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SDR: Difference between revisions

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| HackRF One ||RFFC5072 || 20 || 2--20 || 8 || 1--6000 || Half || No || USB2Aµ  || $300
| HackRF One ||RFFC5072 || 20 || 2--20 || 8 || 1--6000 || Half || No || USB2Aµ  || $300
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| Mirics MSi3101 || MSi001 || || || || || || || ||
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| AirSpy R2 || R820TR2 || 10 || 2.5--10 || 12 || 24--1800 || No || No || USB2Aµ || $170
| AirSpy R2 || R820TR2 || 10 || 2.5--10 || 12 || 24--1800 || No || No || USB2Aµ || $170

Revision as of 20:26, 6 July 2019

The SDR software stack, at least according to PothosWare (authors of SoapySDR)

Software-defined radio moves the majority of radio processing into software, facilitating relatively inexpensive wide-band hardware interfaces to the electromagnetic spectrum, especially those frequencies below 3GHz. Pairing advanced SDRs with software-defined antennas yields dynamically optimal cognitive radio. Perhaps most famously, DVB-T television tuners built around the RTL2832U chip, and available in USB form factor for less than $30 (particularly the Rafael Micro R820T2), can reliably provide 2MHz of RX bandwidth anywhere from ~30MHz to ~2GHz (still lower frequencies are supported via direct sampling). For $500, powerful units capable of tremendous bandwidth and range (as well as transmission capabilities) are available, and from there it's not that great a leap to building your own stingray--if the cops have 'em, so should you, doyouknowhatiamsayin?

On the more ballin' end of things, a tricked-out Per Vices Cyan will run you $290k before shipping.

Hardware

Device Tuner BW (MHz) Samples (Msps) ADC Tune (MHz) Xmit? FPGA? Bus MSRP
RTL-SDRv3 R820TR2 2.4 sustained
3.2 peak
8 25--1750 No No USB2A $20
NooElec NESDR
SMArt
R820TR2 2.4 sustained
3.2 peak
225--300kHz
.9--2.56MHz
8 25--1750 No No USB2A $20
NooElec NESDR
SMArt XTR
E4000 2.4 8 65--1100
1200--2300
No No USB2A $35
SDRPlay RSP2 10 12 DC--2000 No No USB2B $170
SDRPlay RSP1A MSI001 6 14 DC--2000 No No USB2B $100
HackRF One RFFC5072 20 2--20 8 1--6000 Half No USB2Aµ $300
Mirics MSi3101 MSi001
AirSpy R2 R820TR2 10 2.5--10 12 24--1800 No No USB2Aµ $170
AirSpy Mini R820TR2 12 6 12 24--1750 No No USB2Aµ $100
AirSpy HF+ 0.768 16 DC--31
60--260
No No USB2Aµ $150
bladeRF 2.0µ xA4 AD9361 56 61.44 12 47--6000 2x Cyclone V USB3B $480
bladeRF x40 LMS6002D 28 40 12 300--3800 1x Cyclone IV USB3B $420
Ettus B210 USRP AD9361 56 61.44 12 70--6000 2x Spartan 6
XC6SLX150
USB3B $1100
Ettus B200 USRP AD9361 56 61.44 12 70--6000 1x Spartan 6
XC6SLX75
USB3B $675
Per Vices Noctar 250 125 12 / 16 DC--4000 1x Cyclone IV
EP4CGX22C
4xPCIe $2500

Software

The Linux SDR software ecosystem is robust, but complex. There are multiple middleware layers available, providing generic access to various hardware devices; many user-exposed applications support both middlewares, sometimes in addition to their own native hardware support. As a result, there can be multiple ways to specify a given piece of hardware in a particular tool.

Kernel

At the lowest level live the various driver libraries for SDR hardware. It is atypical for SDR hardware to require (or provide) a Linux kernel driver; most appear to be implemented wholly in userspace atop raw USB devices (exceptions include the Mirics MSi2500 and the Ettus USRP). Indeed, the primary interaction most users will have with their kernel might be removing (and possibly blacklisting) the dvb_usb_rtl28xxu DVB driver autoloaded for the RTL-SDRv3 USB dongle. This driver prevents the RTL from being used with rtl_sdr, the userspace RTLSDR libraries. To blacklist it, create an entry ending in .conf in /etc/modprobe:

dank@vespula:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rtl8xxxu.conf 
blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
dank@vespula:~$ 

note that users of initramfs might need to rebuild or modify their initramfs to include this file. Adding a blacklist entry does not remove a loaded module; for that, use rmmod dvb_usb_rtl28xxu.

Userspace drivers

As noted above, most of these drivers work on raw USB devices. You'll need set up appropriate udev rules to give users permission.

Family Software Source Tools
RTL2832U rtl-sdr from OsmoCom https://github.com/osmocom/rtl-sdr.git rtl_test, rtl_sdr, rtl_power, rtl_tcp, rtl_fm, rtl_eeprom, rtl_adsb
HackRF libHackRF from Great Scott https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf.git hackrf_cpldjtag, hackrf_debug, hackrf_info, hackrf_spiflash, hackrf_sweep
BladeRF libbladerf from Nuand https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF bladeRF-cli, bladeRF-fsk
Airspy AirSpy One from AirSpy https://github.com/airspy/airspyone_host.git airspy_gpio, airspy_gpiodir, airspy_info, airspy_lib_version, airspy_r820t, airspy_rx, airspy_si5351c, airspy_spiflash
Ettus UHD from Ettus https://github.com/EttusResearch/uhd.git uhd_cal_rx_iq_balance, uhd_find_devices, uhd_siggen, uhd_cal_tx_dc_offset, uhd_image_loader, uhd_siggen_gui, uhd_cal_tx_iq_balance, uhd_images_downloader, uhd_usrp_probe, uhd_config_info, uhd_rx_cfile