[hpsdr] Success with GNURadio on LIVA PC!

[Scott Cowling]

Hi all,

This is not strictly HPSDR related, but I thought that most would be 
interested is the SDR capabilities of the ECS LIVA PC that is on sale 
at Newegg for $132 through Friday.

I got the LIVA on Wednesday and assembled it. (Be careful with those 
little MMCX connectors for the WiFi antenna. I broke one of them and 
had to repair it, which was not fun.)

I installed Ubuntu 14.04 from a USB flash drive, then downloaded and 
ran the GNURadio install script for version 3.7.4. Then I downloaded 
the SDRstick source block and followed the instructions to build and 
install it (only about 6 steps).

I plugged in my HF1 and BeMicroSDK hardware to the USB port (for 
power) and the GigE port (for data).

Amazingly, it came right up! The sample AM receiver flowgraph works, 
and at 384K bandwidth I can hear (and see) AM broadcast stations with 
no dropouts. This is pretty exciting for such a small, low-power PC!

When I go to 1.25MHz bandwidth, the receiver still works, but the PC 
just can't keep the graphics on the screen updated. I haven't tweaked 
any priorities yet, but it looks like 1.25MHz is a bit too much for 
this "little PC that could"!

I will bring this setup to DCC next weekend to demo.

73,
Scotty WA2DFI




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