Since I have started operating an RBN connected CW skimmer I have often been asked how I am doing this. So, here are some answers to this:
Receiver: Software defined radio (SDR) Funcube Dongle Pro+
The little USB stick type SDR (150 kHz to 1900 MHz with a gap for Mil comms band) directly converts a 192 kHz wide chunk of the rf spectrum. During the daytime I tune it to 28213 kHz and the SDR the receives from 28117.1 to 28308.9kHz. The entire 10m beacon band (28150 - 28300kHz) is converted to a digital data stream and skimmed for beacon callsigns, signal-to-noise ratios, keying speeds. All cw beacon signals within the 192 kHz wide band are decoded simultaneously and uploaded on the RBN (Reversebeacon network). The SDR is connected to the PC via USB. All drivers are on the Dongle and this makes it pretty much "plug'n play". Help is available via an active newsgroup. I set it up all by myself and I am certainly not a computer wizard. The Funcube Dongle Pro+ costs about 165 UK pounds. http://www.funcubedongle.com/
FCHID SDR Control Software
FCHID is a free software for the Funcube Dongle that allows you to set the center frequency of the 192 kHz spectrum you want to receive and process. It further allows you to control the LNA, the mixer and IF gain. I usually have LNA on and mixer gain on, but no IF gain. http://www.funcubedongle.com/MyImages/FCHid2.002.zip
CW Skimmer
All CW signals in the beacon band are then received and decoded simulateneously by the CW skimmer software that uses the data from the SDR. There is no scanning, everything is received and decoded simultaneously. The system does not miss anything. Even a short signal that pops out of the noise when propagation changes, is detected and decoded. The Skimmer screen window shows only abut 10 kHz of spectrum waterfall, but you can scroll through the entire 192 kHz any time.
The CW skimmer software is not a freebie but at 70$ it is great value for money. http://www.dxatlas.com/cwskimmer/
The CW callsigns, their rf frequency, the keying speed, signal-to-noise ratio, date and time is taken from the CW skimmer by the RBN Aggregator. This one is a freebie, so 0$. The Aggregator evaluates the data and if valid, sends it to the global RBN server via the internet. At RBN it is then listed with your callsign as the skimmer station "de" and your callsign will also be in the list of global skimmers.
The amount of data per day is not more than a few MB. If internet upload data quota is of concern, the Aggregator is not going to cause any problems. You use more data when you browse on the web for a few minutes than the Aggregator uses an entire day. Aggregator has many features but is very easy to set up. http://www.reversebeacon.net/pages/Aggregator+19