Software radio

squashed · Software radio

http://www.ettus.com/

The USRP
The Universal Software Radio Peripheral, or USRP, is device which allows you to create a software radio using any computer with a USB 2 port. Various plug-on daughterboards allow the USRP to be used on different radio frequency bands. Daughterboards are available from DC to 2.9 GHz at this time. The entire design of the USRP is open source.

The USRP works with GNU Radio, a free-software (open source) framework for the creation of software defined radios. Both the USRP and GNU Radio work on all of the following operating systems:

* Linux
* Windows
* Max OS X, PPC and Intel processors
* FreeBSD and NetBSD

The USRP is US$700, and includes an enclosure, power supply, cables, and hardware. Please see the USRP Family Brochure and the USRP Sales page for more details.

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GNU Radio Opens an Unseen World

Building a general radio that can receive and transmit, and attaching it to a software system that can fill in the gaps of what we normally think of as radio, is kind of like the Enterprise's deflector dish: Give engineering 20 minutes and it can do anything the captain needs to move the plot along. One of Ettus' USRPs, with the right daughterboards and radio software, can capture FM, read GPS, decode HDTV, transmit over emergency bands and open garage doors.

The GNU radio project was the brainchild of Eric Blossom, who wanted to create a software HDTV receiver in advance of broadcast flag legislation limiting what hardware was allowed to receive the high-def signal. "We'd just go build one of those things (in software) and moot (broadcasters') control over the hardware," says Blossom.

He teamed up with Ettus, but they lacked a radio platform that was cheap enough to get into many people's hands. They could do a lot with the computer, but there were limits. "How do I get from the antenna into the computer?" explains Blossom. "The computer wants digital samples to work on."

Ettus secured National Science Foundation funding through the University of Utah to design what would become the USRP. "Basically we proposed the 85 percent solution for 10 percent of the price. Given that part of the NSF's charter is about education ... you can get 10 more things in your students' hands for your dollars," says Blossom.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/06/70933

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A Software-Defined Radio (SDR) system is a radio communication system where components that have typically been implemented in hardware (i.e. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators, detectors. etc.) are instead implemented using software on a personal computer or other embedded computing devices. While the concept of SDR is not new, the rapidly evolving capabilities of digital electronics are making practical many processes that were once only theoretically possible.

A basic SDR may consist of a computer (PC) equipped with a sound card, or other analog-to-digital converter, preceded by some form of RF front end. Significant amounts of signal processing are handed over to the general purpose processor, rather than done using special-purpose hardware. Such a design produces a radio that can receive and transmit a different form of radio protocol (sometimes referred to as a waveform) just by running different software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_radio

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http://hpsdr.org/

ntroduction -- What's It All About?

The HPSDR is an open source (GNU type) hardware and software project intended as a "next generation" Software Defined Radio (SDR) for use by Radio Amateurs ("hams") and Short Wave Listeners (SWLs). It is being designed and developed by a group of SDR enthusiasts with representation from interested experimenters worldwide. The discussion list membership currently stands at around 750 and includes such SDR enthusiasts as Ray Anderson WB6TPU, Steve Bible N7HPR, Phil Covington N8VB, Rick Hambly W2GPS, Phil Harman VK6APH, Lyle Johnson KK7P, Ulrich Rohde N1UL, and Bill Tracey KD5TFD to name a few.