SDR radios... pretty cool.

Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
897
Likes
45
Location
Where there once was a man in the mountain
Feedback: 1 / 0 / 0
I've been looking into Software Defined Radio's lately (SDR), they are pretty cool!

Basically the radio is defined by software.

So want to try one? Check out this site: www.sdr-radio.com

There is some demo software you can try that can use to control a SDR radio.

The cool thing is that a lot of SDR's use an ethernet port as their computer interface. So this means you can control them over the net!

This demo software lets you control either a local SDR, or one over the net.

I was using a SDR that was located in China and Norway last night, from my little netbook while sitting on the couch, using WiFi access. Too cool!
 
Right now, there are several on the air SD Receivers.... so anyone can listen, no license required. ;) And you can listen to just about any frequency... 100 KHz to 30 or 50 MHz. Not just the ham bands.

There are stations with transmitters on the air, but those are tightly controlled.
 
You may be able to find one for 10m ssb or 15m cw.

These receivers can tune to any HF freq, so just log in and tune. Of course the band may not be open so you may not hear much.

The SDRs are supposed to have great receivers that surpass hardware.

If you want one with hardware knobs the closest thing is probably the Elekraft K3.

But these SDR receivers are pretty cool... all the knobs and dials are as close as your net connected PC.
 
These receivers can tune to any HF freq, so just log in and tune. Of course the band may not be open so you may not hear much.

The SDRs are supposed to have great receivers that surpass hardware.

If you want one with hardware knobs the closest thing is probably the Elekraft K3.

But these SDR receivers are pretty cool... all the knobs and dials are as close as your net connected PC.

I want a k3 really bad. I live them very much and they have a nice and small footprint. My r390a has a noise floor of -143db with mechanical filters. That is beyond almost every lab grade network analyzer.
 
That's beyond cool. Took me awhile to figure it out, but I played around a bit and was suddenly listening to a conversation about poisonous snakes aboard Camp Lejeune on 80 meters.
 
I downloaded the software this morning and gave it a quick look. I was able to connect to some remote radios but couldn't get any audio, so I'll have to look into that tonite. It would be really cool to listen to yourself on a remote receiver from the other side of the world, great way to check your own audio! HRD has a function as well for operating a CAT enabled radio over TCP/IP, but I haven't tried it yet.
 
That did it! I'm on 80 CW right now listening to my signal down in Maryland. There's a good 1 second processing delay in the entire line. His frequency display doesn't agree with mine also.
 
There's been a lot of improvements made on the SDR (Software Defined Radios {Receiver}) in the past 9 years I've taken an interest in this one:

Noting I am not a pro on this subject just a newborn :)

RSP1A Cost under $125.00
1574391011576.png
1. It's a receiver only but covers 1kHz (VLF) to 2GHz (Microwaves) SDRPlay RSP1A First look
2. No fancy antenna is needed you can connect a 30 foot wire antenna on it and receive a lot
3. You can connect it to a Raspberry Pi3 with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and have quite a powerful receiver. SDRplay Raspberry Pi3 setup for RSP
4. The RSP1A is a vast improvement from the original RSP1 There are videos on YouTube comparing the 2
5. You don't even need an Amateur Radio License to listen.
6. You can connect this to a PC, Apple computer, Linux System, Android Tablet, Raspberry Pi3, and I'm sure more!
7. There is a lot of open source software available



Sample of the interface
1574391271962.png
 
Just upgraded the shack PC with a NewEgg refurb arrived yesterday. One reason was to be able to host a couple of the SDRPlays as panadapters from the main radios' IF.

160m contest this weekend should show plenty of activity on top band.
 
I have a couple modified versions of these that I've used for some jobs in the past. HackRF One
  • 1 MHz to 6 GHz operating frequency
  • half-duplex transceiver
  • up to 20 million samples per second
  • 8-bit quadrature samples (8-bit I and 8-bit Q)
  • compatible with GNU Radio, SDR#, and more
  • software-configurable RX and TX gain and baseband filter
  • software-controlled antenna port power (50 mA at 3.3 V)
  • SMA female antenna connector
  • SMA female clock input and output for synchronization
  • convenient buttons for programming
  • internal pin headers for expansion
  • Hi-Speed USB 2.0
  • USB-powered
  • open source hardware
 
There is a specialized SDR available, for those interested in flight tracking.

Flight Aware. The usb dongle is ~ $20 + an antenna + free software. You can register with Flight Aware and get realtime access to flight tracking data (without the 20 minute delay. You can do it also with a general purpose sdr dongle, theirs just makes it easier. (easier to access their system, I mean)
 
Last edited:
With a PC how much RAM is required or suggested? 4 Meg, or 8 Meg?

As far as the device itself is concerned, there isn't a PC manufactured in the past 20 years that doesn't have enough RAM to run one.

Some software like a graphical tuner might need some RAM but that is application by application. See the web page of the app you have in mind.
 
I run my Kenwood TS480 as an SDR. The radio is connected to my computer and I use Software to control the radio. I like this much better then trying to control the radio from panel controls. I use a duel monitor system the radio controls and panadaptor are one monitor and my logging program is on the other monitor. For FT8 I us an additional computer and monitor that connects an external sound card between the radio and the computer. My computer has 64 meg of RAM, the computer I use for FT8 has 8 meg of RAM
 
This is probably a wierd question. Is there a software defined radio that can attach directly to an antenna to minimize cable losses? Or is a Long run of ethernet not doable either? Particularly interested in vhf/uhf.
 
Back
Top Bottom