I have been playing with GNU Radio and GRC (GNU Radio Companion) over the weekend and I ended up implementing a very simple CW receiver. This will be very handy on Tuesday when we will be testing the 5.8 GHz UNITEC-1 setup for the first time using the OZ7IGY beacon on 5.76093 GHz. Here is a quick video demo of the receiver where I use my Yaesu FT-817ND to transmit a test signal.
Radios
Articles and blogs about radio receivers and transmitters. Both commercial off the shelf radios and home made DIY experiments by Alexandru Csete OZ9AEC.
Bias-T for the UNITEC-1 Receiver
Today I have been looking at the options for bias tees that we can use for the UNITEC-1 receiver. A bias tee (aka. Bias -T) is a simple device that can inject DC voltage into a coax cable. It is often used to provide supply voltage to devices that are mounted on the antenna without … Read more
Technical papers about UNITEC-1
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
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
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
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
The required precision for the Phobos experiment
Thanks to Hannes DG1GGH of ESOC, we now have an idea what kind of precision is required for the Phobos flyby experiment. The answer is in the comments to this very informative and interesting post on the Mars Express blog from today. According to Hannes, they are expecting the influence of Phobos to cause a … Read more
No Mars Express experiment this time
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
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.
WBX Transceiver Tests using GNU Radio and USRP
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.