TV receiver dongle and bandscope?

[VK2TJF]

G'day,
I'm looking at using one of those little dongle receivers to view the HF band using an FT757. I've done a bit of a search on the internets but I'm keen to hear others experiences and links you've found in your travels.

I'm looking at tapping an IF on the txcvr, putting together an 'upconverter' or frequency mixer and connecting that to the 'dongle'. I don't need to control the radio with this set up, just view the band. (It's a way of keeping the young bloke interested. In this era of tV and internets I think he might need a screen in front of him!)

We looked at purpose built SDRs but we (I) really want to put something together.

Thanks,

Shane.
VK2TJF

[VK2TJF]

Thanks for the link Matt, the IF is a smidge over 8Mhz (I don't recall exactly.) I've seen a few pictures on the net of homebrew frequency mixers with built in filters and I reckon there must be some kits around out there, doesn't look too hard

[VK4FAKE]

This is what i used on my DVB-T RTL2832 E4000 device, i didnt order the kit, i just used the circuit diagram and made one on a prototype board, although the crystal i used was only 70mhz, and the 602 is crap, i used a 612AN instead, which is fine, the devices works fine on 48Mhz and above.

http://www.ct1ffu.com/site/hf-converter.pdf

[VK2EM]

Shane

You could have a look at the MDSRadio group on Yahoo Groups ... it may have what you need. It is an IF DSP kit that they have enabled to fit in many radios, with different IF's. They also have developed software for the kit, which includes a Spectrum Analyser.

The group may be found here...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mdsradio/

73

Bruce Vk2EM