SDR-101

  • 11
  • Praise
  • Updated 4 years ago
  • (Edited)
  • 11
Here is a link to my most recent presentation that I presented to a full house at the Palomar Amateur Radio Club in San Diego today.  It covers the history of the different architectures used by Ham Radio Operators over the years and the development of SDR's.  It goes into a bit of detail as to how SDR's work and  more important shows the benefits to Ham Radio Operators for using Modern Radios.  I definitely include my personal opinions and prejudices which you are free to agree or disagree with


Please feel to share this link with anyone and everyone...


Modern Radio SDR-101 V1.pdf

 

https://www.dropbox.com/l/qMaun4aqLPfoh5zQyVz4du



I hope you will find it interesting and informative.
Photo of KY6LA - Howard

KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

  • 3737 Posts
  • 1600 Reply Likes
  • confident

Posted 4 years ago

  • 11
4 years ago
Photo of Dan -- KC4GO

Dan -- KC4GO

  • 340 Posts
  • 70 Reply Likes
Thanks Howard, I'll share this will my local club members. Lot of interest in my 6500.
This will help explain how we got here.

Dan --- KC4GO
4 years ago
Photo of Cliff Batson

Cliff Batson

  • 16 Posts
  • 9 Reply Likes
Outstanding, Howard.  Thanks for sharing this excellent presentation.

Cliff (N4CCB)
4 years ago
Photo of Ken - NM9P

Ken - NM9P, Elmer

  • 4196 Posts
  • 1336 Reply Likes
Thanks, Howard. Good stuff.
My only nit, would be a suggestion to add to your history lesson Armstrong's regenerative detector as a bridge between the crystal receiver and the superset. The regen ruled for decades as a combination of 1) an increased sensitivity crystal detector when not oscillating, and 2) a self-oscillating direct conversion receiver when it is oscillating.

Thanks for a great slide show.
4 years ago
Photo of Ronald Marcell

Ronald Marcell

  • 2 Posts
  • 1 Reply Like
Thanks for the great presentation and for sharing it.
4 years ago
Photo of Watts - K4QJZ

Watts - K4QJZ

  • 79 Posts
  • 15 Reply Likes
Thanks Howard, I have a number of Ham Radio friends to share this with who often ask, "Whats the big deal about SDR radios?" Very well put together and informative, I'll second Ken's suggestion on adding the Regenerative detector if you choose to update it in the future. This will help a number of folks, thanks again for the time to put it together.
4 years ago
Photo of KY6LA - Howard

KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

  • 3737 Posts
  • 1600 Reply Likes
Working on V2.0 updates to include Regen and downgrade ANAN 200 to 2nd Generation

No dates promised for updates. Hi hi.
2015-03-05T17:57:38+00:00
Photo of DrTeeth

DrTeeth

  • 1687 Posts
  • 389 Reply Likes
Hi Howard,

Thanks for that. Your presentations are always useful and always find pride of place on my computer.
4 years ago
Photo of Hank Wolfla

Hank Wolfla

  • 16 Posts
  • 1 Reply Like
Wonderful review Howard.  I am going to share with all my friends who continue to ask about my SDR adventures.  73 and be well.  Hank, K9LZJ
4 years ago
Photo of k0eoo

k0eoo

  • 621 Posts
  • 87 Reply Likes
Very well done Howard...  Thanks for sharing and hope FRS can put it to good use as well!  

Dennis, k0eoo
4 years ago
Photo of Reggie-k6xr

Reggie-k6xr

  • 413 Posts
  • 32 Reply Likes
Great review and informative information. I have forwarded to many of my legacy friends!
4 years ago
Photo of Bob G W1GLV

Bob G W1GLV

  • 750 Posts
  • 136 Reply Likes
Fantastic Howard. I will use this for a club presentation. Thanks
2015-03-05T21:20:18+00:00
Photo of KY6LA - Howard

KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

  • 3735 Posts
  • 1599 Reply Likes
Email me at Ky6la at Ky6la dot com if you need a copy of the powerpoint
4 years ago
Photo of Ali - 9K2WA

Ali - 9K2WA

  • 110 Posts
  • 23 Reply Likes
Thanks Howard for an excellent and a well done piece of work.
4 years ago
Photo of Dave - W6OVP

Dave - W6OVP

  • 306 Posts
  • 96 Reply Likes
Very good, Howard.
4 years ago
Photo of Jim Hawkins / K2JHV

Jim Hawkins / K2JHV

  • 28 Posts
  • 8 Reply Likes
Excellent job Howard.  I enjoyed the historical overview and the analogy to the comparison between the C130 and 787.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DWnqk_taac
2015-03-06T20:27:42+00:00
Photo of DrTeeth

DrTeeth

  • 1687 Posts
  • 389 Reply Likes
I LOVE the C130 and would have it over a 787 anyday. Full of character, amazing performance and no Li-ion batteries to smoke! Used to fly on them a lot during my military service. My second favourite would be a DC3.
2015-03-06T22:37:11+00:00
Photo of Jim Hawkins / K2JHV

