27 Mar 2017

SDR receivers and transceivers

There is a real gap in my knowledge as I have never once tried an SDR based receiver or transceiver. SDR dongles are very low cost, so I really have no excuse.

On the Southgate site I read news of a new SDR 5W transceiver.

See https://sunsdr.eu/product/sunsdr2-qrp/

3 comments:

  1. Hi Roger,

    Yes you are missing out on the fun :-)

    Get one of these RTL-SDR Blog R820T2 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO SMA Software Defined Radio (Dongle Only) at under $20 USD from the China store.

    http://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/

    You may also need one of these if you are near a high power FM broadcast station.

    RTL-SDR Blog Broadcast FM Band-Stop Filter

    Here's a quick overview

    http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-blog-v-3-dongles-user-guide/

    It will be the best £15 you have spent.

    If you find that it isn't, I'll give you your money back in exchange for the dongle :-)

    Regards,

    Martin - G8JNJ

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  2. Save you money! The uBitx will be more fun for hell of a lot less!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Steve,

    The uBitx is a really great project and ideal if you want a single band Tranceiver (in it's current form).

    I suggested the RTL-SDR V3 as an introduction to SDR's because of the types of experimentation that Roger seems to enjoy.

    The V3 provides a reasonable level of RX performance from (almost) DC to >1.8GHz.

    So it can be used on the LF/MF/HF/VHF/UHF and microwave bands (10GHz with a cheap Octogon PLL LNB) and with some fairly simple modifications to a transceiver used as a tracking panadaptor.

    In the workshop it can be used as a poor man's spectrum analyser with up to 2MHz span. Add a cheap noise source and a directional coupler and you have the equivalent of a tracking generator and network analyser. Handy for checking filters or antennas.

    Not bad for £15 GBP and my money back guarantee :-)

    Just sayin..........

    Regards,

    Martin - G8JNJ

    ReplyDelete