Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] USRP HF setup

[Alexandru Csete]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 8:38 AM, Davek <address@hidden> wrote:
> Has anyone had Any success with amateur HF with the usrp? I would like to 
> purchase a basic rx and maybe a basic tx for monitoring the hf amateur bands. 
> I know i need lownoise amplifaction and filtering but not sure what to get. I 
> know i could just use the IF output of transciever, but im not sure if thats 
> what i wanna do. if anyone has setup something i would be curious to hear 
> about it thanks,
>  Dave

Hi Dave,

I have had the USRP1 and LFRX connected to a Butternut HF2V antenna
with 30m and 160m extensions using ~30 meters of RG213 coax. No preamp
or filter or anything else, and I could hear lots of SSB/CW traffic
(even DX) and AM broadcast. I have two video recordings:
AM on medium waves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=317Iu6HRA0w
Hamradio SSB/CW on 7MHz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1FEq6h7Z1c

I have measured the sensitivity in CW to 3-4 microvolts so yeah, a
preamp would be useful above 10 MHz. I think one can get these
"acrtive whip antennas" for shortwaves, I guess the filter and preamp
could be used with a real antenna.

I have not tried the transmitter on the air. For sure that will need
power amplifier and low pass filters!

Alex