LimeSDR

[johnmoe1]

I don't know if it will ever actually get made, but the LimeSDR looks pretty nice. http://limesdr.org/ $249 preorder. $299 regular. It would be made by the people who make the main chip in the bladeRF. It has somewhat better specs* than a bladerf, but at a lower price.


* 60 MHz should be enough bandwidth to monitor all of the inbound and outbound frequencies on the p25 sites around me at the same time all with just one tuner (and a fast computer). I am not sure I will actually want to do this, but would be an interesting option to have.

 

[slicerwizard]

Great price for 60 MHz bandwidth. There is still the issue of 12 bit analog to digital conversion - the strongest signal (hello pagers, local network sites, ...) in the 10, 20, ... 60 MHz chunk of spectrum you choose to grab limits the gain/sensitivity for all signals, which can really hurt weak signal reception.

 

[whelgeson]

Great price for 60 MHz bandwidth. There is still the issue of 12 bit analog to digital conversion - the strongest signal (hello pagers, local network sites, ...) in the 10, 20, ... 60 MHz chunk of spectrum you choose to grab limits the gain/sensitivity for all signals, which can really hurt weak signal reception.

The problem with larger ADC's is that you start running into ITAR regulations. (Ref: ITAR, CATEGORY 3) Most all of the high end ADC/DAC's are manufactured in the US and these manufactures must comply fully with ITAR’s nonproliferation requirements; i.e you're not going to be able to assemble these boards in China.

Further, using them would classify the SDR board as a export controlled munition, along with which comes ITAR compliance that would burden significantly international sale.

 

[NYG]

The next generation tuner chip these guys will be building an SDR around should tune to 12Ghz.

I got in on this a few weeks ago and hope they can hit the $500k