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The Softrock uses a crystal that is approximately four times the frequency
you want to receive. It has to be a fundamental mode crystal; the
oscillator circuit is not designed for overtone crystals. That is divided
by four by the divider circuit that generates the quadrature signals. The
30 and 20 meter versions, and some of the IF versions, use 1/3 subharmonic
sampling because fundamental mode crystals for the necessary frequencies
were not readily available at the time.

The crystal frequencies used in the Softrock kits for IF frequencies are
listed on this page:
They were all
chosen from crystals that could be bought as stock. No option for 9 MHz is
listed, but the 9.015 is close enough, and the required 11.98135 MHz
crystal is still available from Digi-Key and Mouser.

An alternative that is possible now, but which wasn't at the time that Tony
Parks designed the kit, would be to use a 36 MHz crystal. You would have to
move it at least 20 kHz away from that nominal frequency (either side will
do) so that the LO would end up 5 kHz away. You can probably get it moved
that far by adjusting the load capacitance. 36 MHz fundamental mode
crystals are now available, though only in SMD packages.

One further note: the IF of your TenTec is probably not EXACTLY at 9 MHz.
It actually depends on the specific crystals in the filter and varies with
component tolerances; the rig was aligned to match the actual filter. So
the signals in your Softrock could appear in a slightly different place
than you expect.

On Fri, Mar 3, 2023 at 3:51?AM Steve Ireland <stevevk6vz@...>
wrote:

G'day

I have an old Softrock V6 which for many years was used to tap into the
8.215MHz second IF of a Yaesu FT-1000 and provide a panadapter using

HDSDR

and CW Skimmer.

I'd like to get hold of the appropriate crystal to use this SR as a
pandapter with a tap off a Ten Tec Orion and Eagle 9MHz IF.

Please can someone let me know what the appropriate Softrock crystal
frequency is (this info no longer seems readily available) and, if
possible, where a crystal of this frequency can be obtained?

Thank you!

Vy 73

Steve, VK6VZ/G3ZZD

G'day

I have an old Softrock V6 which for many years was used to tap into the
8.215MHz second IF of a Yaesu FT-1000 and provide a panadapter using HDSDR
and CW Skimmer.

I'd like to get hold of the appropriate crystal to use this SR as a
pandapter with a tap off a Ten Tec Orion and Eagle 9MHz IF.

Please can someone let me know what the appropriate Softrock crystal
frequency is (this info no longer seems readily available) and, if
possible, where a crystal of this frequency can be obtained?

Thank you!

Vy 73

Steve, VK6VZ/G3ZZD

On Feb 25, 2023, at 8:30 PM, Peter Matsunaga <petermatsun@...> wrote:

?Warren, what you said struck a note - something like this happened when I
was testing a few days ago but I didn't chase it down.
It is an easy test with this Behringer soundcard which uses rca jacks for
line input right and line input left from the softrock.
The cable has 3mm stereo jack plugged into softrock output. The other end
of the cable has rca plug right and rca plug left.
softrock tuned to 10mhz so I have wwvh test signal. Tried it.
{ out on an errand. Back again. }
Here's what happened.
Either softrock channel plugged into the left input of the USB soundcard
'works' but input to the right channel produces no signal for the HDSDR
program. Either L or R softrock output channel produces a signal ( with
mirror images) in HDSDR when plugged into the Left channel of the USB audio
as might be expected.

So there is a problem on the Right channel on the Behringer. ( i need to
find some other signal to inject on that input to double check too.)
Doesn't rule out a windows driver issue either (and that's a way down the
rabbit hole). And still not sure about the IQ, but a stereo input issue is
back to #1 suspect so gotta chase that down.

My other USB audio device ( Sabent - used for FT8 on my macbook ) uses 3mm
stereo plugs input. questionable spec. ..it produces the mirror image
too.. I'd need to make a 3mm stereo breakout to try the L/R swap on it.

jeez- lack of stereo - is back on top of the suspect list - for sure I'm
not getting rid of the mirror image until I solve that.

thanks for the suggestion Warren.

If we get stereo back and I still have a problem then we'll go back to the
PCB of the softrock and check out Alan's suggestion.

thanks for the help - P

On Thu, Feb 23, 2023, 4:28 AM Warren Allgyer <allgyer@...> wrote:

Peter

Have you tried disconnecting the right and left channel inputs to your
sound card alternatively. If one is missing the disconnecting it will have
no effect or the signal will go away completely. The one that has no effect
would be the one that is missing.

WA8TOD
Warren Allgyer

Peter

Have you tried disconnecting the right and left channel inputs to your
sound card alternatively. If one is missing the disconnecting it will have
no effect or the signal will go away completely. The one that has no effect
would be the one that is missing.

WA8TOD
Warren Allgyer

question : Are there any components that can be burned out or degraded by RFI that would affect the quadrature output?

background--

I built this ensemble II years ago and it's has worked perfectly in the radio shack.
A year or two ago it seems to have developed a mirror image problem including on a not so new Win10 I3 machine that used to work fine with it that I still use.
It shows mirror images on my macbook, a win10 laptop, another Win10 workstation, or a new Win11 desktop.
Realizing that some new computers and my own in particular, do not support a stereo mic input and/or are extremely vague in their techinical spec for the internal sound cards, I tried several USB cards, the latest, a Behringer UCA202 USB unit that definitely supports stereo inputs. No joy on any computer.

All that circumstantially isolates the problem to the Ensemble II itself.

The ensemble II still receives and tunes fine but I cannot eliminate the mirror image on the display. Both left and right outputs work. (one alone would produce a mirror image).
But combined, the quad phase difference should remove the mirror image.

Finally - before giving up, I consulted (I probably used that doc to assemble it - the websites have changed in that time ... ) ... checked voltages, etc.
I inspected the traces with magnification for shorts, found nothing, but reflowed anything suspicious.

I don't have a scope which would probably nail the problem down.

Q: what next?
Q: which components can malfunction (.e.g. burned out or degraded by RFI ) and affect the quadrature output?

thanks all, Peter KH6DK