Re: Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] MIMO Question

[Bruce McGuffin]

Eric Blossom wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 04:55:56PM -0400, Bruce McGuffin wrote:
>   
> > A while ago (Nov. 14, 2008) Matt talked about using a USRP2 with
> > two antennas and two external radio receivers driving the basicRx.
> > My question is, is it possible to do that if the external radio IF and
> > bandwidth are too high to sample at 25 MHz without mixing the
> > signal to a lower freqeuncy first? I'm concerned that the reference
> > frequency into the mixer is probably complex, and the mixing process
> > will wind up putting energy from both formerly real signals onto each
> > of the mixer outputs. Is that true, and if so is there a way around it
> > that is already implemented? What gnuRadio modules would I use?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Bruce
> >     
>
> Bruce,
>
> All of this depends on the center of your IF and how wide it is.
> If the numbers are right, bandpass sampling definitely works.
> The USRP2 samples at 100 MS/s.
>
> What's your IF freq?
> How wide is it?
>
> Eric
Eric

My IF center frequency is 21.4 MHz, and my bandwidth is about 20 MHz.
The good news is I don't need the full IF bandwidth. I will probably
stick an analog filter in front of the USRP2 to reduce the aliased power 
of the image.
But, for the sake of flexibility (I might want to use wider band signals 
in the future)
and to keep costs down, I don't want to use an analog filter that is too 
narrow.
The numbers can be made to work.

I'm trying to avoid extensive (well, really, any if I can) FPGA 
programming, and
wonder if versions of the USRP2 firmware exist that can either bandpass 
filter, then
down-sample, or mix the signal to a lower IF with a sinusiod rather than an
exponential, and low-pass filter. I prefer the direct down sampling 
approach.

Bruce