software defined radio?

Forum: water cooler
Topic: software defined radio?
started by: msuho

Posted by msuho on Mar. 19 2005,13:44

I know this is not a DSL topic per se, but I know there are some radio amateurs on the forum, so here goes-

I was wondering if anyone's experimented with GNU Radio or some other Software Defined Radio application on their DSL box. If you have, I'd be very interested in knowing the software & hardware you used, and if you were satiisfied with the results.

I'm in an astronomy group that monitors VLF radio transmissions (17-35 khz) to detect solar flare activity (the D layer of the ionosphere is sensitive to this). Most people in the group are radio amateurs, and use homebuilt VLF receivers & an analog to digital converter to collect data. A few folks are starting to use 96Khz sound cards & radio software to do the same thing. As my attempts to build a radio receiver have been unsuccessful, I'm looking at the sound card idea for Linux.

Any input welcomed,

Mark

Posted by dmizzel on April 16 2005,03:31

Let me preface this by saying my background is in music production and engineering, and with my limited soundcard/linux experience, I wouldn't think that sound cards would be capable of ranges above 20khz (maybe 21khz on the high side). As I'm sure you are aware human hearing is 20hz-20khz. The 96khz sound card refers to the sampling rate, not the audio frequency range.

I am just guessing here. Maybe there are some sound cards that will record audio that high but I'm sure they would not be consumer products.

Posted by dmizzel on April 16 2005,03:33

edit, I meant to type they "would not" be capable.

Posted by AwPhuch on April 18 2005,21:40

Perhaps you should run any requests about radio amateur stuff by ke4nt1...as I recall he has "TONS" of stuff for radio amateru stuff.

Oh and his username here is his callsign (in case you didnt know)

Brian
AwPhuch