Software Defined Radio How I learned to love DSP Tom McDermott, N5EG October 2, 2008

How we’d like to build a software receiver 7,021 kHz Problems: A-to-D Converter in our PC only samples at 48,000 samples per second. We need > 16 Million Samples per second. ADC in our PC only has 80~85 dB dynamic range (about 14 effective bits). We need > 130 dB of dynamic range (about 22 effective bits). 1 kHz

Direct Conversion Receiver VFO 3 kHz Low Pass Filter Mixer Audio Amplifier 7,020 kHz 7,021 kHz1 kHz 7,024 kHz4 kHz 1 kHz Problem: Hears both upper and lower sideband at the same time. QRM! QRM! 7,019 kHz1 kHz 7,016 kHz4 kHz 1 kHz A-to-D Converter + DSP Solution: Analog mixer downconverts RF to Audio. We can sample at low rate. Low pass filter limits bandwidth (helping dynamic range)

Single-signal Direct Conversion Receiver Using the Phasing Method VFO 3 kHz Low Pass Filter Mixer 7,020 kHz 7,021 kHz1 kHz 7,024 kHz4 kHz 1 kHz 7,019 kHz1 kHz 7,016 kHz4 kHz 1 kHz Solution: Two analog mixers using phasing technique downconverts RF to Audio. I = In-phase VFO, Q = Quadrature phase VFO. Use PC Left-audio-channel to digitize I Use PC Right-audio-channel to digitize Q. I 90° Phase Shift 3 kHz Low Pass Filter Q 90° Phase Shift 7,021 kHz1 kHz 7,024 kHz4 kHz 1 kHz 7,019 kHz1 kHz 7,016 kHz4 kHz 1 kHz 1 kHz (inverted) (The PC can do this in software) 1 kHz

Softrock receiver implementation 4-phase VFO Tayloe Mixer 0°0° 90° 180° 270° LPF Audio Amplifiers I I* Q* Q Left Right Low Pass Filters: Need to filter < ½ the computer soundcard sample rate. About 20 kHz for 48,000 sps. Provides + 20 kHz and - 20 kHz, or total 40 kHz wide spectrum without tuning the VFO (the computer can do it all in software). A 24 bit soundcard works much better than 16 bit. A 192,000 sps soundcard and 80 kHz LPF would give ~160 kHz spectrum without tuning the VFO. 7,020 kHz Softrock transmitter is just the inverse.

Softrock Kit KC0WOX: Let's Build A Softrock 40m/80m RXTXv6.2

Building & testing the kit – a portion at a time Installing parts one section at a time. View of board top and bottom after each step. Test each portion after that assembly step. KC0WOX: Let's Build A Softrock 40m/80m RXTXv6.2

Phasor Phaser A SINE wave is the vertical component of the rotating phasor. A COSINE wave is the horizontal component of the rotating phasor. Whether the phasor rotates clockwise or counterclockwise, any single view looks identical for either. Thus: any one waveform is the SUM of ½ the positive frequency plus ½ the negative frequency. It’s why mixers give us sum and difference products. If we know both components over the same period of time then we can tell which direction the phasor is rotating. Now we have one, not two frequencies, and separate USB from LSB. These are the I (In-phase) and Q (Quadrature-phase) components. (Euler’s formula, 1748) I Q  cos  sin 