Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Recommended RF Front End for USRP

[Thomas Schmid]

Hi Ranga

On 12/8/06, M. Ranganathan <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I am a newcomper to SDR. I have scoured the mailing list but I cant find
> a definitive answer on the following questions (I suppose its been asked
> but I cant seem to find answers in the archives at any rate):
>
> 1. Can anybody recommend an RF Front end to be used with the  USRP from
> Ettus research? I just got the Basic RX / Basic Tx  daughterboard,
> motherboard + power supply and am looking for recommendations on what to
> buy so I can experiment with these things. My budget is a few hundred
> bucks. Can somebody recommend specific products one can buy off the
> shelf to hook into the Basic RX ? I want to be able to recieve RF
> signals from a walkie talkie radio and play them on my computer.

This really depends on what you want to do. If you want to play with
WiFi, Bluetooth etc, then you would need the RFX2400 for the 2.4GHz
spectrum. If your walkie talkie uses the 400MHz ISM band (most
likely), then you need the RFX400.

> 2. What is the simplest meaningful thing one can do to get started with
> SDR? (I am looking to bootstrap myself into this before trying to do
> anything serious so a fun learning project is what I am looking for.)

The simplest thing is to hook up a metallic wire and try to receive
AM/FM radio. Look at the examples in gnuradio-example. They will help
you further.

Thomas