Since personal computers are so powerful and cheap these days, I wonder if
there is a wideband reciever whose tuning function can be controlled by PC,
then it would simply be a matter of writing the software (or finding
pre-existing shareware) to change the frequency that the radio is tuned to,
and monitor the output of the reciever for signals, and you would have
essentialy the same thing as a thousand dollar winradio but perhaps for a
fraction of the cost.
I know that VHF transcievers can be interfaced with a PC to create digital
transcievers and all (almost all) of the functionality stems from software
subroutines instead of hardware on the transciever --- a 'software'
implementation instead of a hardware one, if you will. Rather than
purchasing a hardware "Terminal Node Controller", you basically emulate the
Node controllers functions in software.
Could the same thing be accomplished with a reciever? Is there a reciever
out there that has solid state tuning that can easily be adapted to being
controlled by a PC? Or is there a really simple, clear-cut reason why this
is a bad idea, that I'm just not understanding (but should be)?