KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

Software-Defined Radio (SDR)

From the trade magazines – 7/25/12

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Here are a couple of items from the electronics engineering trad magazines that hams might find interesting:

Digital and analog PC TV dongles—the basics. Some amateur radio operators are using these dongles as a software-defined radio (SDR).

Can public-safety radio’s P25 survive LTE? P25 has been with us since 1988, but its capacity and bandwidth are being obsoleted by the latest and anticipated next generations of cellular technology.

Material effectively replaces gold. Impact Coatings claims that its Silver MaxPhase performs like gold while carrying a much lower price tag.

TAPR accepting Hermes orders

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From the tapr-announce mailing list:

TAPR is pleased to announce that Hermes, an HF transceiver incorporating the capabilities of the existing “Atlas Bus” HPSDR receiver, exciter, and computer interface onto a single board, is now available for order at http://tapr.org/kits_hermes.html

The Hermes board is completely assembled and tested, and is offered at the following prices.

TAPR member: $895
TAPR non-member: $940

The order page will close Wednesday July 25th, so don’t delay!

Please note that TAPR will be building only one production run of Hermes boards, and will only build the number necessary to fulfill the orders received on or before before the July 25th cutoff date.

Estimated delivery is October 15, and earlier if possible. Be a part of history and support HPSDR!

More information here: http://openhpsdr.org/wiki/index.php?title=HERMES

Order here: http://tapr.org/kits_hermes.html

Software-defined radio is one of those things that I just really haven’t gotten into yet, and I feel like I’m getting further and further behind. How about you? Should I really care?

Winter 2012 TAPR Journal now online

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The TAPR PSR Digital Journal, Winter 2012 edition, is now online (www.tapr.org/psr/psr117.pdf). Contents include:

  • President’s Corner
  • iQuadLabs-TAPR Agreement
  • 2011 DCC Video Online
  • TAPR Directors Elections
  • VK5DGR on Codec 2 at linux.conf.au 2012
  • Doodle Labs DL-435
  • Going to Ohio
  • When Digital Was Mechanical
  • Now on YouTube
  • TAPR-ARRL DCC 2011
  • HPSDR Projects
  • Frequency & Time Related Kits
  • The Great Create
  • My Steve Jobs Story
  • LW and MW DX
  • Join TAPR on Twitter & Facebook
  • Write Here!
  • PSR Advertising Rates
  • Still Fixing a Little TAPR History
  • The Fine Print
  • Our Membership App

TAPR starts “interest list” for Hermes SDR

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From the TAPRARRL Letter, 3/22/12:

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) announces the opening of the “interest list” for the openHPSDR Hermes single-board Software Defined Radio. The Hermes interest list is used by TAPR to determine the number of Hermes boards to manufacture in the pending initial production run this spring. Hermes is a long-awaited addition to the openHPSDR project lineup, advancing through four prototypes while evolving from a USB-based to an Ethernet-based transceiver in about two years. Hermes is a Direct-Down-Conversion receiver, a Direct-Up-Conversion 500 mW transmitter and a gigabit Ethernet interface all on one board. Also on board is an RF-quiet switch-mode power supply, which allows Hermes to run from a single 13.8 V dc source. Read more here.