Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Hardware in Australia for SDR

[Alan Gray]

Daniel, as Rob said I have some Microtune 4702 tuners which
are suitable for Australian conditions, they offer 7-8MHz of
bandwidth (full details can be found in the data sheet
available at the following URL:
http://www.mrgray.net/sdr/4702DT5.pdf)

They are not exactly "for sale". Basically Panasonic Australia
gave a whole bunch of them to us, so all you're paying for is
shipping costs around the place (it's semantics I know, but it
saves me getting in to trouble)

As far as a hardware design to actually use the tuners goes,
I'm workin on it, but it's a ways off yet (see other messages
around here)

If you're interested, hit me with an email and we'll discuss
your options.

Alan

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 11:02:40 +1000
>From: Rob Judd <address@hidden>  
>Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Hardware in Australia for SDR  
>To: Daniel Piccoli <address@hidden>
>Cc: address@hidden
>
>Daniel,
>
>It's a homebrew effort. Get in contact with Alan Gray, he has
some 4702
>tuners for sale to get you started.
>
>Rob
>
>
>Daniel Piccoli wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I know the howtos have specified the type of hardware to
buy for SDR.
>> However, could someone tell me what can be bought in
Australia that
>> allows the user wide spectrum coverage.
>> 
>> Also, bandwidth for TV is wider in Australia, does this
mean Australians
>> need to purchase a different tuner?
>> 
>> Ta
>> 
>> On Tue, 2003-09-16 at 00:03,
address@hidden wrote:
>> > Send Discuss-gnuradio mailing list submissions to
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>> > Today's Topics:
>> >
>> >    1. Success (kinda) (Alan Gray)
>> >    2. Re: Success (kinda) (Rob Judd)
>> >    3. Re: Success (kinda) (Eric Blossom)
>> >
>> >
>> >
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Message: 1
>> > Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 13:05:00 +1000
>> > From: Alan Gray <address@hidden>
>> > Subject: [Discuss-gnuradio] Success (kinda)
>> > To: address@hidden
>> > Message-ID: <address@hidden>
>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>> >
>> > All,
>> >
>> > I've been working on putting together a circuit to use the
>> > microtune 4702 tuners I have and I think I've almost got it
>> > nailed. At the moment I'm sampling the 36MHz IF at
>> > 20MSample/sec which aliases the centre to 4MHz
(reversed). I'm
>> > just trying to demodulate and listen to FM signals currently,
>> > however they're not sounding incredibly great.
>> >
>> > I had a quick search through the archives here and found a
>> > thread on "Why FM doesn't sound good" so before I go nuts
>> > trying to figure out just why I'm not getting a good sounding
>> > audio stream I thought I'd ask just now "not good" FM sounds
>> > using the other hardware.
>> >
>> > Basically what I'm hearing sounds like a radio which is tuned
>> > to about 50KHz away from the actual carried frequency. I can
>> > make out beats and baselines but it sounds as if I'm missing
>> > the high end frequencies. I can make out when words
occur, but
>> > again they're very distorted and it's hard to determine what
>> > is being said.
>> >
>> > Is this consistent with the results obtained by others or do
>> > you get a clearer output? If others do get a clearer signal,
>> > can anyone suggest a possible fix?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> > Alan
>> >
>> > Is th
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------
>> >
>> > Message: 2
>> > Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 13:39:36 +1000
>> > From: Rob Judd <address@hidden>
>> > Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Success (kinda)
>> > To: "address@hidden" <address@hidden>
>> > Message-ID: <address@hidden>
>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-2
>> >
>> > Alan,
>> >
>> > Good to see you're making progress. How certain are you
of the exact IF
>> > frequency of the 4702 tuner? I know the datasheet says
36MHz but then
>> > the 4706 is at 36.125MHz so it cvould be slightly out.
The other
>> > possibility is that you are being bandwidth limited by
your soundcard,
>> > which is equally likely.
>> >
>> > I haven't started fiddling with the tuners you sent me
yet, because I
>> > got distracted into designing a 5W linear for the SDR-1000.
>> >
>> > BTW, I have a Wavetek 3000-200 RF Signal Generator for
sale at $695.00
>> > plus shipping if you know anyone interested. You probably
have the Uni's
>> > facilities at your disposal, but maybe someone you know
is looking for
>> > one. It's listed on the VK-HAM website.
>> >
>> > Good luck!
>> >
>> > Rob
>> >
>> >
>> > Alan Gray wrote:
>> > >
>> > > All,
>> > >
>> > > I've been working on putting together a circuit to use the
