From the outset, the goal of this project was to develop a set of easy-to-build (or pre-assembled) circuit boards, and open-source software, that can be used to construct a device that would speed up and simplify the task of building, testing, and implementing new receiver designs. The idea was to use the
Si5351 to generate up to three independent clocks for use as VFO, LO and BFO in receiver designs. But, in theory, any project (not just receivers) requiring up to three flexible and configurable clocks might utilize this platform.
An initial application of the Receiver Development Platform is to develop a dual-band ARDF receiver, capable of competition-level performance operating on the 80m (3.5 MHz) and 2m (145MHz) Amateur Radio bands. The ARDF receiver project will be used to identify, implement, and test the requirements for the Receiver Development Platform.