This document provides an overview of High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) presented by Justin Giles-Clark VK7TW. It discusses the speaker's background and journey with SDR, the philosophy of HPSDR, and generations of SDR technology from early sound card implementations to current systems with FPGAs and integrated computers. It also briefly reviews current HPSDR software and hardware and concludes that amateur radio has a long history of international open source hacking spanning over 100 years.
This document provides an overview of High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) presented by Justin Giles-Clark VK7TW. It discusses the speaker's background and journey with SDR, the philosophy of HPSDR, and generations of SDR technology from early sound card implementations to current systems with FPGAs and integrated computers. It also briefly reviews current HPSDR software and hardware and concludes that amateur radio has a long history of international open source hacking spanning over 100 years.
This document provides an overview of High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) presented by Justin Giles-Clark VK7TW. It discusses the speaker's background and journey with SDR, the philosophy of HPSDR, and generations of SDR technology from early sound card implementations to current systems with FPGAs and integrated computers. It also briefly reviews current HPSDR software and hardware and concludes that amateur radio has a long history of international open source hacking spanning over 100 years.
This document provides an overview of High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) presented by Justin Giles-Clark VK7TW. It discusses the speaker's background and journey with SDR, the philosophy of HPSDR, and generations of SDR technology from early sound card implementations to current systems with FPGAs and integrated computers. It also briefly reviews current HPSDR software and hardware and concludes that amateur radio has a long history of international open source hacking spanning over 100 years.
By Justin Giles-Clark VK7TW What we will cover • Me & my SDR journey • SDR Generations – amateur radio perspective • HPSDR Philosophy & Components • Some issues with SDRs • VHF/UHF/Microwaves & SDRs • Quick review - Current Software & Hardware • Demo in break Victor Kilo Seven Tango Whiskey • 40 years of hacking – cut my teeth with assembler on 8748s and Z80s! • Amateur radio operator 30 years – VK5ZJV, VK7ZTW, VK7KTW, VK7TW • Been in IT for 35 years except for four years for a BSc in Geology and Geochemistry – Rock Jockey ;-) • Passion for recycling and re-purposing electronic equipment • I cannot believe what society throws away and it is not sustainable! • Devotee of open source philosophy – started with FreeBSD 0.1 in 1990s My SDR Journey • Softrocks – Tony Parks KB9YIG - 2008 • 630m (455kHz Rx) – Soundcard ADC • 40m (Rx) – Soundcard ADC • 2m – (6/4/2m Ensemble TX/RX) - USB • HPSDR building blocks ~2008 to present • Hermes single board ~2009 to present • PiHPSDR Control Surface - 2016 to present • RTL dongles – RTL-SDR – DVB-T TV dongles ?LimeSDR? What is a Software Defined Radio? ● digital conversion closest to the antenna – no more than one or two stages away from antenna - minimal hardware ● wide band radios compared to traditional hardware defined radios ● hardware components are realised in software ● modulation and demodulation performed in software ● control is digital – hamlib/rigctl and interfaces ● new features are implemented with new code/software SDR Generations – Generation Zero Back to the Future! Mainly sourced from Generations of SDR – Dr Howard White KY6LA - SDR Academy – Freidrichshafen Ham fest 2016 – on YouTube ● Generation Zero - wide band - direct sampling – spark transmitter and crystal receiver (rx)! 1890S – bit like an SDR!! ● Hardware Defined Radio HDR – up to ~1980 when Digital Signal Processing started – not SDR! ● Problem is distortion introduced at each intermediate frequency (IF) conversion stage and filter out each time – artifacts city! ● Goal is to transmit/receive a signal with a fewer artifacts over variable paths Generation 1 SDR – Sound card ADC/DAC • Generation 1 – for hams circa 2000 • Came from military application in 1980/90s (SpeakEasy, JTRS, etc) and became cheaper • Direct conversion SDR - HF to AF – ADC in AF range – 192kbps – sound card • Low noise amp, filter, quadrature sampling detector, (Improved Phasing Rig – more frequency stability) • Bandwidth = sampling rate eg. 192khz – sound card sample rate! • Eg – Funcube, Flex3000, Elecraft kx3, RTL SDR, etc • Images issues – need to filter them out • Relies on Sound card ADC – good quality usually! • Pros – sound quality is good, wide band 192khz, low power • Cons – image rejection issues Gen 1 Rx – eg. Softrock - QSD SOUND CARD LINE SPKR QSD (A/D) (D/A) INPUT OUTPUT
