Whoops, a few months went by without me posting anything. That wasn’t because of a lack of anything to post, it was just me being rubbish and largely ignoring the internet and social media while the American election happened. Since my previous post I’ve seen a few cool things worth sharing, including some new SDRs, information on sharing antennas for RX systems and some interesting articles from someone new to radio.

RX888

RX888 SDRs have hit the internet over the last few months and they look pretty interesting. They’re based on a 16-bit ADC called the LTC2208 and can directly sample the whole HF band, up to 32 MHz. Perhaps unsurprisingly they are not cheap, retailing at about £130 on AliExpress, but compared to other SDRs that’s not bad. Also, they’re based on the ideas of an Italian engineer called Oscar, whose blog and second SDR prototypes blog are both worth reading.

“1 antenna to 15 radios with no loss”

Frugal Radio covers connecting a single antenna to 15 receivers, using multicouplers, well he actually uses a TV drop amp, which is a cheaper alternative. The article and companion youtube videod are both worth a look if you want to see how much you can do with very few antennas.

You’re Almost Entirely Blind: A Guided Tour of the RF Spectrum

In The Dork Web, Steve Lord takes us on a tour of the RF spectrum. This edition of his fortnightly newsletter is jam packed full of radio nerdery and really does cover a massive amount of spectrum. I’d stronly suggest that you read it and then subscribe!

FV-1 based SDR

Update: here’s one I forgot! CIRCUIT SALAD has an update on his FV-1 DSP based SDR project. I hadn’t seen the original until I found this, but this is an interesting project using a DSP chip which appears to be designed for use in effects pedals. It’s also programmed using an interesting visual programming system. Check out this blog post for more details.