RE: [Discuss-gnuradio] Beginner questions

[Ettus, Matt]

> I'm just getting started looking at GNURadio.  My initial 
> interest is in
> simply receiving standard UHF radio transmissions( standard 2 way
> radio/repeater stuff), multiple frequencies simultaneously, 
> if possible

Check out src/gnu/examples/nbfm4.cc in CVS.  I just put it in there.  It
will demodulate 4 narrowband fm channels anywhere within 4 MHz of each
other.  It requires the MC4020 data acquisition card, but serves as a good
example even if you don't have it.

> 
> I know there is work done on both using a data aquisition 
> card and a sound
> card. 

NBFM channels tend to be 25 kHz wide, sometimes 15 kHz.  You could only get
1, maybe 2 contiguous channels through a basic soundcard, maybe 5 on a high
end (96kHz) card.

> Which of these would work for what i'm interested in 
> and is there a
> slightly more detailed explanation anywhere of either the external
> hardware/receiver requirements and the theory behind their operation.

gnuradio is designed to work with any hardware supported by the kernel.
Most of the work uses the MC4020, which is expensive, and a soundcards,
which are really cheap.

Matt