RE: [Discuss-gnuradio] Hardware costs

[Ettus , Matt]

> So please, answer me this: what average, consumer-level good 
> is GnuRadio 
> if it requires a $1300 analog-digital converter card to work? 
> Are there 
> any alternatives I could use to get started with this?


GNURadio does not require any hardware at all, other than a computer running
a POSIX OS.  Data sources/sinks can be files, random numbers, whatever.

If you want to do actual radio communication, you need hardware.  The
hardware that you need depends on the type of application you have.
GNUradio works with any hardware you can get a linux driver for.  

If you want to do narrow band stuff, all you need is a soundcard.  If you
want HDTV, then the only option available now is a $1300 card.  People are
working on cheaper options.  Your help would be appreciated.

BTW, somebody really should look into tweaking the BT848/878 drivers to do
raw sampling.  It would get us 8-bit, 30+MHz sampling for about $30!  If you
don't know what I'm talking about, read the archives from about a year ago.
If you're actually interested in doing the work to make that happen, let me
know.

Matt