Hmm, interesting. I just read an article in CQ-VHF linked to from that
flexradio site you suggested, BLR. There's a whole new area there I didn't
know about. I'll just have to get one of these sdr's. Like the guy says,
it'll never get old, because you can simply reprogram it. If you have a new
idea you can program it and try it out instantly, try that with hardware.


"B L R" wrote in message
.. .

Google "SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO"

Here is one manufacture.

http://www.flex-radio.com/

The future is NOW.
It is as you described, functions previously preformed by hardware are now
done with software.

Consider Audio Filters versus Digital Signal Processing as an example.
DSP is now available as freeware for the PC and works wonderfully.
Radios will be cheaper, have more features and be more flexible.

"tom" wrote in message
news:AZLKd.202511$8l.31044@pd7tw1no...
Since personal computers are so powerful and cheap these days, I wonder
if there is a wideband reciever whose tuning function can be controlled
by PC, then it would simply be a matter of writing the software (or
finding pre-existing shareware) to change the frequency that the radio is
tuned to, and monitor the output of the reciever for signals, and you
would have essentialy the same thing as a thousand dollar winradio but
perhaps for a fraction of the cost.
I know that VHF transcievers can be interfaced with a PC to create
digital transcievers and all (almost all) of the functionality stems from
software subroutines instead of hardware on the transciever --- a
'software' implementation instead of a hardware one, if you will. Rather
than purchasing a hardware "Terminal Node Controller", you basically
emulate the Node controllers functions in software.
Could the same thing be accomplished with a reciever? Is there a
reciever out there that has solid state tuning that can easily be adapted
to being controlled by a PC? Or is there a really simple, clear-cut
reason why this is a bad idea, that I'm just not understanding (but
should be)?