Re: Building a (cheap) software radio

Michel Rouzic wrote: 
I am trying to build a software radio with a budget of about $60, but I
don't really know what to get. If I got it right (correct me if i'm
wrong), I need an antenna, something to amplify the signal, something
to filter the band, something to downsample, and something with a
bandwidth big enough (200 kHz i think) to be able to get FM

The problem is that I have no idea in any of this on what I should buy,
nor even where I should buy it, besides that I might get a TV tuner
card because they have a wide input bandwidth, but then I don't know
how wide it can be, and then I wouldn't know which card I should buy.

PS : Please do not point me to any GnuRadio page, cuz i've already read
it all many times, and don't advise me to buy some $600 ADC, thanks

Your best option if you do only want to receive FM is to use a standard FM receiver, remove the IF filter, replace it with a wider filter, and then tap the output off to your ADC of choice.
The ADC will be much cheaper than $600, probably more like $10. But you would need to make up a PCB etc to house it, and some processor to demodulate the FM signals.

Not the best project to attempt unless you've got quite a bit of experience with electronics in general. It's very unlikely you'd get it to work as desired without quite an indepth knowledge of electronics.

I recall GnuRadio advising the use of a particular receiver board, I think they even made it available for order via the Internet or some such. If you just care about the software side of things, then this would be the most economical option (if your time is worth anything anyways).
.

Relevant Pages

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