stuck for 74 years.

First License: Novice, KN6CUZ, Age 12, 1953
Upgrade to General Class, K6CUZ, 1953

First Club: Silvergate Amateur Radio Club, San Diego

First Rig: Hallicrafters S38C Receiver, ARC5 transmitter converted to 40 meter CW

Education:

Work Places:
General Electric, Burlington VT - gun turrents
Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis - glucose monitors

Current Rigs:
Elecraft K1 and K2 from kits.

Sofware Defined Radio:

Flex radio board stack SDR 1000 in 2002
What is Software Defined Radio?
Tony's Softrock Company - FiveDash, Inc.
Rocky 3.7 software support cW and PSK31

WSPR - weak signal propagation reporter using MEPT_JT digital mode to report propagation using QRP signals.

Quadrature Detector - detector used in SDR radios.

Raspberry Pi softrock receiver

Softrock Android app - VK3TWO’s SDR website

PCB Express - free schematic capture and board layout software.

For Electronic Parts:

FST3253 8 channel rf switch- used in SoftRock for band switching

Softrock Contributors:

PE0FKO - Fred Krom - firmware design for the ensemble
Richard Robson WB5RVZ - step by step build instructions website

PowerSDR Software by Flex Radio - software that can be downloaded and used with the SoftRock radios.

Links:
Softrock SDR at FiveDash, Inc.
Softrock Yahoo Group
SoftRock Pages. Initial Configuration
Additional SoftRock Links

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Flexradio SDR1000

Elecraft K1 2 Band CW Transceiver

SoftRock RXTX Ensemble Transceiver Kit

7 Comments

Josiah KE0BLL

6/22/2015 03:13:22 am

I'm so glad you are recording these stories. I've considered a softrock for awhile for its potential as a hackable platform. I'm also thinking about the TenTec 507 Patriot. I think my ideal platform would be a Softrock I could build with an Uno32 or similar so I could add things like a display and buttons/dials for easier control quickly outside a computer. For radio purposes, a mouse and keyboard seem like awkward and slow controls.

Maybe I really just need to build a RasPi or BeagleBone enclosure to sit on top of a SoftRock.

Eric 4Z1UG

6/23/2015 04:11:32 pm

Josiah - the great thing about amateur radio is that you can try whatever you want with the SoftRock and share it with the rest of us. Interface a big dial to your Raspberry Pi - and make the SoftRock look like a "radio". HiHi.

Tony Fishpool G4WIF

7/21/2015 12:30:19 am

In this podcast Eric correctly stated that the TV dongles when used for SDR ran out of puff when tuned low into the shortwave bands.

However they can be modified to work fairly well and this process was recently covered in the GQRP club magazine Sprat (issue 162).

Some resources have been made available on our website and can be found here:-
http://www.gqrp.com/sprat.htm

72/3 Tony G4WIF

Eric 4Z1UG

7/21/2015 05:11:30 pm

Tony,

Thanks for your comment and the link to modify the TV dongle for HF. The price of these dongles is so cheap that it seems quite possible to build a DC to Light receiving station for under $100.00.

Tony Fishpool

7/21/2015 05:29:14 pm

Eric (and others interested in cheap SDR), the GQRP website material will get you started with a DC to light TV dongle set up for around 10 dollars, but you can improve the HF performance considerably without the modification simply by adding a converter. of course, it ends up costing a little more but still way under the 100 dollars you mention.
I imported a very nice converter from "nooelec" called the "Ham it up" converter - currently around 45 dollars. Here is the web page.
http://www.nooelec.com/store/sdr/sdr-accessories/ham-it-up.html

This really works well and you retain the ability to switch out the converter and tune VHF/UHF on the dongle.

The bonus in this set up is a poor mans spectrum analyser with some additional (and free) software called "RTLSDR Scanner" from this address http://eartoearoak.com/software/rtlsdr-scanner

It is certainly possible to use this to get a good feel for the performance of filters and such by injecting wideband noise in, and then observing the response on the output.

At the risk of this being a plug, there has been quite a lot of coverage in the past two issues of the GQRP Club magazine. You can find us at www.gqrp.com

There is also masses of material here:-
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/

72/3
Tony G4WIF

Bill McMillan

7/23/2015 11:51:49 am

Great QSO...I had the pleasure of building a Soft-Rock Ensemble receiver and would like to point out that, if nothing else, it is a great project for honing your surface mount soldering skills. There is a voltage regulator chip which has 5 solder points and the entire chip is about the size of half a grain of rice! The only solder I had at the time was thicker than two of the pads....which meant I had to purchase thinner solder....and a much better soldering station with a much finer tip. All good things because I now feel confident that I can tackle any SMT project.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tony in Dayton the year before last. He told me he builds several dozen of the kits each year and I said that would make him my hero!

Wonderful products and a great company to deal with... I just wish the SDR software was easier to understand.

Bill
N0YUD

Guy Mengel link

1/9/2018 08:44:21 am

Here's the correct link for how a quadrature detector works:
http://jaunty-electronics.com/blog/2012/09/how-it-works-quadrature-detector/

Love this PODCAST!

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Episode 046 - Tony parks - KB9YIG

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