Topband: DSP-based technology

[K4IQJ]

Doug,

Sorry for the delay in responding.  We left on vacation right after I posted 
my first message.

At this point, all the phasing/gain adjustments are manual.  Automatic mode 
is way off, and for weak signal reception with lousy
signal-to-noise ratios, I expect automatic steering/peaking will be 
problematic.  I do plan to look at this eventually.

The electronic phasing allows one to easily compensate for coax lengths and 
variations, as well as gain variations thoughout the whole system.
Theoretically, you can place the antennas almost anywhere, although the 1/4 
wave four-square seems to have some of the most useful
patterns.  Also, there is no restriction on the gain assigned to each 
antenna.

One has almost too much freedom.
For example, one can experiment with using three antennas to peak signals 
and the fourth for noise cancellation.

K1LT is working with a Softrock based system.
He has posted info in the past and gave a presentation at Dayton this year.
The presentation can be downloaded from his website.

Dick, K4IQJ