Πέμπτη 5 Μαρτίου 2015

SDR stands for ...

Apparently a HAM blog has to have a beginning! This is it, the first post on SV3EXP's blog.

-Why a separate blog?
  The RF stuff had to be separated from my personal blog since most of the posts were RF and SDR related the last few years. My blog will still remain online, but will host mostly entertaining and personal content. Also I chose blog-spot for obvious reasons.

-What SDR stands for?
  For you who don't know anything about SDR, I'll give you a hint. SDR stands for Super Duper Radio! It's the present and future of RF engineering, the digital era of electromagnetic radiation.

  It's kind of a revolution because with the advent of software flexibility one can alter the design of a radio without changing it's hardware. It gives you the freedom of choice and the option to experiment, if you have the guts.
  However it's not a sport for the masses. The HAM community is inevitably growing old, and very few young people are interested in HAM radio. In the early ages it was a mean of communication more than everything, and then after the telecoms revolution it became a hobby. A hobby covering the human need for socializing, communicating and exchanging ideas. Now with all this "social" networking fuzz combined with the growth of the Internet it all seems like toys for old boys. Most old school boys though are not keen on software. They like the big Russian bulbs that lit in the dark cold nights and needles hitting peaks with SSB modulation. I like them too, but you know, evolution is inevitable too.

Marrying the RF world with the digital one.
Computers are all over. Computer Networks are here to stay. When we were building Patras Wireless Network back in 2001, I had this "obvious" idea of introducing the local HAM guys with the wireless network ones. Like an avalanche new ideas and thoughts hit the room and this is how humans evolve. Combining USB wireless adapters with outdoor antennas and cables was something never done before, and it worked! We had built the new age homebrew Wireless Network infrastructure and became witnesses of broadband speeds years before it's launch!

Soft-Hardware aka FPGA's
Thank you Xilinx, thank you Altera! You guys rock! I consider FPGA's the most brilliant devices of our age. It's up to one's imagination and skills to design in software and implement in real hardware any device. Look at FPGA's like creatures that can transform to any other creature. Today they are a dog, tomorrow a wolf, and then a cat! And then I conceive this great idea that a dog can have a cat's vision, write it down in your favourite Hardware Description Language, and here it is!

Stay tuned on this blog, there are more to follow!

73's de SV3EXP

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