By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ scopes out a real deal for the do-it-yourself ham radio crowd.

Having written about ham radio kits here recently, Larry Wolfgang, WR1B, the editor of QEX, e-mailed me information that he thought Surfin’ readers of the do-it-yourself variety might find interesting: A special deal on a DSP evaluation board from Texas Instruments.

In his November/December 2011 QEX “SDR: Simplified” column, Ray Mack, W5IFS, introduces an inexpensive DSP development platform, the Texas Instruments TMS320C5535 eZdsp board. This evaluation board is on sale at the TI eStore for $55. This sale only lasts until October 24. After that, the cost goes back to the normal price of $99. Interested readers may want to take advantage of this special off by going to the C5535 eZdsp USB Stick Development Kit webpage.

Spectrum Digital manufactures the eZdsp board for TI. It contains a TMS320C5535 DSP chip along with a USB audio device and an embedded JTAG debugger that connects to your development PC by way of a USB cable.

The C5535 is a low power DSP intended for use in USB sound card applications or other limited power DSP and microcontroller applications. The evaluation board has numerous facilities that make it a candidate for soft rock types of systems. The codec can produce 192 kHz stereo record or playback, which fits well with the PowerSDR software.

There are a few features that make the system worthwhile even at the regular price. It ships with a Lenovo microphone plus stereo earbuds, a complete DSP software development system, a 2 gigabyte memory card and a very small organic LED graphic display. Shipping and handling is included in the price.

The board is out of stock at this time, but you can place an order and they will ship the board to you as soon as they become available.

Until next time, keep on surfin’!

Editor’s note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, likes sweet deals. To contact Stan, send e-mail or add comments to the WA1LOU blog.