Software Defined Radio Receivers

7/16/2019

Gerald Wilson KK5FO stops by to talk about the state of Software Defined Radio Hardware and Software in 2019. This show was intended to cover hardware and software applications, but the hardware segment went long. We will cover SDR software in an upcoming episode.

PERMALINK - https://www.HamRadioWorkbench.com/podcast/software-defined-radio-receivers

Our Website - http://www.hamradioworkbench.com/
Follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/hamworkbench
Contact us for feedback and ideas - https://hamradioworkbench.com/contact
Connect with us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hamradioworkbench/
BrandMeister Talkgroup 31075 - https://hose.brandmeister.network/group/31075/

Save $100 on the Digilent Analog Discovery 2 Package by using code “HamRadioWorkbench2019” in your cart prior to checkout - https://store.digilentinc.com/ham-radio-workbench-bundle/

Cale K4CDN’s Fundraiser - https://www.gofundme.com/help-the-nelson-family-as-carla-beats-cancer

Raspberry Pi 4 - https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-4-on-sale-now-from-35/

Raspberry PI 4 USB C - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/07/raspberry-pi-4-uses-incorrect-usb-c-design-wont-work-with-some-chargers/

Ettus Research X300 SDR - https://www.ettus.com/all-products/x300-kit/

QNAP SFP to Thunderbolt Adapter - https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qna-tb-10gbe

Improving Windows 10 for USB Data - https://bandzoogle.com/blog/20-ways-to-optimize-your-windows-10-pc-for-music-production

DPC Latency Guide - https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/208360865-Troubleshooting-DPC-latency

SIXFAB LTE Modems for Raspberry Pi - https://sixfab.com/product-category/raspberry-pi-shields

Dell SDR laptop - http://amzn.com/B07JXTFJVB

Pimoroni Square Touchscreen for Raspberry Pi - https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/hyperpixel-4-square

Adafruit Touchscreens for Pi - https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pitft-3-dot-5-touch-screen-for-raspberry-pi/overview

Super Het vs Direct Conversion Receivers - https://www.mwrf.com/systems/differences-between-receiver-types-part-1

RTL Broadcast SDR Filters (Scroll Down) - https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/

miniVNA Tiny - http://miniradiosolutions.com/54-2/

Mini Circuits RF Filters - https://www.minicircuits.com/WebStore/RF-Filters.html

Leo Bodnar Mini GPSDO - https://v3.airspy.us/product/lb-gpsdo-mini/

RTL-SDR KerberosSDR - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kerberossdr-4x-coherent-rtl-sdr#/

LimeSDR - https://myriadrf.org/projects/component/

HackRF - https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/

RTL-SDR Blog - https://www.rtl-sdr.com/

AirSpy SDRs - https://airspy.com/

AirSpy SDR Shop in the US - https://v3.airspy.us/

SDRPlay - https://www.sdrplay.com/

Ettus b200 Mini SDR - https://www.ettus.com/all-products/usrp-b200mini/

9 Comments

Frank M. Howell link

7/17/2019 15:58:25

Great, great episode! I look forward to the software follow-up. One note: I have the Airspy HF+ and the SDRPlay RSP1 & RSPDuo. I use the RSP1 as an experimental spec analyzer (I also have a Tek and AD2 as well as a VNWA) with the SDRPlay's contributed Spec Analysis software. The SDRPlay Duo has two receivers, multiple antenna ports plus the GPSDO input. They also test with Leo Bodnar's GPSDO. I verified that the LB Mini works, too. Their SDRUno has just released version 1.32 which supports diversity reception, as showcased at Hamvention in Xenia. No one mentions the ancient Perseus anymore although it's HF specs still measure up in many ways. 73 from Frank K4FMH

Gerald

7/19/2019 13:32:04

Hey Frank,

Thanks for the praise and feedback. You are right the SDR Plays are solid receivers and I look forward to more people using the diversity reception in projects. I remember the Perseus and Fun Cube Dongle, they both were huge in getting me into SDRs.

