Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] software defined antenna

[Steve Totaro]

On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 4:20 PM, John Ackermann N8UR <address@hidden> wrote:

rhubbell wrote:

Hi all,

After being on-frequency here for a little while I can see that the
range of experience/expertise is wide. Which is great.

I'm curious if any long-timers have begun to look at software defined
antennas?  Or is there any effort at all anywhere in the public domain?
I guess military and universities don't really count for public as much
as they once did, but I'd guess they're working toward SDA also.

I'm not sure just what you mean by "software defined antenna" but Vic Kean, K1LT, has been using an array of short vertical antennas fed to multiple ADCs and phased in software to receive on the 160M amateur band.  I don't have URLs handy, but I know he's made some postings about his work.  Searching for "K1LT" and "SDR" would be a good start.

John

I could see a software controlled antennae, using software to control reed switches and servos, but not a strictly software defined antennae, more like a robotic antennae that could be populated with standard or predefined settings for the antennae configuration, as well as manual control.

I have a software controlled wifi antennae on my chimney, the software just controls a servo for direction.

I have this guy, which kicks butt and has come down in price quite a bit http://cgi.ebay.com/WiFi-USB-24-dBi-YAGI-ANTENNA-2-4GHz-ULTRA-LONG-RANGE_W0QQitemZ270284630828QQihZ017QQcategoryZ86720QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Haven't used it in ice/snow but i assume that will be a problem and require some kind of covering to keep the elements that stick off, jerking the servo takes care of water build up from rain that can and does degrade wifi signals.

--
Thanks,
Steve Totaro
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