[NLRS] More SDR hardware, BladeRF and Noctar

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

Seems to be plenty going on in this field.

I stumbled across this page:
   
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/10/22/0518231/darpa-funds-a-300-software-defined-radio-for-hackers

At the local Roadrunners Microwave Group (RMG) meeting a couple of months 
ago, one of the guys (NO5K) brought in a homebrewed SDR, completely 
self-contained (no computer needed), which he designed for VHF & UHF 
operations using:
  SDR2GO kit
http://www.qsl.net/k/k5bcq/Kits/Kits.html (lots of kits, search the page 
for SDR2GO for a couple of projects using it)

On the above web page there is a picture of NO5K's unit. Although the 
SDR2GO can use a variety of RF front ends including a softrock, he built 
his using the
  UHFSDR kit
http://wb6dhw.com/For_Sale.html (again, search or scroll down to the UHFSDR 
offering among the other kits for sale).

Another interesting series is the USRP (Universal Software Radio 
Peripheral):
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Software_Radio_Peripheral

There is one model that covers 400MHz to 4.4 GHz (432, 902, 1296, 2304, 
3456 MHz in one transceiver!)

There is another model that covers 50 MHz - 2.2 GHz (50, 144, 222,432, 902, 
1296 MHz in one transceiver!)

There is yet another model that covers two bands, 2.4-2.5 GHz and 4.9-5.85 
GHz
  (apparently won't go down to 2304 MHz, but does include 5760 MHz)
  
I have no first-hand experience with any of these, although as I mentioned 
I did see the NO5K unit (UHFSDR + SDR2GO) and had the chance to speak with 
him at the meeting. He was quite pleased with its performance, both as a 
standalone VHF/UHF radio and as an IF to a few microwave transverters.

73 de W0JT/5
John P. Toscano


On Feb 7 2013, Doug Reed wrote:

>
>
>Just ran into this item in the SDRSharp forum.
>
>BladeRF- USB3.0 and RX-TX from 300MHz to 3.8GHz for $400. Can run up
>to 28MHz wide data channels. Or slower of course. I will be
>interesting to hear if it works for narrow band modes. They say they
>will have additional modules to cover bands from 0 to 10GHz.
><http://www.nuand.com/>
><http://hackaday.com/2013/02/02/bladerf-your-next-software-defined-radio/>
>
>Noctar- PCIe plug-in card, RX-TX from 100KHz to 4GHz for $850. Can
>support up to 250MHz bandwidth. Probably not too good for
>portable.....
><http://www.pervices.com/>
>
>Big question would be if any of them would be stable enough for ham
>GHz narrow band use. The BladeRF says it has a 1PPM 38.4 MHz TCXO but
>that probably wouldn't be stable enough for us and I don't know
>anything about the phase noise.
>
>I'll stick with my $10 dongle for now, although I would like something
>with a low power TX side....
>
>73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.
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