[hpsdr] Horton Rx bands

[Grant Hodgson]

Is Horton going to be amateur bands only or general coverage 1-30MHz?  I can't
find anything in the Wiki about this.

Reason for asking is that I'm looking closely at the microwave LO being
proposed for Horton.  If Horton is make amateur-bands only then this makes the
LO generation somewhat easier.  Also, if the intention is to get absolute
best-in-class Rx performance, comparable to the Orion/PT800/IC7800/CDG2000
etc. then it makes sense to restrict it to the amateur bands only.  This is
what Ten-Tec have done, and is also the approach used on the CDG2000.

Details of the CDG2000 can be found at

www.warc.org.uk/cdg2000/The%20CDG2000%20Transceiver.htm

For those that don't know about this magnificant radio, it was designed to be
a transceiver with absolute cutting edge performance, especially on Rx.  And
that is what it achieved - the close-in IMD outperforms the IC-7800 for example.

If the decision has not been made,  then I would highly recommend that Horton
is restricted to the amateur bands only, and then tweak every stage to
get the best performance.  The LO is absolutely critical for
good performance, and trying to achieve general coverage could either degrade
the performance or add considerable extra complexity/work/time etc. - look at
the PT8000 for an example of how complex a top-notch general coverage receiver
could be - beautiful radio, I wonder how many man-years it took to develop it?

Mercury would serve as an excellent general coverage Rx for those that want
that sort of thing.

regards

Grant G8UBN