RF Hacking

Idea Ismo recently shared the https://github.com/CoolNamesAllTaken/adsbee project which is pretty cool. Challenges The ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) system uses a data rate of 1 Mbit/s (1 megabit per second) for its aircraft position and identification transmissions on the 1090 MHz frequency. This is too much for HOPERF CMT2300A and related transceiver chips unfortunately! This got us thinking about the following VFM ADS-B RX chain. Architecture Here is a simple ADS-B RX circuit description. ...

The PE4312 is a 50Ω, 6-bit RF digital step attenuator available for around 2 USD. Pretty neat for implementing real digital AGC! For half-the-price we can get the alternate Archiwave ARW637 or ARW621A ICs which work very similarly to PE4312! References: Archiwave ARW637 Archiwave ARW621A

This short article describes a flight-safe power supply for FieldOps. Component List Simply get these: USB QC/PD AFC trigger decoy board (9V) USB QC/PD AFC trigger decoy board (12V) USB QC/PD AFC trigger decoy board (15V) Xiaomi Pocket Power Bank Pro 10000 33W This one does 9V, 12V, 15V and 20V without any problems. OR A 65W USB PD power bank - not needed for 5 to 10W QRP FieldOps ...

Related articles: Proper Single Transistor LNA for HF A Sustainable Radio Design? Design We are finally going to build a QSD RX! Here is the rough schematic I am thinking about: References MC1496 Information HSDAOH on RP2350 (see internal_adc section) This way we can continue using RP2350 instead of moving to something like STM32H5 immediately PicoRX Simulations (also for DSP code)

Setup: Si5351 RF generator (@ 28 MHz) ➔ GSD-Hacks-v5 digital amplifier ➔ 7th order LPF ➔ {COAX-UNDER-TEST} ➔ Digital RF power meter ➔ Dummy load Results Results at 13.8V drain: Coax Type Power Reading RG-58 (7 meters) 4.5W RG-316 (7 meters) 3.9W RG-188 (7 meters) 3.9W Results at 15V drain: Coax Type Power Reading RG-58 (7 meters) 5.4W RG-316 (7 meters) 4.7W RG-188 (7 meters) 4.7W These measurement results seem to match the ones from Eric, WD8RIF. ...

Here is the schematic for a standard 50Ω LPF for the 12-11-10m bands. Designs PCB Render: Actual photo: Performance NanoVNA results of the PCB build: Build Notes These values come from RobG (https://hackaday.io/) Shunt C: 100pF Series L: 12T on T37-6 core, 11T on T50-6, making about 485nH Shunt C: 180pF Series L: 13T on T37-6 core, 12T on T50-6, making about 580nH Shunt C: 180pF Series L: 12T on T37-6 core, 11T on T50-6, making about 485nH Shunt C: 100pF Winding wire size: 27 SWG (is non-critical) Note: We needed to reduce 1T (from the values specified above) when using the T50-6 cores. As usual, use a DE-5000 LCR Meter (or better) to know the exact values. ...

Note: This HF LNA design is inspired by PY2OHH designs and mcHF work. Previous article: Single Transistor LNA for HF - it cut a corner when it came to output impedance matching ;) Design The idea that a single-transistor-preamp with 10 dB gain is more than enough for HF comes from Gajendra Kumar (VU2BGS). As a new "designer" I am often overwhelmed by the different possible design paths - so having guidance from an elmer becomes crucial. ...

Setup OS and SDR Please use the latest Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit on RPi 4 or later. Using a Raspberry Pi (<=3) is NOT recommended as it has quite a bit of power supply noise on the USB ports, which reduces the performance of the connected SDR. Install dependencies: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install airspyhf \ soapysdr-tools sox libsox-fmt-all wsjtx \ pulseaudio-utils git vim fluxbox xterm tightvncserver sudo apt-get install cmake pkg-config \ libusb-1.0-0-dev \ libasound2-dev \ libairspy-dev \ libairspyhf-dev \ librtlsdr-dev \ libsndfile1-dev \ portaudio19-dev \ libvolk-dev Build airspyhf-fmradion SDR software: ...

WSJT-X 3.x has inbuilt support for band hopping! Results RX results from an experimental version of DDX: This is super useful for monitoring FT8 traffic on multiple bands. References libmirisdr-5 WSJT-X Improved

Future radio receiver design ideas (from Ismo, Pete and other folks): Antenna ➔ (BPF) ➔ BFR93A based pre-amp from mcHF project ➔ MC1496 (Mixer) ➔ 455 kHz IF ➔ Ceramic filter SMD (HCI) ➔ 'IF amplifier' (20-40 dB gain?) ➔ Overclocked Pico 2's ADC (3+ MSPS) ➔ Digital down-conversion and processing in digital domain ➔ Expose the processed audio samples over USB (Pico 2 acts as a sound card). Benefits: This enables reception of SSB and CW signals! The 455 kHz IF with digital processing gives us the best of both analog selectivity (ceramic filter) and digital flexibility. ...