Please note: I am NOT belittling anyone's equipment. I am asking to be educated.
I have a serious question for you gents - given that most of the software is free, why is a SDR "box" so horrendously expensive? I've looked at the bills of materials and most of the hardware, including boards, could be "had" for $250 USD. SMT soldering isn't a problem for me, I do it frequently. What am I missing?
I've thought about sending commands to my xcvr via CAT (Yaesu) and use a DAQ card to monitor the IF output. I'll display it all with LabVIEW, and the DAQ card can give me 16 or 24 bits. I have (what is now considered a low-end card) that will give me 300K samples/second at 24 bits. Of course, this would be receive only.
SO, it's quite possible I'm completely missing something. Would one or more of you folks be kind enough to fill me in?
Thanks
LabVIEWguru