SDR transceiver: Genesis Radio G11

July is here, and this means time for vacation! In Denmark, it's normal to have 3 weeks vacation during the summer. I spend much time with my family. But there is also time available for radio projects. I've purchased a Genesis Radio kit G11. This is a 10 W all-mode SDR transceiver, and it covers all bands between 160 meters and 6 meters with the optional filter kit. The standard version covers 5 bands.

I bought the G11 kit from a fellow ham, who did not have time for construction. The building effort on my side is expected to be reasonable, since several hundred SMD parts are factory fitted. My job is to mount and solder about 100 through-hole components including toroids, different connectors and relays. Genesis Radio estimates about 10 hours of work on this part.

Here is a picture of my G11 PCB as of today. The RX part is almost finished, except for toroids. No components are fitted on the TX part.

Genesis Radio G11 board (TX not finished).

G11 assembly has been straight forward until now. The only difficulty was the USB interface. I could not load a G11 driver for Windows 7 (64 bit). When I replaced the 64-bit PC with another PC running 32 bit Windows, the driver installed immediately.

The G11 documentation is adequate. Several hundred people have built this SDR transceiver, and their knowledge is collected in a Yahoo group: GenesisRadio which is active and helpful.

73 de OZ1BXM Lars Petersen, homepage http://oz1bxm.dk/

SMD = Surface Mounted Device
SDR = Software Defined Radio
RX = Receiver
TX = Transmitter