Slashdot Mirror
Open-Hardware Licensed Handheld Software-Defined Radio In the Works
An anonymous reader writes "Chris Testa recently presented at TAPR Digital Communications Conference and annouced his development work on a hand-held software defined radio. Running uClinux on an ARM Corex-M3 coupled to a Flash-based FPGA, it will be capable of receiving and transmitting from 100MHz to 1GHz. Designed to be low power, Chris has designed the radio primarily with the Amateur 2m and 70cm bands in mind. Currently in early prototyping stage, Chris intends to release the design under the TAPR Open Hardware License."
Why is he designing it primarily for 2m and 70cm (better known in amateur radio land as 440)? 2m is kinda crowded around here and 70cm doesn't seem to like the hills and trees around here. Our local ham group (in particular our ARES/RACES subgroup) is thinking about going to 6m.
I'd be more interested in something like this if it went down to 50MHz. But I don't know enough about designing this kind of thing to know if that is feasible.
I want! Imagine a mesh network of these, put the evil telco's out of business :)
I just started using Gqrx and a rtl device for $20 to get started in software radio.
Grabbing the APT images from polar orbiting satellites.
http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/gnu-radio/gnu-radio-blog/477-noaa-apt-reception-with-gqrx-and-rtlsdr
There is also the Funcube USB Dongle you can use but its more $$$$.
But perhaps there's a text article somebody could link to instead? Video is an unbearable format when it comes to technical news - just stop doing that (although the fact that reading (and writing) is hard is understandable...).
But is there any shortage of openly published and easily accessible hardware designs for amateur radio?
It's not designed the same way however it's very similar and presumably will have more powerful transmitters.
Also GNURadio has a steeper learning curve to work with compared to a normal radio interface.
boom goes the dynamite....
It would be even better if it covered the HF bands.
I've had this fantasy about designing a very low bitrate (short messages only may take minutes to hours to send one message) massivly multiple access self organizing messaging protocol using GPS ref with ability to operate way way way way below the noise floor leveraging only ISM bands and effective power limits.
The ultimate would be a tablet sized (mostly antennas) device able to communicate short text messages directly to others (P-T-P ONLY no meshing or gateways) within hundreds of miles radius supporting millions of devices. No infustructure, no licensing, no monthly fees and assured equal access opportunity for all participants.
I still have much to learn about signal processing and RF but when my other projects are finished I intend to look seriously into it. No doubt my hopes will be dashed by reality but at least I'll have learned something.
The abundance of white hair is because a couple of generations didn't seem to value anything that had "old people" involved, so it's no surprise that many of us are old, the youngsters had no drive or vision for the future, no interest in science except watching it on TV, and the only interest they have in technology is in consuming it.
But aside from that, welcome to Amateur Radio there are hundreds of paths one can follow and also have a good time meeting some great people, and more than a few "characters", and all the while learning many quite interesting things along the way.
73
Never 73's, bad, bad, bad.
12 hours and only 37 comments? The response to a device like this should be far greater on a site like Slashdot. *Sigh*.
Anyway, I've always felt TAPR kits were not entirely within my grasp due to either high prices or high complexity. I hope this will be an affordable kit which doesn't require a ton of SMD soldering. Take the lead from Raspberry Pi - small, simple, affordable hardware.
Good luck! I'll see you guys at Dayton!