Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] SDR for beginners (if not quite "dummies")

[Rafael Diniz]

You can also find good priced used USRPs in ebay. I bought an used USRP
2 in ebay for 300 USD - it was worth every cent.

Rafael Diniz

On 12/2/18 5:03 PM, Bruce Ferrell wrote:
> On 12/2/18 3:47 AM, Colin Rowat wrote:
>>
>> I'm looking for an interesting Christmas present for my sons (ages 13
>> and 10) and wondered about software-defined radio.  We're reasonably
>> tech literate, but don't have any SDR experience.
>>
>> I'd thought that it could be interesting for them to see what sort of
>> signals are passing through the air around us, and even identify and
>> listen to some of them.
>>
>> I'd love something that:
>>
>> 1.is easy to use and can give an immediate reward out of the box -
>> e.g. tuning into something they couldn't otherwise hear, or
>> transmitting to walkie-talkies in the area.
>>
>> 2.allows room to grow, so that they can do more serious things with it
>> if they're interested
>>
>> 3.can be used from an Android phone or a Raspberry Pi (nice, but not
>> essential)
>>
>> 4.not too expensive
>>
>> Thus, I think I'd need both SDR hardware and an intro-level book/manual.
>>
>> I'd be grateful for any suggestions about how to get started with SDR.
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Colin
>>
>>
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> 
> Collin,
> 
> Up until about two weeks ago I was looking for exactly what you're
> asking for... And I've been a/ Electronics/radio/Linux "person" since
> high school in the 70's!
> 
> While How-to-obtain/build is great... And too much of the on-line stuff
> stops at how to obtain/build OR dives directly off into deep
> mathematics. Neither of those are very useful in how to use/get started.
> 
> Then I found this set of tutorials on YouTube to be extraordinarily
> useful:
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRovDyowOn5F67h9nHN4RWqmvXyt18uj8
> 
> The cheapest SDR you can lay you hands on is an RTL-SDR v3 at about
> $25... It can ONLY be a receiver, but you can get going listening.  It
> was my first.
> 
> My second was the SDRplay one.  I got rid of it as it's Linux driver was
> closed... It was only available as a binary for very particular Linux
> distros and they weren't the ones I was using. They spent a year saying
> they would build for other distros and never did... Vexing.
> 
> I then found the BladeRF, which I like but I have it in use in a
> semi-dedicated role.
> 
> I also play around with the ADALM-Pluto from analog devices. This one is
> interesting in that it also has a built in Linux host
> 
> My next, when I have spare money, will probably be a LimeSDR or
> LimeSDR-mini
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> 
> 
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