[CQ-Contest] Skimmer Question- Have you used it?

[Paul Mackanos - K2DB]

Well, the 40 meter SDR is finished, and it works hihi. I just put skimmer on
it with a really horrible antenna, and guess what, it works fine. I just
copied the W1AW slow speed CW practice session, and it was perfect in its
decoding. Not that that means anything, but now I have a 40 meter RX and
skimmer and will be playing with it. 
A $10.00 investment in the kit and a few hours of kit building (yeh, I miss
that) and I have a new TOY!
Isn't that what this hobby is all about - having FUN and more TOYS?
Now it's a trip to Radio Shack for an enclosure, so-239 antenna connector,
stereo jack and power jack and it will be all done. This thing is really
small.
I even made a remote contact with it yesterday, transmitting remotely and
receiving at home. (Using ROCKY Software, I don't need skimmer to copy CW,
heck I beat out Skimmer at Dayton in the DX pile-Up) TX was 180 miles away,
RX with new SDR in home office. hihi
73 de 
Paul K2DB
If I ain't having fun - I ain't gonna do it!

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Mackanos - K2DB [mailto:k2db at k2db.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 9:41 AM
To: 'Cq-Contest'
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Skimmer Question- Have you used it?


How many of you have actually used Skimmer?

I mean, hooked it up, configured it and actually watched it decode?

I played with it a while ago, but did not have a SDR to really see what it
does with some bandwidth. So; I just opened up a Softrock Lite 40 meter SDR
kit from Tony Parks. I am going to build it, hope it works, then download
skimmer and set it up with the SDR.

I would guess, that after I actually use it, I may have something to opine
with.

In the meantime my take is this: if it brings people into the hobby - I am
all for it.

>From this point of view, I need to get with the technology to even play
with
it. SDR's are here and are going to stay, I would say Skimmer is here and it
is going to stay, best thing I can do is try it and see if I like it. If I
don't, then I won't use it; but after I use it, I will feel ok with an
opinion on it.

Paul K2DB

Heating up the soldering iron and looking for a magnifying glass hihi, those
surface mount parts are really tiny.