Has anyone played around with SDR?

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Jasper C.

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Oct 2, 2017, 10:04:37 AM10/2/17
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I spotted this crowdfunding project for the LimeSDR Mini.  The original LimeDSR seemed to review well, so I'm considering picking this up.

Thing is, aside from knowing a bit about RF, I'm new to SDR.  How easy/difficult would it be to pick up enough so that I could actually make use of this?  I figured I'd start off with basic signal capture and analysis.

Andrei

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Oct 12, 2017, 7:47:08 PM10/12/17
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Hi Jasper, 

You might want to start from these tutorials which are just great: https://greatscottgadgets.com/sdr/1

Cheers,
Andrei

Roland Turner

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Nov 22, 2017, 12:58:43 AM11/22/17
to hacker...@googlegroups.com, Jasper C.
(clearing old email...)

The LimeSDR is impressive, although it has limits for weak-signal work[1].

I don't quite understand the rationale for the Mini, it feels a bit like putting an F1 engine into a Mondeo. You get all of the complexity, but with many of the options chopped off:
  • Even as specified, no operation in 100KHz - 10MHz and 3.5GHz - 3.8GHz, which may or may not concern you. I'd be surprised if most of the 10MHz - 3.5MHz range was useful in most cases, as it's not possible to match a transmission line across such a wide range without enormous losses (i.e. very low Q).
  • The reduced bandwidth presumably isn't a concern.
  • The switch to SMA connectors is nice.
  • The lack of access to the clock (either input or output) is limiting for some applications.
Given that you're starting at signal capture and analysis, you're probably better off with an RTL-SDR.

- Roland

1: Variable-gain amplifiers introduce noise (the LMS chip has a string of them in each signal path) and the ADCs are only 12 bits. Both are OK for general purpose work but problematic when close to the noise floor.



On 02/10/17 22:04, Jasper C. wrote:
I spotted this crowdfunding project for the LimeSDR Mini.  The original LimeDSR seemed to review well, so I'm considering picking this up.

Thing is, aside from knowing a bit about RF, I'm new to SDR.  How easy/difficult would it be to pick up enough so that I could actually make use of this?  I figured I'd start off with basic signal capture and analysis.
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