GNU Radio

Articles and blogs about the GNU Radio, written by Alexandru Csete OZ9AEC.

Technical papers about UNITEC-1

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I did a Google search to find some technical information about UNITEC-1 – in addition to what is already available on their website – and here is what came up: Structural Design of UNITEC-1 (944k PDF) UNITEC-1 and Onboard Computer Survival Competition in Interplanetary Environment (867k PDF) Preliminary Thermal Design of UNITEC-1 (1.0M PDF) They … Read more

UNITEC-1: The KU LNC 5659 C PRO has arrived

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Yesterday I have received the C-band down-converter that I have ordered last week for the UNITEC-1 receiver station. Watch video on YouTube. I have also uploaded a few high resolution photos to my Picasa Albums: If you can’t read the specs, you can see them on my work-in-progress wiki page about the C-band Receiver Station. … Read more

UNITEC-1: A New Deep Space Adventure

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If everything goes according to current plans, JAXA will launch their PLANET-C spacecraft towards Venus on May 18, 2010. To fill out the empty space and available payload mass on the H-IIA rocket, they will also bring four university built cubesats into orbit. One of these cubesats, UNITEC-1, is very special in that it will … Read more

The WBX as full duplex VHF/UHF amateur radio satellite transceiver

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One of the reasons I have been very excited to get the WBX transceiver daughterboard for the USRP is that with one single RF board I can have a full duplex transceiver covering both the 2 m and 70 cm amateur radio bands. This is where most of the amateur radio satellite traffic takes place, … Read more

No Mars Express experiment this time

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It was a difficult decision to accept, but the Mars Express experiment with the USRP and GNU Radio is not going to happen this time! It’s a shame because the link budget looked quite promising. An optimistic estimate gives almost 20 dB signal to noise ratio, which is more than we need, so the problem … Read more

Aiming for planetary science with GNU Radio and the USRP

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Thanks to the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Mars Express mission, we might have an opportunity just around the corner for doing big science with GNU Radio and the USRP!

On March 3, 2010, Mars Express will visit the Martian moon Phobos by performing a close flyby. According to ESA, the ESOC ops team is working with a number of possible scenarios, including one that would take the spacecraft to just 50 km above Phobos. At that distance the orbit of the spacecraft is expected to be influenced by the gravitational pull of Phobos. I knew this already for about a week when I first read it on the Mars Express Blog but it was first today that I realized the opportunities this event offers.

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WBX Transceiver Tests using GNU Radio and USRP

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This video shows my first on-the-air tests with the WBX transceiver using the USRP (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) and GNU Radio.

The receiver was tested using wide band FM broadcast, APT signal from NOAA 17 satellite and Copenhagen VOLMET. I have also performed some tests using DVB-T signal and wireless sensor signals but I wanted to keep the video short so these were not included. I can post them in separate videos if there is interest.

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WBX receiver test on the air: Copenhagen VOLMET

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I have been quite busy during the last weeks doing overtime at work, nonetheless, I have managed to carry out some small on the air tests of my newly acquired WBX transceiver boards for the USRP and GNU Radio. Tonight, I tuned in to Copenhagen VOLMET that transmits AM on 127.000 MHz.

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