Universal Radio Grabber: the USRP

Nethemas the Great writes "The Universal Software Radio Peripheral or USRP created by Matt Ettus and Eric Blossom gives a new perspective on the radio spectrum, as in just about all of it from DC to 2.9Ghz. With the right software and daughterboards, their USRPs can capture FM, read GPS, decode HDTV, transmit over emergency bands, track peoples movement via their mobile phones, and much, much more. With prices starting at just $550 this new toy is accessible by most anyone."

Comments

The real question

[Umbral Blot]

The real question: how long before it becomes illegal to own or use one?

Re:The real question

[egomaniac]

It makes much less sense to license receivers. The radiation is there, passing through people, even. Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would think that I don't have the right to intercept any signal which passes through my personal space and process it however i please.

So it should be legal for me to use a night-vision scope to look into my neighbor's bedroom window at night? After all, her naked body is reflecting electromagnetic radiation into my personal space. Amplifying it into a visible image, digitizing it, and making it available on the Internet seems like a perfectly logical step, doesn't it?

People have an expectation of privacy. They expect you won't be sneaking around peering into their windows at night, and they expect you won't be intercepting and decoding their personal telephone calls. Yes, you have the right to decode electromagnetic radiation. And yes, the callers have a right to privacy. Any time two different rights conflict, one or the other has to take precedence. Privacy is a much more desirable-to-society right than is the ability to spy on our neighbors, and so privacy wins.

Re:The real question

[TheGratefulNet]

People have an expectation of privacy

in the US?

in the MODERN US?

(have you not been reading the news at all, over the last say, year or two?)

Re:The real question

[tacarat]

So it should be legal for me to use a night-vision scope to look into my neighbor's bedroom window at night? After all, her naked body is reflecting electromagnetic radiation into my personal space. Amplifying it into a visible image, digitizing it, and making it available on the Internet seems like a perfectly logical step, doesn't it?

Ummm. Radio transmitters are much more along the lines of your neighbor changing or whatever in the middle of a crowded public area with people that could turn around and watch at any point. Your example, peeking into her window, is more deliberate. For one thing, it's targeted. You knew specifically who you wanted to observe. Another is that she made an attempt to protect her privacy by going inside. In this example, you've taken steps to circumvent this by searching for and exploiting an opening (earn your white hat and let her know her curtains are open).

Personally, I'm waiting for the day when SETI gets sued (or disintegrated) for intercepting alien phone calls. I'm betting the first decoded message is for 1-900-UFO-HOTY

Ouch $550

[9mm Censor]

I would hardly call _starting at_ $550 accessable to almost anyone.

What this is and what this isn't

[AB3A]

This is a huge step forward for computer assisted modulation techniques and wide band scanning. However, I should point out one very important limitation: Dynamic Range.

For those of you who are too lazy, read this.

Now let me point out that while the A/D converter is fast, it only has 12 bits. This will give you about 72 dB of dynamic range. Modern reciever design can yeild dynamic ranges of 100 dB or better (depending on how you measure it). Some day we'll get this performace from 16 bit A/D converters. When that happens, expect the designs of radio to change to software over hardware.

This is the trade off for building a reciever of this sort. There is no free lunch folks...