>> > > microtune 4702 tuners I have and I think I've almost got it
>> > > nailed. At the moment I'm sampling the 36MHz IF at
>> > > 20MSample/sec which aliases the centre to 4MHz
(reversed). I'm
>> > > just trying to demodulate and listen to FM signals
currently,
>> > > however they're not sounding incredibly great.
>> > >
>> > > I had a quick search through the archives here and found a
>> > > thread on "Why FM doesn't sound good" so before I go nuts
>> > > trying to figure out just why I'm not getting a good
sounding
>> > > audio stream I thought I'd ask just now "not good" FM
sounds
>> > > using the other hardware.
>> > >
>> > > Basically what I'm hearing sounds like a radio which is
tuned
>> > > to about 50KHz away from the actual carried frequency.
I can
>> > > make out beats and baselines but it sounds as if I'm
missing
>> > > the high end frequencies. I can make out when words
occur, but
>> > > again they're very distorted and it's hard to determine
what
>> > > is being said.
>> > >
>> > > Is this consistent with the results obtained by others
or do
>> > > you get a clearer output? If others do get a clearer
signal,
>> > > can anyone suggest a possible fix?
>> > >
>> > > Thanks
>> > > Alan
>> > >
>> > > Is th
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > Discuss-gnuradio mailing list
>> > > address@hidden
>> > > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------
>> >
>> > Message: 3
>> > Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 23:33:39 -0700
>> > From: Eric Blossom <address@hidden>
>> > Subject: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Success (kinda)
>> > To: Alan Gray <address@hidden>
>> > Cc: address@hidden
>> > Message-ID: <address@hidden>
>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>> >
>> > On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 01:05:00PM +1000, Alan Gray wrote:
>> > > All,
>> > >
>> > > I've been working on putting together a circuit to use the
>> > > microtune 4702 tuners I have and I think I've almost got it
>> > > nailed. At the moment I'm sampling the 36MHz IF at
>> > > 20MSample/sec which aliases the centre to 4MHz
(reversed). I'm
>> > > just trying to demodulate and listen to FM signals
currently,
>> > > however they're not sounding incredibly great.
>> > >
>> > > I had a quick search through the archives here and found a
>> > > thread on "Why FM doesn't sound good" so before I go nuts
>> > > trying to figure out just why I'm not getting a good
sounding
>> > > audio stream I thought I'd ask just now "not good" FM
sounds
>> > > using the other hardware.
>> >
>> > I'm assuming that you're tuned to a broadcast FM station,
right?
>> >
>> > If you run adc3_fft and look at the spectrum, is there a
nice juicy
>> > spike where you expect your IF to be?
>> >
>> > Have you experimented with the RF and IF gain settings
for the tuner
>> > module?  For lowest noise figure, you want to max out the
RF gain
>> > before ramping up the the IF gain.
>> >
>> > In fm_demod1 and/or hifi_fm did you you change the
definition of the
>> > IF frequency?
>> >
>> > > Basically what I'm hearing sounds like a radio which is
tuned
>> > > to about 50KHz away from the actual carried frequency.
I can
>> > > make out beats and baselines but it sounds as if I'm
missing
>> > > the high end frequencies. I can make out when words
occur, but
>> > > again they're very distorted and it's hard to determine
what
>> > > is being said.
>> >
>> > Of the two wide band FM receivers we've got, hifi_fm
sounds better
>> > than fm_demod1.  In any event fm_demod1 doesn't suck
completely (sort
>> > of like a low cost hand held radio from the old days). 
It's not
>> > really processing a wide enough piece of the spectrum to
grab it all
>> > (related to the fact that there aren't nice integer
decimation factors
>> > that get us from the IF input sampling rate to the sound
card output
>> > rate).  hifi_fm interpolates, and does a couple of other
things more
>> > right, and as a result sounds quite good.
>> >
>> > If anyone's looking for a not too hairy project, building
a version of
>> > hifi_fm.cc that decodes the L-R stereo info wouldn't be
too hard.
>> >
>> > > Is this consistent with the results obtained by others
or do
>> > > you get a clearer output? If others do get a clearer
signal,
>> > > can anyone suggest a possible fix?
>> > >
>> > > Thanks
>> > > Alan
>> >
>> > If you like I can send you some audio samples of FM I've
>> > demodulated...
>> >
>> > Eric
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Discuss-gnuradio mailing list
>> > address@hidden
>> > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio
>> >
>> >
>> > End of Discuss-gnuradio Digest, Vol 10, Issue 8
>> > ***********************************************
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