[hpsdr] New RF Digitizer

[Philip Covington]

On 11/14/06, Lyle Johnson <kk7p at wavecable.com> wrote:
> > One advantage that the SDR-IQ has is that it is powered completely
> > over USB which is very nice for laptops.  The power consumption of the
> > LTC2208 alone will never allow this for HPSDR Mercury (BTW, the OZY
> > *can be* powered by USB - this is one of the modifications made to the
> > alpha 2 board).
> >
> > I have to say that I am *very* tempted to order the SDR-IQ... looks
> > like a very nice device.  If I can convince the XYL that I need an
> > early XMAS present maybe I will...;-).  I wonder when they will be
> > shipping?
>
> First 100 units get a special price, scheduled to ship in January. I put
> my name in the queue last night :-)
>
> I've found the SDR-14 to be very handy in the shack for Tx measurements
> and the like.  I haven't found the limited dynamic range (see QST
> Product Review , December 2005) to be an issue when I've played with it
> as a general purpose receiver, but I am looking forward to Mercury with
> some suitable front end filtering. I view the SDR-14 as a spectrum
> analyzer that can double as a receiver; I'm hoping Mercury will be a
> receiver which can double as a spectrum analyzer...
>
> Lyle KK7P
>

There is a high resolution picture of the SDR-IQ on the SDR-IQ yahoo
group in the files section.  There appears to be a FTDI chip on board
and it appears to be connected to the USB.  I wonder why they used the
FTDI chip instead of the Atmel USB interface?  Maybe the Atmel USB was
not fast enough to do even 192 kHz? Interesting...

I also wonder if there is provision to power the board from an
external power supply instead of USB.  I would think you would have to
be careful with the power supply filtering to use the USB power from
the PC.

Nice board from seeing the high resolution pics... Looks like it will
be available in Jan 2007.

Ok, enough of me oogling the SDR-IQ... I have to get back to crappy
Work work... :-(

Phil N8VB

 1163521862.0