[Hackrf-dev] GNU Radio Companion

[Adam Laurie]

On 21/06/13 15:03, Tom Rondeau wrote:


> I think you're underestimating the challenges with SDR. These are

> really hard problems and there aren't simple solutions. As a project,

> we could do a bit better with making out-of-the-box applications for

> certain radio projects. But having worked in software radio for over

> 10 years now, I can tell you that everyone very quickly graduates

> beyond these scripts and needs to start rolling their own. You're

> going to come to that hurdle at some point in the very near future. I

> know that the osmocom projet has some simple FFT and siggen apps

> (http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/GrOsmoSDR)  that were derived from

> uhd_fft and uhd_siggen. Those are useful tools to see the spectrum and

> do basic interactions, but they are mostly for debugging, testing, and

> making sure things work. But you can't to anything particularly

> serious with them.

>

>  From working on this stuff, there really isn't anything easier for an

> RF guy than launching and working in GRC.

>


Hi Tom,

I know what you mean but I think you're possibly overestimating the kind 
of challenges that I'm interested in solving! :)

And I think you've hit the nail on the head when you say "an RF guy"... 
I'm not an "RF guy", I'm a "security guy", and I'm talking about the 
difference between using a device like HackRF as a research tool for the 
technology itself (i.e. RF/SDR), and using it as a tool for researching 
other things (such as inter-device communications/telemetry etc.). For 
example, I don't really need to understand how to demodulate an AM/FM 
signal if all I want is the binary that's being transmitted...

Obviously, those working on the low level guts of the SDR itself will 
benefit hugely from the simplicity of this platform and of gnu-radio, 
but HackRF also represents a huge leap forward for me in that it 
combines the receiver and transmitter tools, for which up to know I've 
had to use separate devices. I just want to get it to a state that I can 
do 'useful' stuff with it without having to roll my sleeves up in the 
same was as I can get into my car and drive to London without knowing 
how to strip down and rebuild the gearbox...

cheers,
Adam
-- 
Adam Laurie                         Tel: +44 (0) 20 7993 2690
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