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ANTSDR: Low-cost SDR Alternatives for Ettus Research and Lime Microsystems

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Re: ANTSDR: Low-cost SDR Alternatives for Ettus Research and Lime Microsystems

#2
Given the way that the Ettus B2x0 SDRs shot up in price over the past couple of years, one would think that a UHD compatible SDR with similar capabilities would be flying off the shelves yet I don't see much in the way of reviews for these. Anyone who has one want to comment on how decent these things are?

Re: ANTSDR: Low-cost SDR Alternatives for Ettus Research and Lime Microsystems

#5

Given the way that the Ettus B2x0 SDRs shot up in price over the past couple of years, one would think that a UHD compatible SDR with similar capabilities would be flying off the shelves yet I don't see much in the way of reviews for these. Anyone who has one want to comment on how decent these things are?

A $30 RTLSDR actually does a reasonable job of receiving. I measured one at 0.1 uV sensitivity, which is surprising given the fact that the samples coming out of it are 8 bits of I/Q data. If you're trying to receive low bandwidth signals, such as AM/FM radio, SBB, Packet, etc... they're actually fit for purpose.

The FPGA based transceivers are out of my price range at the moment. If I were to dive into that field, I'd be using something with at least 8 channels, to do passive radar, and things of that manner.

Re: ANTSDR: Low-cost SDR Alternatives for Ettus Research and Lime Microsystems

#6
The AntSDR is a pretty solid piece of kit. It's compatible with the ADALM-PLUTO, so the available documentation is pretty great, and it's got both a compact and very solid construction (unlike a lot of the other offerings in the market).

The one thing to keep in mind (my experience is with the E200 though the E310 hardware architecture seems pretty similar from what I can see) is that the sampling rate is somewhat CPU bound by the onboard CPU. In spite of having a GigE interface, your sample rate will be limited to somewhere on the order of 110 MB/s which will give you a combined (Rx and Tx) sample rate of under 15 mega samples per second. I have heard of some people try to overclock these to boost the sample rate a bit. If that is all you need I could definitely recommend it though.

Re: ANTSDR: Low-cost SDR Alternatives for Ettus Research and Lime Microsystems

#8

Given the way that the Ettus B2x0 SDRs shot up in price over the past couple of years, one would think that a UHD compatible SDR with similar capabilities would be flying off the shelves yet I don't see much in the way of reviews for these. Anyone who has one want to comment on how decent these things are?

[deleted]

Re: ANTSDR: Low-cost SDR Alternatives for Ettus Research and Lime Microsystems

#9

Given the way that the Ettus B2x0 SDRs shot up in price over the past couple of years, one would think that a UHD compatible SDR with similar capabilities would be flying off the shelves yet I don't see much in the way of reviews for these. Anyone who has one want to comment on how decent these things are?

[deleted]

Re: ANTSDR: Low-cost SDR Alternatives for Ettus Research and Lime Microsystems

#10

who still uses SDRs?

Don't confuse Software Defined Radio (SDR) with RTL-SDR, which refers to SDR with repurposed Realtek DVB-T sticks.

The realtek chip might drift into obscurity one day but SDR in general is certainly here to stay.

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