TAPR/AMSAT DSP-93

This product is no longer available.

In July 1988, TAPR and AMSAT entered into the Joint DSP Program, in order to fund the development of an eventual DSP unit for amateur usage. As of the 1993 Dayton Hamvention, the direction of development was focused on a modular, standalone DSP system proposed by Bob Stricklin, N5BRG, in Dallas, Texas. The Stricklin KISS design, later renamed DSP-93, offered many of the things that the initial design goals of the project had specified. Fifteen months after the decision was made to proceed with the DSP-93 development, TAPR and AMSAT were proud to announce that orders for kits would be taking place July 15th through August 31st for the first 150 units. The DSP-93 was supplied as a complete kit (including box and power supply).

Listen to DSP-93 Description

DSP-93 Design

The DSP-93 is designed to provide radio amateurs the wonderful capabilities of Digital Signal Processing in a stand-alone low-cost design. Not just limited to one mode, the DSP-93 can support data, audio, and video modes with the proper software.

DSP-93 has been designed in a modular fashion with two four-layer boards utilizing an interconnecting bus structure. The basic system includes a DSP engine board and a radio/computer interface board. The DSP Engine, bottom board, contains the TMS320C25 DSP, 32K by 16 bits of program and data memory - upgradable to 64K, the clock circuitry (40Mhz) and some programmable array logic for system I/O. The Radio/Computer Interface Board, top board, contains two eight pin female mini-DIN connectors for radio interfacing. Incoming radio signals pass through a voltage divider to establish the initial levels, then through an eight channel multiplex chip. The multiplex chip then feeds the single A/D input with either of the radio inputs or one of the six auxiliary inputs. The Texas Instruments TLC32044 Analog I/O chip is used, which samples and updates at a rate of up to 45K operations per second and includes aliasing filters. This board also communicates to your computer at speeds up to 19.2K baud using a serial connection.

Basic Software Suite

The initial offering of the DSP-93 will contain the following software: 1200 baud AFSK, 300 baud AFSK, 1200 PSK, 9600 FSK terrestrial, 9600 FSK full-duplex for satellite operations, and various audio filters. These have been developed, tested, and have been in use during alpha/beta-testing. Software currently under test, which may or may not be released with the first batch of kits include: APT, Digital Oscilloscope, SSTV, and HF modes. User interface software for DOS and Windows is also under development and testing.

Code Development

A low cost shareware assembler is available for code development. To develop code for this board, you must have good reference material. You can find numerous books on DSP algorithms and developing DSP code. The manufacturer's data sheets and books for the complex chips will also be good reference material. All the details needed to write DSP code will be supplied with the kits.

Project Team

Much of the development and current success of the DSP-93 project can be contributed to the designers, developers, and testers.

Designer: Bob Stricklin, N5BRG.
Project Managers: Bob Stricklin, N5BRG and Greg Jones, WD5IVD.
Joint DSP Project Officers: Robert Diersing, N5AHD (AMSAT) and Greg Jones, WD5IVD (TAPR).
The Alpha-Team:
The Beta-Team:

Useful DSP Web Sites

DSP-93 Video Clips

The following video clips are taken from video taped by Frank Perkins, WB5IPM. Frank is a prime developer of DSP-93 code. These can be run on either Mac or PC.