Contesting & SDR

Compiling PowerSDR with Visual Studio 2008

I decided to have a deeper look into Flexradio’s SDR Software PowerSDR. PowerSDR is published as open source under the GPL license and was written under Visual Studio 2003 against the old .NET 1.1 Framework. Unfortunately, the code was never migrated to a higher Version of Visual Studio. The last couple of days I had enough time to dive deep into the source code and finally make it compilable under Visual Studio 2008. In this post I’ll share the details with you.

Continue Reading »

Do you truly understand the SDR concept?

A lot of magazine and articles have already covered the principles of software defined radio. Most of them contain mathematical equations which require a greater level of math. Certainly, without math there would be no SDR, but I believe, that the concept of SDR can also be explained without. Let me show you the SDR concept from a different point of view!

Continue Reading »

2009: More SDR kits sold than commercial Transceivers?

Did you know that in 2009 more than 6000 Softrock kits have been ordered? Isn’t this an impressive number? Even having no concrete figures how many HF transceivers have been sold this year by the major brands like Yaesu and Icom, the trend is unoverseeable. The popularity of Software Defined Radio has increased significantly in 2009.

Continue Reading »

FA-SDR-TRX part #3 – the Transmitter

In the third article we will have a deeper look into the TX path of the FA-SDR-TRX. All components will be discussed, including the optional 1 Watt amplifier.

Continue Reading »

FA-SDR-TRX part #2 – The Receiver

After a systems view on the FA-SDR-TRX, it’s time to go into more detail. This post is dedicated to FA-SDR-TRX’s receiver.

Continue Reading »

FA-SDR-TRX part #1 – Systems View

The FA-SDR-TRX is an allband low cost software defined radio. The FA-SDR-TRX was created by Harald DL2EWN an described in an article series in the German Ham Radio Magazine Funkamateur. After the big success of the single band kits like Softrock, SDR4080 or Genesis, the FA-SDR-TRX is the next step in the evolution of SDR kits. Thanks to the support of Harald I’m able to provide a detailed description of the concept behind FA-SDR-TRX.

Continue Reading »

Podcast on HPSDR Software Defined Radio

Do you know what Mercury, Penelope and Pandora have in common? Yes, they are important characters in greek mythology. But did you know that there is also a Software Defined Radio Project with components called like this? The High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) project is currently the most sophisticated SDR project, lead by the Amateur Radio community. Yesterday, I stumbled upon the HPSDR Podcast! Continue Reading »

News: First pictures of FA-SDR-TRX

Short, but interesting news: I have the pleasure to show you some exclusive pictures of the FA-SDR-TRX prototype!

Continue Reading »

FA-SDR-TRX, an allband & low budget SDR TRX

In its october edition, the German Ham Radio magazine Funkamateur started about an multi-article series of an all-band 1-Watt SDR transceiver called FA-SDR-TRX. Read here a first assessment.

Continue Reading »

Cracking GSM

Did you ever think that your GSM phone calls are encrypted and can’t be monitored? Well, unfortunately GSM has been cracked. Last week Steve Gibson explained in his weekly Podcast Security Now! how GSM can be cracked.

Continue Reading »

Bandscope Modification Yaesu FT1000MP

In 2007 several SDR (Software Defined Radio) kits became available for Ham Radio purpose. Since most of these kits are just single band receivers, another easy solution was needed to benefit from the PC based Signal Processing on multiple bands. With the Yaesu FT1000MP, a full coverage short wave receiver was already available in the shack.  Why not reuse the already available hardware instead of spending money for a couple of additional monoband SDRs?

After studying the schematics of Yaesu’s FT1000MP it was decided to tap the IF (Intermediate Frequency) with an already available SDR-Kit.

This article documents the performed analysis and conducted work necessary to perform this modification.

Continue Reading »