GNU Radio is one of those things that I keep threatening to learn, but never get around to doing. According to their website:
GNU Radio is a free & open-source software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks to implement software radios. It can be used with readily-available low-cost external RF hardware to create software-defined radios, or without hardware in a simulation-like environment. It is widely used in research, industry, academia, government, and hobbyist environments to support both wireless communications research and real-world radio systems.
GNU Radio has been around for quite a while, and this year marks the tenth GNU Radio Conference (GRCon20), which is a “week-long conference that includes high-quality technical content…and highlights design, implementation, and theory.” This year’s event starts next Monday, September 14, 2020 online as a virtual event.
Like other virtual events, GRCon is making many of the presentations free and open to the public. The main talk track and discussion rooms are free, but the workshops cost $50. The conference schedule lists a number of interesting (to me, at least) talks, including:
- Monday, 9/14
- 1400-1430: How strong is my SDR signal?
- Tuesday, 9/15
- 10:00 – 11:00: Architecture Update – Marcus Mueller. GNU Radio Project Architect Marcus Mueller updates the community on the current state of and future plans for GNU Radio software architecture.
- 16:30-17:00. GNU Radio in a Direct-RF World. We are at the point of a third architecture for the masses, typically referred to as Direct-RF, with super high-speed data converters. In this presentation, the landscape of these new devices, and their applications will be discussed, as well as how they can be used with GNU Radio.
- Thursday, 9/17
- 11:00 – 11:30. RadEOT: The Radio Education Outreach Tool. The Radio Educational Outreach Tool (RadEOT) is an open-source, handheld, portable, low-cost multi-purpose education tool that utilises highly-configurable software defined radio (SDR), other commercial off the shelf (COTS) technologies, and a bespoke python-based interface to collect and process freely-available radio sources, such as aircraft transponder signals and radio astronomy. The tool is used for educational purposes in subjects including physics and mathematics. Each task can be tailored to the needs of the individual student, and allows them to conduct experiments, collect data and answers question in real time to make science lessons more dynamic.
- Friday, 9/18
- 13:00 – 14:00. Using GR in Amateur Radio. A breakout session for anyone interested in chatting with others about using GR in amateur radio, including CW, FSK, FM and other modulation/demodulation methods.
There are lots more, and I’d urge you to take a look at the complete schedule. To register, and it appears that you have to register even for the free talks, go to the registration page.
By the way, if you do want to learn how to use GNU Radio, there’s an online tutorial that purports to take you from beginner to developer. I searched Amazon for books on GNU Radio, but only found one in English, and that book was published in 2008 and out of print! There is one in Spanish and others in Japanese, though.
GNU Radio – where to start? It’s a vast system of free software modules, interfaces, and drivers. I have a GNU Radio mini-lab at work (out of my reach right now while working from home) that includes RTL-SDRs, my HackRF from Great Scott Gadgets, and a USRP with LF and RF boards. I have a Linux laptop there, running Ubuntu, and GNU Radio is most comfortable on a Linux system, although there are ports for other platforms.
There is a good video series at https://greatscottgadgets.com/sdr/ by Michael Ossmann showing how to use GNU Radio with his HackRF. It will get you up to speed on a Linux platform. The wiki link you posted is a decent bring-up for those using a USRP.
Most/all of the processing modules are written in Python, so you’ll be plunged in the deep end of Python if you peek under the covers, or want to write your own modules.