[Boatanchors] Raspberry Pi

[Robert Nickels]

On 1/9/2017 3:05 PM, Gene wrote:
> Looking for info on above subject matter.
>
> Anyone with experience?
>
Hi Gene,

As one who as written about and developed some SDR hardware, I'll just 
make this one comment for the group as it's OT here, but feel free to 
contact me by direct email if you'd like.   Putting an SDR on the 
Raspberry Pi has been one of my main interests for several years, and 
the Pi is also my wspr beacon transmitter, which has been heard as far 
away as Antarctica and Australia.

The Raspberry Pi 3  finally has enough CPU horsepower to run SDR 
receiver software efficiently (this is the version you can buy now for 
$35).   Since most of the SDR packages in use were developed for 
Windows, the best Linux-based solution is Gqrx, developed by my pal Alex 
OZ9AEC.   I helped him shake it out so that ver. 2.6 and newer are 
available as easy to install packages that can be obtained from his 
website:

http://gqrx.dk/download/gqrx-sdr-for-the-raspberry-pi

Gqrx software provides all the necessary features to turn the Pi 3 into 
an excellent receiver by using one of the better SDR front-ends (such as 
Airspy and the SpyVerter HF converter, which I co-developed).   But 
general Linux familiarity is still required to configure the Pi, install 
the dependencies, and to fully use the Gqrx software.

SDR is the future of radio, even though some ham manufacturers like ICOM 
have done their best to hide it in their new radios like the IC-7300.   
However a high performance SDR requires the same good signal handling 
capability, filtering,  power amplification that any radio has, because 
after all it's still an analog world!

73, Bob W9RAN