SWL

Just in case Liechtenstein is suspected as the source of signals, best remember this: That nation's Frequency Allocations Plan and Specific Assignments (PDF) from 2005 indicates 5450.5 may be used for automatic DTS-Mail and voice, fixed or mobile (page 140, Annex 2).

The RAF may be the source of those weather reports. They reportedly make METARish transmissions at 5450.

The WBR Receiver is now pulling in 60m SSB from W3, W4, G1, and elsewhere. Removed a single winding from each side of L1 and a tagalong cap (10 picofarad?) in parallel at C8. Maximum signal was achieved by grounding the antenna center conductor at its entry to the board. (The signal pot still has little or no influence, so something else may be amiss.)

Great to have the "new" ham band in the ears for the first time since privileges were granted.

Nice foundation for a 60m band plan. It will be a help while I try to sort out frequencies and tuning range.

Edits 2007-03-06

At the top of my tuning range are NPR broadcasts carried on 5446.5 by American Forces Radio. AFR is just below some cross-Atlantic meteorological observations in a female voice.

Another useful resource via HFLINK.

Alerted by LA3ZA to 7N3WVM regen, which Sverre merged (PDF) with N1BYT's. Makoto suggests a ferrite bar antenna.

The 80m SoftRock Lite that I got 2 months ago received its first signals late this afternoon -- to my surprise. I didn't expect it to work without some troubleshooting!

Most of the build was done before Christmas, but I had to steal time to get the toroids wound and installed. One of them sat for 2 weeks on the workbench just waiting for me to turn on the soldering iron. This afternoon I finally did, then decided to keep going by attaching barebones connectors for power, antenna, and line-in.

Downloaded Rocky, attached a telescoping whip, clicked "Start Radio," and scratched my head till I selected the correct line-in settings to get some band noise out of the computer's speakers. Soon after, I was copying W1MK, then some other 1s, some 2s, someone in AZ, and a DX pileup. Very cool.

This $10 radio went together pretty easily without any special equipment beyond that needed for any other radio kit I've put together. It's an incredible bargain, but dangerous... now I'm eyeing the RXTXv6.1 and a Delta 44.

Ordered an 80m SoftRock Lite from Tony KB9YIG last night after discovering the $10 kit. SMT etc. Sheesh. Do we have a soundcard that can sample at 48 kHz?

Update: Yes. Onboard the Asus M2NPV is SoundMAX. Their FAQ #4 says "up to 48kHz sampling rate."

The contrast? Googling softrock lite brings up radio alright, but instead of SWLing on the low end of 80 meters it's sap between 92 and 107 MHz. Yuck.