SDR station update

Some time ago I set myself a task of turning my current beacon monitoring station into a low cost SDR based system. The idea has developed over time and the lack of simple low cost SDR receivers (I mean less than £100) meant that the only option was a Softrock kit.

At the time the only option was a TXRX kit that was fixed onto one band. A long wait after first thinking about this later and the HF lite kits came out. This allowed a receiver only to built. Next up comes the electrically switched BPF add on.

These kits seem to come in two flavours and as I type there aren't any available from tony's website.

So that's the rf side. On the computer side I have been looking various different options from ultra low power drain mchines like the fit pc through to the cheap atom based netbooks or even the original eeepc.

Obviously funding plays a large part in this and as a result that may force me down one particular route but I'd really like to go through the fit pc route as they claim to draw less than 10 watts which makes battery power fed from solar top up.

Still I'm a way off doing that but as the masters course comes to an end I may have a little extra time on my hands. Perhaps the xyl will present me a list of jobs to do instead!