By Neil Goldstein W2NDG

Software Defined Radio on a Shoestring

Computers have become more powerful at an exponential rate.

Ray Kurzweil’s extension to Moores Law

Because of the increase in processing power we can emulate more and more exotic functions with microprocessors.

Musical instrumentsGame consolesOther computersDSP

Cheap SW receivers Baofeng UV3R High-end Rigs

SDR

Si4734 chip, as used in the Degen DE321, a sub-$20 shortwave

receiver with DSP

SDR = Software Defined Radio The only radio hardware is the RF front-end The rest of the radio is emulated USB, LSB, AM, WFM, NFM, ECSS, CW,

Digital formats, and more Waterfall displays Spectrum analyzers Visual adjustment of filters Recording of an entire band at once

Popular SDR Receivers: RFspace Net SDR $1499 RFspace SDR iq $499 Micro Telecom Perseus $999 Bonito 1102s RadioJet $699 WinRadio $899-$1400 and up

RFspace SDR iq

SDR Software:HD SDRWinRAD SDR-Radio SDR#

HD SDR showing 80M LSB

Low Cost HF Options:Tony Parks Kits Soft66 RadiosRTL-SDR (with converter)Avala SDR Board

Soft66LC4

SOFT66LC4 - The Basics: Sound Card Based 2 Connections to your

computer: USB for control Audio, input for

processing Antenna RF Gain

2

Soft66LC4 Basics Works best with HD SDR Force Drivers Drop EXT_IO.DLL in HD SDR Missing Features (for now) External Control for all features Help Available from W2NDG $118 with shipping

Soft66 Lite Fixed band Like Tony Parks SoftRock $23 Each with shipping

What about my iPhone – iPad? iSDR

Only with fixed SDR No control Good for small QRP setup

Android – Not quite there yet

UHF-VHF SDR Funcube Dongle $200 RTL-SDR $20

RTL-SDR Designed for European Digital TV Will Not Receive TV Here! Does Not Come With Useful Software Look for RTL2832U + E4000 eBay is best source (slow! Be patient) Setup is a little funky, follow directions! SDR# is best software for now Throw the antenna away 64 - 1700 MHz with a gap from approx.

1100 - 1250 MHz PAL connector

RTL-SDR Use SDR# sdrsharp.com/index.php/downloads Follow links for install instructions If you want to use HD SDR, you will

need to follow the AUTOMATIC instructions. You can add SDR# later

SDR# is NOT coming with RTL-SDR support built in anymore. Separate downloads from SDR# site.

New custom version with scanning PAL-to-F adapter from Radio Shack

#278-261

RTL-SDR with HF Converter Search eBay for: Converter for

RTL2832U About $66

No Cost SDR?? SDR-RADIO Networked SDR

Handouts are at:Neilgoldstein.net