[VHFcontesting] Fwd: 2m SDR, anyone?

[Keith Morehouse]

Hola Felipe...

 I always have a SDR running in the RX antenna loop of my FT-920 on
6M.   I'm looking at it as I type this and can see the occasional beacon
pop in on meteor scatter.  I run it on the coupled arm of a Mini-Circuits
1-100 MHz coupler with a LNA and attenuators to equalize that loop with
what I hear on the main antenna.  I use HDSDR and the SDR is equal to the
FT-920 in sensitivity almost exactly.  Of course, the SDR is MUCH more
subject to being "crunched" by strong signals, in and out of the band.  The
only BP filtering I use is what is native in the SDR (FM broadcast being
one) and the inherent "filtering" of the antenna system.

On 2M and above, I run transverters with 28 MHz IF's into a different radio
and do the same thing with another SDR that looks at approx. +/-100
kHz from 28.1 or 28.2 MHz, depending on what band I'm listening to.  With
this setup, I can see whats up on 2M when I'm working 6 during a contest,
or during a intense Es opening.  On 2M, I watch from approx 144.150 to
144.350 so I can see both activity and beacons, if they appear.

Both SDR's are integrated with HDSDR and a mouse click on the HDSDR screen
will tune the main radios to whatever freq the SDR is 'tuned' to.  I run a
separate computer on the IF radio for HDSDR and for WSJT, just in case I
need to TX on both radios at once.  There is very little activity on 2M and
above here so the idea is to have a visual indication of those few contest
Rovers that might show up or to see the first hint of potential Es on 2M
without having to actually listen, which can be a distraction.

-W9RM

Keith J Morehouse
Managing Partner
Calmesa Partners G.P.
Olathe, CO


On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 9:58 AM PY1NB - Felipe Ceglia <
felipeceglia2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello folks,
>
> Are you guys using VHF SDR transceivers or HF SDR + transverters for
> VHF-DX? Or even receive only SDR tied to the RX loop?
>
> I'd like to hear about your setup.
>
> 73,
>
> Felipe Ceglia - CT7ANO, PY1NB
>
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