# Can SDR be used for very short pulse detection?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-sdr-be-used-for-very-short-pulse-detection/235904>\
**Category:** GNU Radio\
**Created:** [July 23, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-sdr-be-used-for-very-short-pulse-detection/235904 "2013-07-23T17:34:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alcina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a587f6/32.png) [@alcina](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alcina)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-sdr-be-used-for-very-short-pulse-detection/235904/1 "2013-07-23T17:34:42Z")

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First of all, I am a newbie to this list, and while I managed to find  
some references to SDR (and GNU Radio) being used for detecting  
astronomical radio pulses, I could not find the kind of thing I need.  
I apologise if my searches missed a previous discussion.

I need to detect pulses that are single digit number of cycles long  
in the UHF band. All I need to know is that a pulse has been detected  
and its amplitude - I do not need high resolution on that amplitude. I  
am not expecting more than a few of these per second. It would be  
useful to be able to exclude any signal longer than such a short pulse.

I notice that many SDRs (in particular ones like the RTL2832U based  
ones) use an IF which is probably too low, i.e. the pulse would be less  
than one cycle, so I guess that this class of receiver is not going to  
be much use which is a shame given that they are so easy to get hold of  
and so cheap.

David

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**Author:** ![David\_Goodenough](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@David\_Goodenough](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/David_Goodenough)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-sdr-be-used-for-very-short-pulse-detection/235904/2 "2013-07-23T20:58:05Z")

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On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 04:25:13PM +0100, David Goodenough wrote:

> I need to detect pulses that are single digit number of cycles long in  
> the UHF band.

I think SDR would only be useful for this application at very high  
sample rates (about 500 Msps or higher).

Mike