Jim Hawkins / K2JHV

  • 28 Posts
  • 8 Reply Likes
(Temporarily off topic) I rode in one once while in the USAF.  It's an impressive turboprop plane and is still used for Hurricane recon.  I'm sure much of the equipment has been updated.  It's one of the best planes ever made.  Toward the end of my service I was trained to repair the doppler system on the DC3 "Gooney Bird" in Vietnam, but got transferred to UDORN, Thailand.
2015-03-06T22:41:22+00:00
Photo of DrTeeth

DrTeeth

  • 1687 Posts
  • 389 Reply Likes
OT: (poss last time)

My real, all time fave is the Lancaster Bomber. In my career I have had the honour to treat several members of flight crew and ground staff.
4 years ago
Photo of Rob N4GA

Rob N4GA

  • 153 Posts
  • 27 Reply Likes
Howard,

Nice presentation sir!

I actually flipped through every slide. 

How long did it take you to present it?

I do a lot of presentations for my job and they can go a looong time with that many slides!

Regardless, very interesting.

Thanks
4 years ago
Photo of KY6LA - Howard

KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

  • 3737 Posts
  • 1600 Reply Likes
I timed it to 1 hour. Working on v2 corrections/updates
2015-03-06T22:42:04+00:00
Photo of DrTeeth

DrTeeth

  • 1687 Posts
  • 389 Reply Likes
Time to get some YouTube vids uploaded m'thinks.
4 years ago
Photo of N7AIG

N7AIG

  • 147 Posts
  • 17 Reply Likes

Very nice presentation!

But, I think the first SDR actually happened back c.a. 1989 or so. Marconi Radio + E Systems, working on massive parallel pipelined array processors, controlled by a DEC/VAX computer. I don't recall how we did the I&Q. As far as I can remember, it was done numerically in a big Hilbert transform. We had a 10 MHz pass band, taken from the downlinks of overhead assets.

73 de Dave, N7AIG

4 years ago
Photo of N7AIG

N7AIG

  • 147 Posts
  • 17 Reply Likes

Based on my own experience, and from the many posts on this blog, it appears that the weak link in the whole system is Windows OS. Given enough time, FRS can work out most of the bugs inside the radios with their DSP + FGPA's. But Windows will continue to evolve in directions that are likely anathema to the needs of SDR.

But Windows, and most other OS, run now on VM capable CPU chips. We ought to develop a dedicated SDR OS that runs alongside the user OS, where you can have better control over the I/O and interrupt processing. No reason, given VM, that this can't coexist with all of Windows, OS X, and Linux.

73 de Dave, N7AIG

4 years ago
Photo of N7AIG

N7AIG

  • 147 Posts
  • 17 Reply Likes

By way of examples, have a look at the Berkeley Sprite OS, and the X-Kernel (nothing to do with MIT's X-Windows). These were early experiments, c.a., mid-90's to get higher performance from networked, diskless workstations - back in the day when memory was becoming cheap and hard disk space was still expensive. The bottlenecks were in the packet handling of the ISO Ethernet stack, much like many of the current bottlenecks for high-rate audio and I&Q streams.

73 de Dave, N7AIG

4 years ago
Photo of KY6LA - Howard

KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

  • 3737 Posts
  • 1600 Reply Likes
In VERSION 2.0 of Modern Radios SDR-101 you will find that I have made a number of revisions, corrections and updates to my original presentation on Modern Radio's SDR-101

Here is a link to the PDF Files

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10740053/Modern%20Radio%20SDR-101%20V2.pdf

Here is a link to the full Power Point which now takes about 75 minutes to present.  The PowerPoint is Editable... Please Feel Free to use it as long as you give appropriate credit to the author.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10740053/Modern%20Radio%20SDR-101%20V2.pptx

Somewhere in the future I plan to add a section on Direct Up Conversion Transmitters found in SDR radios... but that is another day....
2015-04-17T22:46:46+00:00
Photo of N4HY

N4HY, Elmer

  • 47 Posts
  • 19 Reply Likes
Howard this was SO badly needed.  I am truly impressed.  If I made suggestions would you consider them at your leisure and decide on whether or not to include them?
2015-04-18T01:40:59+00:00
Photo of KY6LA - Howard

KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

  • 3737 Posts
  • 1600 Reply Likes
Most definitely. Please send them to mycalll@ mycalll@. Com
4 years ago
Photo of Alex - DH2ID

Alex - DH2ID, Elmer

  • 973 Posts
  • 180 Reply Likes
Howard, I like your presentation.
73, Alex DH2ID
4 years ago
Photo of Joe, KQ1Q

Joe, KQ1Q

  • 79 Posts
  • 21 Reply Likes
Howard, your presentation was great. However on page 11 you said "Big Antennas Help". Now *here* is a big antenna, operated by K1JT (Joe Taylor). He's only using a TS-2000, but his antenna has has 61 db forward gain at 70cm. What is the ERP if he's using the legal limit input power? Ironically it's close to what Doc Brown said: "1.21 gigawatts".


Antenna used by above station. Arecibo 1,000 ft. dish, 61db forward gain at 70cm.
(Edited)
  • 11

Powered by Get Satisfaction