Live data from Hacker News

New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

phys.org

61–70 of 79 posts

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#61
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a 24th century all-purpose info-tool not actively monitor and attempt to characterize all signals received? I mean look at all the sensors we can pack into a phone nowadays: crazy zooms, infrared, a wide range of radios. And that's in just 10 years, imagine how much improvement can be made in another 400 years. Honestly, if I were regularly beaming down to visit planets at wildly varying and unknown levels…

I mean look at all the sensors we can pack into a phone nowadays Mobile phones used to include a FM receiver but more recent ones have stopped including it because it wasn't deemed useful enough.

No, it mostly stopped due to carriers not wanting FM due to it being competing with traffic bills - this despite pressure from civil society; think emergency responders, not wanting to drop the functionality for obvious reasons.

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#62
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a 24th century all-purpose info-tool not actively monitor and attempt to characterize all signals received? I mean look at all the sensors we can pack into a phone nowadays: crazy zooms, infrared, a wide range of radios. And that's in just 10 years, imagine how much improvement can be made in another 400 years. Honestly, if I were regularly beaming down to visit planets at wildly varying and unknown levels…

I mean look at all the sensors we can pack into a phone nowadays Mobile phones used to include a FM receiver but more recent ones have stopped including it because it wasn't deemed useful enough.

From what I understand the lack of use (in the US) is largely due to carriers being reluctant to enable direct FM receivers on the phones on their network. Can’t charge data when the customer can get free FM.

Discontinuation may also be due to the requirement of using headphones as the receiver antenna.

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#65

Does anyone have insight into why this is published in the open literature, if it is such a militarily-exploitable advance?

Think of this disclosure as the "free for the public" version of something way cooler they aren't telling everyone about.

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#66
post #61
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean look at all the sensors we can pack into a phone nowadays Mobile phones used to include a FM receiver but more recent ones have stopped including it because it wasn't deemed useful enough.

No, it mostly stopped due to carriers not wanting FM due to it being competing with traffic bills - this despite pressure from civil society; think emergency responders, not wanting to drop the functionality for obvious reasons.

That doesn't explain its absence from most phones from manufacturers that do not have any chance on getting sold directly by carriers. You will find occasional features on those phones - such as multiple SIM slots - that are rare on phones sold directly by carriers, but FM radio has become rare even on those.

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#67
Is this already possible by scaling vertically with SDR and processing power? By the time the quantum receiver is commodity, I believe you would be able to do the same with old technology for a fraction of the price. But I guess there are benefits that I am not able to see, and the progression of new tech...

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#68
post #66
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it mostly stopped due to carriers not wanting FM due to it being competing with traffic bills - this despite pressure from civil society; think emergency responders, not wanting to drop the functionality for obvious reasons.

That doesn't explain its absence from most phones from manufacturers that do not have any chance on getting sold directly by carriers. You will find occasional features on those phones - such as multiple SIM slots - that are rare on phones sold directly by carriers, but FM radio has become rare even on those.

Multiple sim slots are extraordinarily common outside the united states.

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#69
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't explain its absence from most phones from manufacturers that do not have any chance on getting sold directly by carriers. You will find occasional features on those phones - such as multiple SIM slots - that are rare on phones sold directly by carriers, but FM radio has become rare even on those.

Multiple sim slots are extraordinarily common outside the united states.

The catalog of one of the most popular retail networks in my country shows that 78% of the smartphones they sell have two sim slots

Re: New quantum receiver the first to detect entire radio frequency spectrum

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an antenna like I thought at first. It's a tuner with 4 MHz instantaneous bandwidth and a very wide tuning range, https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.14383 - the actual (laser intensity) measurements are done within the RF electrical field above a coplanar waveguide track on a PCB. It's a cool RF tuner. But it still need a real, full size, antenna. It's also not clear to me if they can get the phase informations out…

So basically, 3x higher than an hackrf (1MHz-~6GHz)? Not bad, but also not something revolutionary.

Hackrf only captures 20 MHz of spectrum. But is tunable to the range you described. You would need 1000 hackrf to capture the entire range at once.
Post reply on HN