USER INTERFACE Source: Dr Howard White KY6LA SDR - Software demodulation/modulation Modulation How with I & Q AM Amplitude modulating the I & Q and summing (Double sideband suppressed carrier) – phase is constant FM Magnitude of the modulating signal is constant and only frequency variation is controlled relative to phase (FSK!) SSB AM modulate and sum IQ and digitally filter the side band not required PSK Finite number of phases used ASK Finite number of amplitudes used FSK Finite number of frequencies used QAM Finite number of phases (>2) and amplitudes (>2) Gen 1 Tx – eg. Softrock Ensemble - QSE SOUND CARD MIC LINE INPUT OUTPUT QSE
USER INTERFACE Source: Dr Howard White KY6LA Generation 2 – ADC(DDC)/DAC(DUC) at the Antenna – process in the PC • Generation 2 Fat pipe direct sampling broad bandwidth SDR • ~2006 RF ADCs faster and more affordable • Eliminated much of the glue and direct sampling – images gone • Hearing everything and can get 350million samples/second – SunSDR 650million!! • Needs powerful PC and fat network pipe • First to do it in amateur radio circles - HPSDR and Perseus • Bandpass filters, attenuator, ADC, fat pipe to PC • PowerSDR front end made Open Source – thanks Flex! • Pros – distortion fixed, many receivers at once, adapters, dynamic range huge, program anything, HW is set and all the rest done in SW – Angelina – 7 rxs • Cons – faster PC and fat pipes – external DSP in PC Gen 2 Rx – Direct Digital Conversion USER INTERFACE
Digital A/D Down USB2 CPU MEM VID Converter
OSC A/D D/A DDS, XTAL IN OUT
SOUND CARD
RF HARDWARE PC HARDWARE RF INPUT DIGITAL I/Q DEMODULATED AUDIO DATA STREAM Source: Dr Howard White KY6LA Gen 2 Tx – eg. Direct Up Conversion USER INTERFACE
MIC AUDIO MODULATED RF USB Digital CPU MEM VID USB2 I/F Up A/D Converter
OSC A/D D/A A/D IN OUT IN DDS, XTAL
SOUND CARD
PC HARDWARE RF HARDWARE AUDIO INPUT DIGITAL I/Q RF OUTPUT DATA STREAM ALTERNATE AUDIO INPUT
Source: Dr Howard White KY6LA
Generation 3 – Processing in to the Radio • Generation 3 – thin pipe direct sampling broad bandwidth SDR • 2012 – put the fast PC and display into the SDR • Cheaper and faster • FPGAs doing the processing in the radio • Band pass filter, attenuator, ADC, FPGA thin pipe computer for display only • Eg - Flex 6000, ANAN-200……HPSDR! • Pros: huge dynamic range, low distortion, remote operation • Cons: graphical interface with mouse not good for contesting!! Gen 3 Rx – eg.
Source: Dr Howard White KY6LA
Generation 4 – everything old is new again! • Generation 4 = 3rd gen SDRs with knobs and buttons! • Bandpass filters, attenuator, ADC, FPGA thin pipe, to internal computer with control knobs!!! • Contesters rig needs the quick adjustment functionality • EG – ELAD – Italian, SUNSDR – Russian – 620Msps, Flex – 6700 & maestro • Pros – Knobs and buttons – easier to drive, software upgrade path, cheaper and cheaper, price versus performance – not bad • Cons – Expensive currently but just wait Gen 4 – Flex Maestro/ ELAD/ SUN/ HPSDR
Source: Flex, Elad, SUNSDR, HPSDR Websites
Amateur Radio – Over 100 years of International Open Source Hacking! Experimental • Experimental - we design, build, operate and modify equipment - 23GHz of spectrum within our licence conditions. Radio Communications • Technical communication – experimental – hardware morphing into software hacking. • Uses the international radio spectrum resource – internationally governed recognised in ITU regulations (section 25) Non Commercial, Self Education and Improvement • Amateur radio is non-commercial – challenge of getting something working - satellite, EME or a QRP (low power); • Talking with like-minded people locally and internationally, nets, QSL cards, equipment, contests and certificates; • Self improvement and experience gained through operation of different equipment, modes and mediums; • Making contributions through experimentation to the fields of science, technology and engineering; • Self-training and educational value; and, • Skilled personnel for emergencies & community service (Fire Season, Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) and Safety Comms.
