Today I finished the prototype microprocessor board. I added the smd components on the copper side and I hope to start programming next week.

The LCD display and the band/bandsegment switches are mount and I soldered the wires to the connectors.

Now I can mount the brainboard and start programming. As a result the band/segment information will appear on the LCD display.

I wrote a small program already for my EasyPic3 system and will convert the code to this project.

So coming soon the first resulys..........

To show you some results watch the photo's

Today I added the mikrobasic listing to the previos blog. I had to convert it to a .txt file because of the attachment requirements.

Sorry, most comments are in dutch but if somebody needs a translation I will give it a try.

Next step is building a new processor board with the SI570. Because I don't want to use the DDS 60 as a dedicated SDR oscilator.

I will mill the pcb but I have trouble getting the material in line with the mill. So I first have to made a measuring tool to get the raw pcb material in place/line.

I tried to connect the DDS 60 to the 80m version of the Softrock lite. I removed the cristal and connected the DDS60 via 220pF to theSoftrock. I programmed the DDS 60 to generate 8 times the needed frequenty and showed on the LCD the base frequenty. It was working perfect!

With the keyboard I can set the start frequenty and with the dial I can also step in 10Khz steps!

 Next project will be using the SI570 to generate the osc frequenty!

I discovered why the photo can't be seen! I placed the html page on the url instead of the filename of the photo!!

Stupid me. The first photo is the 40m pcb mounted in a small box 60*40* 25 mm

This box is also made with the CNC milling tool, see the next photo.

This is the first entry as a picture I hope it will work!

The PCB is now finished and the only thing which is missing is the antenna connector and the audio entries and power jacks

This will be completed during the weekend!

I also will make some pictures from the LCD panel and I will explain how I make my PCB's

For making PCB's I build a CNC milling machine which can make PCB's 160mm to 46mm as the biggest dimensions ( telerange 0,02 mill!)

Last night the SI570 arrived! Also the new PIC development tool EasyPick 5 from Mikroelectronica.

I planned to make a small PCB with the SI570 , LCD display and some switches. This PCB will act as a all band 40khz raster signal generator for the SoftRock lite receiver. Also bandpass filter switching will be included.

Front with LCD and switches are ready. I will use the 16F877A because of the big amount of I/O on the chip and the I2C unit.

73 Andre PA0AKV

Hello there!

It took some time but now I did start to build the first two SoftRock lite kits!

I finished the 40m version and I was very supprised about the first receptions I did.

With 2 times 10m longwire about 6m above ground a lot of stations from Europe where heard. Also PSK31 (Rocky software) was clear to see!

I use the SoundBlaster Live 24! on my Acer laptop and everything seems to be ok.

With the cristal supplied in the kit only 40Khz can be covered but still it is a mirakle! 4cubic centimeters and this performance.