Fw: Need Advice for SDR choice

GNU Radio
1

Hello

I need some advice. I would like to purchase a Software Defined Radio

I would like to be able to do

  1. Around 50 MHz to 2.400 GHz
  2. USB LSB CW FM WFM / RAW ?
  3. I would like to be able to decode AX25 packet (ISS)

I also have another project of decoding Mode S aircraft signals.

I have Windows XP / MAC OS X / Linux OpenSUSE.

What are my decoding options for the SDR ?

I can build packages etc in LINUX

  • Andrew VK4TEC -
2
  1. I would like to be able to decode AX25 packet (ISS)

First, GnuRadio is a framework for constructing Software-Defined Radio
applications, and as such,
it’s not a “plug and play” SDR.

Plenty of folks on here are working on SDR-based applications, and
there may be people working on
some of the modes you mention. There’s also CGRAN:
http://www.cgran.org which is a site largely
for open-source applications that have been built for GnuRadio.
There’s definitely an on-going
Mode S project using Gnu Radio, and some of those developers are on
this mailing list.

You haven’t mentioned whether you need Rx capability only, or Rx/Tx.

3

Sorry I understand that there is a software part and a hardware part

I was more interesting in making a decision on the

  1. Hardware
  2. Operating System

RX only

I have a MacBook PRO I7 it can run OS X or windows

  • Andrew VK4TEC -
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Marcus D. Leech
    To: [email protected]
    Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 9:00 AM
    Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Fw: Need Advice for SDR choice

    Hello

    I need some advice. I would like to purchase a Software Defined
    Radio

    I would like to be able to do

    1. Around 50 MHz to 2.400 GHz
    2. USB LSB CW FM WFM / RAW ?
    3. I would like to be able to decode AX25 packet (ISS)

    I also have another project of decoding Mode S aircraft signals.

    I have Windows XP / MAC OS X / Linux OpenSUSE.

    What are my decoding options for the SDR ?

    I can build packages etc in LINUX

    • Andrew VK4TEC -

    First, GnuRadio is a framework for constructing Software-Defined
    Radio applications, and as such,
    it’s not a “plug and play” SDR.

    Plenty of folks on here are working on SDR-based applications, and
    there may be people working on
    some of the modes you mention. There’s also CGRAN:
    http://www.cgran.org which is a site largely
    for open-source applications that have been built for GnuRadio.
    There’s definitely an on-going
    Mode S project using Gnu Radio, and some of those developers are on
    this mailing list.

    You haven’t mentioned whether you need Rx capability only, or Rx/Tx.

Discuss-gnuradio mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio

–
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium

4

On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 4:31 PM, Andrew R. [email protected]
wrote:

  • Andrew VK4TEC -

The standard hardware we have for what you are after is the USRP,
probably with a WBX daughterboard (50 MHz - 2.2 GHz). Look at
www.ettus.com for the range of hardware they sell.

As for the OS, you should be fine with OpenSUSE or OSX. If you’re
comfortable in Linux, this is the most likely to work well for you. We
try to work in OSX as well (thanks to Michael D., especially),
but most of the developers work natively in Linux.

Tom

5

Thanks Tom.

So what can the USRP or should I say GNURAdio “capture” as a chunk of RF
and
what is the “bandwidth” that it can decode ?

I am also looking at the FUNCubeDongle, but it is only 96 khz wide ?

  • Andrew -

----- Original Message -----
From: “Tom R.” [email protected]
To: “Andrew R.” [email protected]
Cc: “Marcus D. Leech” [email protected]; [email protected]
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Fw: Need Advice for SDR choice

On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 4:31 PM, Andrew R. [email protected]
wrote:

  • Andrew VK4TEC -

The standard hardware we have for what you are after is the USRP,
probably with a WBX daughterboard (50 MHz - 2.2 GHz). Look at
www.ettus.com for the range of hardware they sell.

As for the OS, you should be fine with OpenSUSE or OSX. If you’re
comfortable in Linux, this is the most likely to work well for you. We
try to work in OSX as well (thanks to Michael D., especially),
but most of the developers work natively in Linux.

Tom

6

I have built a little tracking device on 434.950 MHz and it uses
machester
endcoding

It TX’s at 19k2

Is that something a SDR could decode ?

The other things I would like to try is ax25 packet on ISS 145.825 MHz

Satellites - mainly just interested in the specturm and see I can rx
them…

How about AIS on 161 MHz ?

On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 4:31 PM, Andrew R. [email protected]
wrote:

  • Andrew VK4TEC -

The standard hardware we have for what you are after is the USRP,
probably with a WBX daughterboard (50 MHz - 2.2 GHz). Look at
www.ettus.com for the range of hardware they sell.

As for the OS, you should be fine with OpenSUSE or OSX. If you’re
comfortable in Linux, this is the most likely to work well for you. We
try to work in OSX as well (thanks to Michael D., especially),
but most of the developers work natively in Linux.

