[hpsdr] Educational SDR Advice Sought

[Eric Ellison]

Jonathan and Chris

This is NOT off topic and HPSDR should be a learning experience. I do agree
with Chris That Soft Rock is the way to go for you, and  there are software
contributors also. There are probably 8 to 10 thousand Soft Rock kits out
there!. Tony KB9YIG is a phenom, and produces the kits with his wife on his
kitchen table, not to mention being the most sincere guy you would ever want
to meet! He probably loses a couple of bux on every one he sells so he needs
a bigger truck!

You might want to consider coming to Dayton Hamvention this year and
attending the SDR and TAPR forums. Of particular note are Phil Harman's -
VK6APH presentation and also Alex Shovkoplyas - VE3NEA. If you can't come
here are the abstracts of what they are presenting. Tom - AA8YI and I are
also publishing the video of these presentations as well as live Teamspeak
presentations the forum (technology permitting!). Take a look at the
abstracts THEY are impressive, and I have seen Phil's presentation already,
he IS an educator and a fine author!


A simple Approach to Learning Digital Signal Processing - Phil Harman -
VK6APH 
One of the problems a beginner faces in learning Digital Signal Processing
(DSP) is finding a simple tool to aid the learning process. Whilst such
tools do exist they are generally aimed at the professional and come at a
professional price. There is an urgent need to provide beginners with a
"crystal set" approach to learning DSP and with a similar price tag. Phil
Harman, VK6APH, will describe a technique for learning DSP that uses freely
available software that enables the beginner to build an extensive array of
digital test equipment - from a simple signal generator right up to a high
performance spectrum analyzer. The test equipment enables the beginner to
experiment with digital filters, modulation and demodulation techniques - as
they say, "to learn by doing". 


Rocky, a View From Inside and Outside Alex Shovkoplyas - VE3NEA 
This presentation will focus on the differences between the hardware and
software-defined radios, using Rocky Software and SoftRock as an example.
The "Inside" part of the presentation will show that digital signal
processing allows the developer to implement many functions that are
difficult or impossible to implement in the hardware. However, the new
possibilities offered by DSP require new solutions. Attempts to build an SDR
as a model of a hardware radio do not work well. The "Outside" part, will
compare the user interfaces of hardware and software radios. While the
controls of the hardware transceivers are implementation-oriented (reflect
the internal structure of the radio), the interface of an SDR can and should
be made task-oriented: more intuitive and easy to use, optimized for the
maximum productivity of operator's work.

 
Our merry little band of Scotty, Dan, Tom and I will get it out there one
way or 'tother'

Nice to know you can still learn at my advanced age!

Eric - AA4SW




For educational purposes the HPSDR project hardware is FAR to
complex.  You need hardware a student can see and understand
and then move on to what really maters: The software.

Same with the software.  It should be simple enough that
you can walk through the source code in one class session.

The simplest SDR hardware I've seen to date is Tony Parks'
"Softrock 40"  He sells these for $10 each post paid  These are
cheap enough that each student can own one of them but more
importantly they are simple and you can cover the schematic
is 1/2 of a leture session.  The whoe radio is only a 2
inch square PCB.  It is single band receive only.  He has an
"RXTX" version which is still simple but IMO there is little to
be gained by transmiting if the goal is teaching

Software.  You are right "matlib-like" is what you want.
Look at this.  Looks to be good for teaching and making
a fast prototype software.  
http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki/GNURadioCompanion
You should be able to figure out how to use this simply by
looking at the screen shot on the web page.

In a more advanced class you could cover SDR applied to
multiple carriers (ODFM, QAM, spread spectrum) or to wideband
modes such as HDTV or Radar and want to do both transmit
and receive exercises but be carefull on Transmit a software
bug could get you in trouble with the FCC.


For more advanced work you would need to more SDR hardware.  
I think most of the serious research in SDR is being
done now with USRP hardware. 
http://www.comsec.com/wiki?UniversalSoftwareRadioPeripheral
and you'd have to give up on GNURadioCompanion and jump into the 
Python software. Here is an example of the ppython software 
See "Example 2. Broadcast FM Receiver" at this URL
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/doc/exploring-gnuradio.html



 
--- Jonathan Wagner <jonathan at jonathanwagner.net> wrote:

> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> This may be slightly off-topic, but I have been contacted by the 
> Electrical Engineering department head at our local in regards to 
> teaching SDR technology in the telecommunications curriculum.  I am 
> seeking recommendations on a hardware/software platform readily 
> available for use in teaching SDR.  I think something with a MATLAB
> or 
> MATLAB-like interface (such as http://www.joshknows.com/?key=grc) is 
> probably what the department head is looking for. 
> 
> It seems that this hpsdr project may still be in too early of 
> development stages to meet the goals of the department head. 
> However, I 
> do not know when the department is planning to add SDR to the
> curriculum 
> and by then, the HPSDR project may be far enough along to use.  My
> first 
> thought for hardware/software combo is the USRP by Ettus in
> conjunction 
> with GnuRadio.  What are the thoughts of this list?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -- 
> Jonathan Wagner, KE5FSG
> 
> 



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