Reasonably priced sdr - com-3011

[benbenrf]

Been playing with a ComBloc 3011. Max bandwidth is around 40Megs and coverage is from 20Megs thru to 3Gigs - not bad for a $350 SDR

Full spec's on:

www.comblock.com/download/com3011.pdf

Offers a rather decent 40Mhz bandwidth as well - if anything I think it shows how overpriced the Ettus USRP and new N200 and 210 are (!!). The 3011 is great value for money.

Combloc offer a whole range of com and signal processing type boards.

 

[brandon]

Sounds very interesting. Does it work with SpectraVue, Winrad, etc? If so can you post some screenshots of it in action? I've been looking for something that does VHF/UHF, especially to monitor UHF milair. Being able to view 40 MHz of spectrum would be really nice!

 

[Token]

Been playing with a ComBloc 3011. Max bandwidth is around 40Megs and coverage is from 20Megs thru to 3Gigs - not bad for a $350 SDR

Full spec's on:

www.comblock.com/download/com3011.pdf

They got it out early? The last time I looked at that item the projected release date was mid May.

Are you using it with some kind of added front end? The -65 dBm sensitivity (below 200 MHz, -60 dBm 200 MHz to 1000 MHz, and -55 dBm 1000 MHz to 2000 MHz) must be a problem, as it is more than 60 dB higher (less sensitive) than most receivers made today. And with a maximum linear response input of -20 dBm that would seem to indicate a maximum ;inear response dynamic range of only about 45 dB? Of course, the maximum input of +10 dBm means the total dynamic range would be about 75 dB, although it would not have linear response across a large portion of it.

40 MHz of bandwith with a 10 bit A/D sounds like it would yield an instantaneous resolution (in 40 MHz mode) of about 40 kHz, is that what you see in the wide band display mode? Or are they "binning" the ADC output to achieve greater display resolution?

T!

 

[MattSR]

Its a nice unit but has nowhere near the specs of the USRP.. and to get similar performance to a USRP you're going to need to homebrew a whole bunch of stuff at added time/cost.

Still a very nice unit, but keep it in perspective

 

[alainsan]

Its a nice unit but has nowhere near the specs of the USRP.. and to get similar performance to a USRP you're going to need to homebrew a whole bunch of stuff at added time/cost.

Still a very nice unit, but keep it in perspective

@MattSR: could you please give some specific example, that would be helpful for the designers. Thank you.

 

[KA1RBI]

Could you please give some specific example, that would be helpful for the designers. Thank you.

Fully agree with Matt - it is a nice unit but, unless I'm missing something when reading the PDF file (ref: above), I can see things right away that stand out - here are a few

1) no RF front end filtering of any kind - Certainly just a coincidence but it is interesting that the very first "add-on" to come out of the cool funcube dongle project was ... an RF filter for 2M

2) no TX capability

3) The PDF quotes the "input level" (<200 MHz) at -65 dBm to -20 dBm. For comparison purposes, weak CW sigs in the HF bands might come in at -130 to -140 dBm ......

With those factors, the relative prices don't really look to be out of proportion...

73

Max

 

[ahsan]

comblock 3011

i have purchased comblock 3011 and i am unable to run it properly as there is no help provided at the website nither any posts regardingt how to run comblock3011 properly , currently i m using .stn file already provided by the manufacturer of comblock but it gives me error that sampling frequency more than 105 Mhz,, pleaseeeee help me , i shall be thankful to you..

 

[chris97]

Hello,

i also purchase a comblock 3011 and it work well out of the box.
From my point of view the 3011 is well documented (ARM/VHDL and manual).
But i think you could ask to Alain Zarembowitch, he's the boss!

Sincerely,