Hello,
Anyone figure out (assuming it's doable at all) how to get the vhf/uhf frequencies capabilities of a Dongle into
a WinRadio Excalibur, which normally has a <50 MHz upper limit ?
Would sure be nice to hear vhf/uhf on Excalibur.
Thanks,
Bob
Check your PMs, I responded to your PM to me there
Short answer, the Excalibur can not be modified to work above 50 MHz all by itself, but it can be used with some other front end to give you coverage above the 50 MHz limit. You can either build a front end specifically to down convert to the Excalibur or you can use an already built radio with an IF output in the range of the Excalibur. I have done both, but the simplest is naturally using a radio with an IF output compatible with the Excalibur.
You can even use a very simple old analogue scanner, as long as it has an unfiltered or very widely filtered IF.
Here is a shot of the Excalibur receiving ~451 to ~464 MHz. This was done with an Icom R8500 as the front end.
http://www.pbase.com/token/image/141428064/original.jpg
Here is a shot of the Excalibur receiving ~144 to ~148 MHz (entire 2 meter band). This was done using an old $15 thrift store scanner as a front end. The scanner did have to be modified to bring the unfiltered 10.7 MHz IF out.
http://www.pbase.com/token/image/145218212/original.jpg
Note that this is not Excalibur specific, I have done the same thing with pretty much every HF limited SDR I have owned. Here is an image of the SDR-IQ receiving 174.31 MHz. The important thing in this image is the squiggly lines going back and forth, that was the goal of the exercise. Those tracks are the Doppler shift of aircraft landing and taking off from Los Angeles International (passive radar application).
http://www.pbase.com/token/image/131225812/original.jpg
T!
