SDR advice for newcomer?

GNU Radio
1

I have experience in DSP but am completely new to Gnuradio and excited
to
get started. Because I’m also a ham I am thinking of buying one of

  1. lp-pan (US $250)
  2. softrock Ensemble II (US $87)

and have a linux-only computer. With that tiny background, I wonder if
any
list members would recommend one of these SDRs over the other?

Lp-pan works at my transceiver’s IF and would integrate nicely with my
ham
radio set up.

Softrock rcvr is just over 1/3 the lp-pan price, though, and not
dependent
on my amateur gear.

Seems like 6 of one, half dozen of the other - or are there other
factors
I’m overlooking?

Thanks very much!
Mike ab3ap

2

If you are a ham and doesn’t want to spend too much, I would recommend
Peaberry SDR V2 (and it’s not just receiver it’s 4-band tranceiver and
it doesn’t require sound card opposed to softrock). It will cost you
$150 as a kit (quite easy to build) or $250 built.

On Mon, 25 Aug 2014 20:50:42 -0400
Mike M. [email protected] wrote:

Lp-pan works at my transceiver’s IF and would integrate nicely with
my ham radio set up.

Softrock rcvr is just over 1/3 the lp-pan price, though, and not
dependent on my amateur gear.

Seems like 6 of one, half dozen of the other - or are there other
factors I’m overlooking?

Thanks very much!
Mike ab3ap

–
Alexey B. [email protected]

3

On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 11:54 PM, Alexey B. [email protected] wrote:

buying one of
Softrock rcvr is just over 1/3 the lp-pan price, though, and not
Alexey B. [email protected]

You can also start with an rtl-sdr (nooelec is now selling them, so
supply
is easy to come by). As a ham, you’re going to hate a lot of the RF, but
it’s cheap, works easily with GNU Radio, and you can find many pre-built
examples that use this receiver. It’s also receive only. Still, it’s a
great and really cheap way to start, and it’ll give you some time to
play
and develop better concepts about what else you might need from the
hardware.

Tom

4

On 08/28/2014 10:32 AM, Tom R. wrote:

You can also start with an rtl-sdr (nooelec is now selling them, so
supply is easy to come by). As a ham, you’re going to hate a lot of the
RF, but it’s cheap, works easily with GNU Radio, and you can find many
pre-built examples that use this receiver. It’s also receive only.
Still, it’s a great and really cheap way to start, and it’ll give you
some time to play and develop better concepts about what else you might
need from the hardware.

Tom

Thanks, Tom, that’s a great, low risk way to start!

Mike