Tom

7

Another thing I am tracking at the moment is RadioSonde’s on 401.500 MHz

These ones seem analaogue - tones

  • Andrew -

----- Original Message -----
From: “Tom R.” [email protected]
To: “Andrew R.” [email protected]
Cc: “Marcus D. Leech” [email protected]; [email protected]
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Fw: Need Advice for SDR choice

On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 4:31 PM, Andrew R. [email protected]
wrote:

  • Andrew VK4TEC -

The standard hardware we have for what you are after is the USRP,
probably with a WBX daughterboard (50 MHz - 2.2 GHz). Look at
www.ettus.com for the range of hardware they sell.

As for the OS, you should be fine with OpenSUSE or OSX. If you’re
comfortable in Linux, this is the most likely to work well for you. We
try to work in OSX as well (thanks to Michael D., especially),
but most of the developers work natively in Linux.

Tom

8

On Jan 2, 2011, at 1:31 PM, Andrew R. wrote:

I have a MacBook PRO I7 it can run OS X or windows

I have been successfully using the Ettus R. USRP with LFRX, LFTX
and WBX boards on my 17" MacBook Pro under OS X (Snow Leopard).
Installing the software portion is pretty easy: Install the MacPorts
package, then run “sudo port install gnuradio” in a terminal window. You
can play with the gnuradio software to see if it’s right for you before
committing to buying any hardware, since it can use the audio device
and/or data files as a source/sink, or even run entirely simulated
flowgraphs.

I haven’t used any gnuradio-based canned ham radio USB/LSB/whatever
applications (if any exist). I have successfully received 2m FM
transmissions with one of the examples that comes with the gnuradio
distribution. I’ve mostly used my hardware to generate fairly simple
test signals for other radio hardware (i.e., a number of simultaneous CW
tones within a fairly narrow bandwidth) and simple spectrum analysis. At
the moment, I’m playing around with writing blocks and flowgraphs for
sending and receiving high-speed Morse code, due to my current interest
in devices such as the AN/GRA-71 code burst keyer (*). This is all
pretty simple stuff that the USRP hardware is overkill for, but I’m just
beginning to learn about gnuradio and SDR design in general.

Based on what you’ve stated so far, I think that a USB-based USRP with a
WBX board and the gnuradio software should work nicely for you, and you
can work with it directly under OS X. You may also want to get an
RFX2400 board to hit the 2.4GHz band (I have one, but haven’t done much
with it yet). This board combination will leave a hole between 2.2GHz
and 2.3GHz.

If I recall correctly, I’ve generally set my hardware decimation to
limit sampled bandwidth to about 2 MHz in order to avoid USB over-runs
and/or under-runs. I’ve been able to look at a 4 MHz bandwidth with
occasional over/under-runs. The occasional over/under-run doesn’t seem
to cause problems when just visually watching an FFT plot (i.e., to look
for activity within a band).

I don’t know if the Ethernet-based USRP platforms work on Macs yet.

(*) More info here if you’re curious:

http://www.militaryradio.com/spyradio/gra71.html

These are available (though rare) on the surplus market, but I’m unaware
of any of the original receiving equipment that has made it out to the
hands of collectors. A SDR setup seems like a natural way to handle
receiving the code burst and then either playing it back at low speed
for manual decoding, or automatically decoding the transmission at
normal speed.

–
Mark J. Blair, NF6X [email protected]
Web page: http://www.nf6x.net/
GnuPG public key available from my web page.

9

On Jan 2, 2011, at 1:31 PM, Andrew R. wrote:

I have a MacBook PRO I7 it can run OS X or windows

I have been successfully using the Ettus R. USRP with LFRX, LFTX and WBX
boards on my 17" MacBook Pro under OS X (Snow Leopard). Installing the software
portion is pretty easy: Install the MacPorts package, then run “sudo port install
gnuradio” in a terminal window. You can play with the gnuradio software to see if
it’s right for you before committing to buying any hardware, since it can use the
audio device and/or data files as a source/sink, or even run entirely simulated
flowgraphs.

The only caution I have is that the pre-packaged binary packages for
various OS distributions are often
moderately to severely out-of-date with respect to the current GIT
codebase.

For Ubuntu and Fedora users, I usually recommend a build of Gnu Radio
and UHD from the current
GIT sources–which I have to admit is partially selfish on my part.
Fewer people in my support
queue that way :slight_smile: [Wearing my [email protected] hat].

–
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium

10

On 1/3/11 3:49 AM, Andrew R. wrote:

  1. I would like to be able to decode AX25 packet (ISS)

Check out the CGRAN repository. The GMSK Spacecraft Groundstation
Project ( https://cgran.org/wiki/GMSKSpacecraftGroundstation ) has
an HDLC decoder block in it. AX.25 is built on top of HDLC, so
this would give you a good start.

@(^.^)@ Ed

11

Very helpful thank you

Sent from my iPhone
Andrew R.

12

Has anyone ported this to the latest version of GnuRadio and GRC?

Mike

Ed Criscuolo wrote in post #971924:

On 1/3/11 3:49 AM, Andrew R. wrote:

  1. I would like to be able to decode AX25 packet (ISS)

Check out the CGRAN repository. The GMSK Spacecraft Groundstation
Project ( https://cgran.org/wiki/GMSKSpacecraftGroundstation ) has
an HDLC decoder block in it. AX.25 is built on top of HDLC, so
this would give you a good start.

@(^.^)@ Ed