Re: Building a (cheap) software radio


"Bevan Weiss" <kaizen__@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:mxhif.3972$vH5.223504@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 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).

I have this board - it's quite good but the trouble is that the software is
written in Python and all things Linux!
It took me two weeks in one operating sysytem to load most of it and I still
had errors. Then I switched to another linux OS and wasted anotehr two weeks
(full time!). There is a newsgroup email thing that is useful but in my
opnion it's a bit of a nightmare.

McC


.

Relevant Pages

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