Source: REAST Website
HPSDR Philosophy and Quick Tour • The HPSDR Journey started back in October, 2005 by Phil Covington (N8VB) . • Attracted a group of SDR enthusiasts from around the world - Ray Anderson WB6TPU, Steve Bible N7HPR, Rick Hambly W2GPS, Phil Harman VK6APH, Lyle Johnson KK7P, Ulrich Rohde N1UL, and Bill Tracey KD5TFD – all amateurs contributing their skills sets • Balanced cost and performance to create a modular experimental SDR platform • Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Corp (June 2006) develops project - next generation SDR for Radio Amateurs. Affiliated with Amateur Satellite Corp (AMSAT). • It is a Generation 2/3 SDR – DUC/DDC • Amateur Radio and HPSDR philosophies align perfectly • Apache-Labs in India have commercialised the product Original HPSDR Components (see demo)
Source: OpenHPSDR website
HPSDR – Hermes/Angelina – 0-61MHz DUC/DDC
Source: OpenHPSDR & Apache-Labs website
HPSDR moves from Gen2/3 to Gen4 • John Melton g0orx/n6lyt developed an open source front end with WDSP by Warren Pratt, NR0V DSP Library originally written for Windows and ported to Linux and Android • https://github.com/g0orx • RaspberryPi 3 & 7” Touch screen - http://g0orx.blogspot.com.au/ to create a control surface for the HPSDR/ANAN platform • ApacheLabs have developed and released (see demo) PiHPSDR – John Melton g0orx/n6lyt
Source: VK7TW Why band pass filters & other issues with DDC/DUC SDRs • DDC - Broadbandwidth rx – hearing 0-61MHz of signals – need avoid ADC overload • Linearity The native linearity of the data converter is excellent, something on the order of an IP3 of +50 dBm. • Image suppression. MERCURY receiver - sampling frequency of 122.88 MHz for the ADC to allow MERCURY receiver to rx from 0 to 61 MHz. Signals / intermodulation artefact frequencies (from anywhere!) can also appear in the data converter output. – 88-108MHz FM could appear in the 15-35MHz spectrum! • PC Power – minimum dual core – prefer i5 or i7 and reasonable Graphics card – NVIDIA - Generation 2 issue • Latency – need real time operating systems – Windoze is NOT – Linux is ;-) VHF/UHF/Microwaves • Softrock – 2/4/6m Ensemble – Gen 1 • David Minchin VK5KK – SDR Academy / Gippstech presentation • mCHF – M0NKA All mode HF Rig – uses only control surface with UHFSDR – UHFSDR – WB6DHW – 1.7-700MHz http://wb6dhw.com/For_Sale.html#UHFSDR • DDS – AD9951 (Minikits) – GPSDO locked
• TulipSDR - Russian • HackRF – Michael Ossman • LimeSDR – Shipping Nov 2016???? • BladeRF – just announced. Source: wb6dhw Website SDR Hardware and Software ● Hardware has been stable and standard for 3-4 years - DUC/DDC ● SDR Software is exploding at the moment ● SoapySDR - A vendor neutral and platform independent SDR support library - standardisation ● Client/Service SDR architectures - GHPSDR-3 / QTRadio ● CUDA SDR – Using the graphics card processors to do the DSP calculations – Phil Harman VK6AP – experimenting in this area with many others – watch this space! GNU-Radio – the SDR Swiss Army Knife/Toolkit • GNU Radio is a powerful open source radio development toolkit - signal processing runtime, processing blocks, integration with common low-cost external RF hardware and commodity processors. • It is widely used in hobbyist, academic and commercial environments to support wireless communications research as well as to implement real-world radio systems. • Easiest Entry – GNU Radio Companion • http:// gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/GNURadioCompanion
Source: gnuradio.org Some of the SDRs Available Now • Flex – 6700 – US$7500 - Maestro – US$1200 • HPSDR – Angelina ~$1500 • Perseus http://www.microtelecom.it/perseus/ - Italian • ANAN – 200D – US$3000 ANAN 10E – US$1000 – 8000 - US$4000 • Software Labs – QS1R - http://www.srl-llc.com/?product=qs1r-revd-receiver • RFSpaceIQ - http://www.rfspace.com/RFSPACE/Home.html • Icom - IC7300 • TulipSDR – Romanian - https://tulipsdr.wordpress.com/ • ELAD – Italian - http://ecom.eladit.com/ - Euro$1159 • SUNSDR – Russian http://sunsdr.eu/product/sunsdr2pro/ - Euro$1590 – MB1 High End Euro$5890 • BladeRF X40 - 300MHz to 3.8GHz - US$420 • HackRF One - 1 MHz to 6 GHz - US$300 • LimeSDR – 6rx & 4tx – full duplex - Mobile Basestation - 100 kHz – 3.8 GHz with 64Mhz bandwidth - https://myriadrf.org/projects/limesdr/ US$289 • Check tomorrow it will have changed! What’s Happening Now and Future Now: • Already here - FreeDV, DSTAR, Fusion & DMR already being built in! • GPS Disciplined Oscillators accurate timing for weak signal modes • VHF and above – microwave LOs/IFs – HackRF, LimeSDR, BladeRF, etc, etc The Future: • GPU processing – NVIDIA Graphics Cards – CudaSDR • Remote Stations – suburban RF smog! • WebSDRs Demo in breaktime • HPSDR with PiHPSDR Linux Control Surface – 0-61MHz • Codan 100W PA
• HPSDR Hermes with PiHPSDR (homebrewed) – 0-61MHz
• PennyWhistle 20W PA
• Both HPSDRs have Alexaires Band Pass Filters
• RTL Dongle with RPi running Adafruit – Freq Show