73 KK5FO

Frank M. Howell link

7/18/2019 09:10:01

PS: on the SDRPlay software, please this story about Mike Ladd’s tutorials on SDRUno: https://swling.com/blog/2019/07/mikes-expanding-collection-of-sdrplay-tutorial-videos/

John VE3IPS

7/19/2019 17:51:48

Another great show and the topic of SDR is timely. I love my SDR Play, KX3 and Xiegu G90

Clint KA7OEI link

7/23/2019 17:22:46

Not mentioned - and very useful and capable - is the completely open-source KiwiSDR, a "DC to 30 MHz" stand-alone, web-accessed software defined radio. It includes, among other things, the ability to decode WSPR, RTTY, FAX, SSTV, and with its built-in GPS receiver is capable of being part of a multi-receiver TDOA network that is capable of determining the approximate position of transmitters.

Phil

8/2/2019 11:25:30

Thanks for a great explanation of SDR hardware. I ordered a Airspy R2 and Spyverter as a result. I use an Afedri Rev. 6.0 SDR currently and find its performance fantastic. Great show.
73
Phil

Bill KG6NRV

8/18/2019 00:30:40

Great show and a lot of resources. I'd excited to try an RF filter from Mini-Circuits. Very loud noise floor at my house. Can you recommend a model/part # for HF use in a typical coax feed line with PL259 SO238 connectors?

Nick W1NJC link

12/2/2019 11:50:25

This episode and the following SDR software episode are both great, and informative. Both Jeremy and Gerald have a great way of speaking about these complex topics which make them easy to follow and understand.

I'm writing to mention a couple of omissions which I feel would be important to the ham and maker community. First is the kiwisdr. Kiwisdr is a 10kHz-30MHz web-accessed receiver made by John Seamons, ZL/KF6VO in New Zealand. It's wide-band, GPS-disciplined, has lots of plugins (including lots modulation decoders, TDoA directing finding, time analysis, and more), GPIO, a great UI based on OpenWebRX and marries up to a BeagleBone Green. It utilizes LTC 14-bit 65MHz ADC and Xilinx Artix-7 A35 FPGA. At $200-$250 USD it's also pretty affordable. There is a world-wide network of these things available online for anyone to use - pretty handy for receiving signals out of your range or listening for your own signals to see how they propagate. I'm just scratching the surface which what is possible with the kiwi. I'd love to hear what Gerald has to say about them. Mine is running here: http://kiwisdr.njctech.com

The other item I wanted to mention is the Red Pitaya. The Red Pitaya is a self-contained SDR transceiver board built around an ARM Cortex A9 and Xilinx Zynq FPGA. I have the 14-bit version which has dual ADCs and DACs, uo to 60MHz. It’s originally designed to be used as test equipment (VNA, SA, scope, etc.) but with some software from Pavel Demin (https://pavel-demin.github.io/red-pitaya-notes/), this board looks like a HERMES radio to SDR software. For transceiver use I have been using OpenHPSDR/PowerSDR. I built a fully-functional HF transceiver into an old Tivo series 3 case using a PA/LPF from a Yaesu 757-GX that I had laying around. That PA/LPF is particularly well-suited for this project because the heatsink, PA, and LPF are all together in a flat "module" and has plenty of tapped holes for fastening to a case. I also built an interface board to handle PTT in/out, a keyer, LPF switching, Fwd/Ref measurements, etc. The RP I have has very high impedance inputs, so I’m using a transformer from mini-circuits but there is now available a 16-bit ADC version with 50-ohm inputs. There are a lot more details I could provide if anyone is interested. Some pictures and some additional details can be found at my QRZ page: https://www.qrz.com/db/W1NJC . Of course I’d love to hear what Gerald thinks of the Red Pitaya too.

I don't want this comment to turn into a "book" so 73 for now!
Nick W1NJC

Paula link

5/19/2022 09:14:37

Great blog thanks for posting this

Ham Radio Workbench Podcast Episodes

Software Defined Radio Receivers

Leave a Reply.

Subscribe

Archives

Categories