I asked Steve for permission to re-print his note because I think its important to share his enthusiasm with the community
Hi Lee
Well, I can guarantee that there are at least two folks who are spending valuable time each on your blog, you and me!
I really enjoy it and here is some info for you about me. I was licensed at age 10 as WN1ZPT and was very active through high school and college. My college, Johns Hopkins University, had a nice station in a dedicated small building. Well, that was a long time ago, and about 6 months ago I was bit by the ham bug again. The web helped me to get caught up and the changes in the hardware, licensing requirements, digital modes, etc were simply amazing. But SDR really caught my eye and I have been educating myself day and night about the benefits of using a fast PC to become the radio with a little help from a nicely designed box by Flex Radio.
My 5000A is due today and a nice Dell box arrived yesterday, so I am pretty well set to plunge into SDR in a big way. Your blog has been very helpful and encouraging. I just don’t see what the Elecraft guys see in the K3. They are living in the dark ages. PCs are a reality of life and the PowerSDR application gets better almost every day. Sure, I was once a knob twister, but my mouse skills are also superb.
Keep up the work on your blog. I learn something everyday and will never look back a dual conversion superhets. The real challenge is now antennas!
73s
Steve Silverman
Newly licensed as KB3SII, a 66 year old white guy still doing satellite communications engineering for a living and loving it
I know a couple other satellite communications guys that find SDR fascinating as well. I am glad to have Steve's support and I know he will love his new radio. When I was at the Orlando hamfest last month, at the SDR talk the tent was full of some old timers who were interested in seeing just what all the hubbub was all about. It was very cool to see the interest.
Right now I am looking into starting to build that Softrock V9.0 I bought last week.
(check out Atsushi's slide show here) The base of my magnifier light failed so I'm spending the afternoon over-engineering its replacement. NO WAY JOSE I can build this thing with out my magnifier----> I'm blind without it when it comes to those little parts!!! Check out this video You see! This stuff isn't that hard!! Get "on" your duff and build one!! (DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BUILD THIS IF YOU ARE OFF YOUR DUFF!!)
73
