Hi Robert,

Thank you for your candid assessment. After looking over the website, I decided that a kit form wouldn't be a good choice for me (and I love to build!) So, the assembled unit does look like a good option.

I wish you had some performance reports!

On the other hand, maybe you just gave me one ;)

73 and I hope you get it going.

Mark N8MH

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Robert Liesenfeld xunil@xunil.net wrote:

Hi Mark-

I'm the friend Owen refers to; I just built a Soft66ADI.  I keep meaning to do a blog post about it, but I'll summarize here.

I really liked the form factor of the Soft66; the software-selectable BPFs and the fact that the control software is open source really sealed the deal for me.  I ordered the unassembled kit, with the aluminum enclosure for which it was intended.

The build instructions were baffling in parts, due to being written by a native Japanese speaker (JA7TDO, the kit's creator).  They're not incomprehensible, but he chooses some strange words sometimes.  Added to this is the fact that the schematic lacks component values, IC labels, and occasionally flat-out contradicts the PCB and parts supplied.  For instance on one of the BPFs, the schematic showed a capacitor, the PCB seemed to call for a capacitor (e.g. C23), but the parts list had C23 as an inductor.  I emailed JA7TDO and asked him about this, he confirmed that the inductor was the correct part.  The voltage regulator IC was listed as one thing on the PCB, and something else entirely on the parts list; if there had been more than one device with a similar package this would have been a show-stopper.

Issues like this lead me to advise against ordering this as a kit.  So far I have not been able to get mine to work in xlinrad, Rocky, or any other SDR software, but this might be due to the lack of a decent receive antenna.  If improving the antenna doesn't yield results, I'm afraid I'll have to haul out the oscilloscope... I dread this because the schematic is worse than useless, and requests to the author for advice have so far yielded very terse replies, which left me with more questions than answers.  Finally, there's no indication of test points or any voltages or waveforms I should see at certain points, so I'll have to puzzle it all out on my own.

I really ought to dig out that softrock rxtx kit and finish it...  anyway, hope this helps.

Robert AK6L

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Owen B. Mehegan owen@nerdnetworks.orgwrote:

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Message: 17 Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:35:19 -0500 From: "Mark L. Hammond" marklhammond@gmail.com Subject: [amsat-bb]  Anybody use a Soft66ADD SDR? To: Amsat - BBs amsat-bb@amsat.org Message-ID:       5d8cecfe1002101035x35f07d7dpc047e54cf120a4aa@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Found this today, look interesting.  Prices are quite reasonable (if not cheap).  Performance is the question..  I suppose the quality of the system sound card is a big issue.

Anybody here own one or seen one in use?

How about piping a 10.7 MHz IF into it for VHF/UHF?

http://zao.jp/radio/soft66ad/

-- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

A friend of mine just bought and assembled one. He said that the instructions were pretty poor... the parts list and schematic didn't always match up and he had to do a fair amount of head-scratching (and I think bang-head-on-desk-ing) to get it built. He was not impressed with that aspect. I haven't yet heard how well it's working as a radio. I'll ask him and let you know.

-- Owen B. Mehegan (KJ6AKQ)

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Sebastian wrote:

I looked at the kit, and when I saw surface mount ICs, I said no way. Most people don't have the equipment, eyesight or steady hands to solder a surface mount IC. Maybe those parts are already soldered in the kit, I really couldn't tell from the web site.

I started looking into this last year and it looks to me like the only equipment absolutely needed to solder a surface mount IC is a temperature-controlled soldering iron and a good magnifier. I can't speak to the steady hands part, and there certainly is equipment that can be purchased that helps make the job easier, but I would expect anyone who does a lot of building to have a decent soldering iron, and magnifiers are available various places.

I also think that the IC's would be a whole lot easier to see and work with than the discrete components, or are you saying that the surface-mount IC's imply surface-mount resistors, capacitors, etc?

The thing is, if you're going to build equipment, you'd best get used to working with surface-mount parts, because that's the way the world is going. While it is certainly possible for people to be physically incapable of working with them, I'd hope that people would do some research into the matter, and give it a shot before concluding that they couldn't do it. Thereby psyching themselves out of doing something they're perfectly capable of.

There are a number of on-line tutorials and surface-mount practice projects that should allow anyone who wants to find out for themselves whether or not they can do it, and without spending a lot of money.

People interested in finding out more should check out my links page:

http://www.ka8kpn.org/links.html

!DSPAM:195,4b741274187032112795933!