Dongles 101

An Introduction to Software Defined Radio

Note: no date set for the class yet, I'm going to make an order of fresh dongles from China to pass out/keep in stock at NSL

UPDATE 5/3/13 - A box of ten dongles fresh from Shenzen have arrived. They are Rafael Micro R820T tuners. They have a frequency range of 24 – 1766 MHz, as opposed to Elonics E4000 tuners which have a range of 52 – 2200 MHz with an L-band gap from 1100 MHz to 1250 MHz (or so, each dongle is different!). If you can order a dongle please do so (more dongles = more fun). I'll give these out for the class but I'd like to leave some in stock at NSL for anyone to use. No estimated date on the class yet as I'm super busy working and schooling.

Prospective Syllabus

  1. Hardware
    1. shapes/sizes/types of dongles -
    2. availibility/sources
    3. features - why is my dongle different? (R820T vs. E4000 tuner IC)
  2. Other hardware:
    1. antennas (piece of wire soldered to sma connector)
    2. rf connectors (what is the funny connector on the end of my dongle?)
    3. transmission lines (coax)
  3. Software
    1. windows
    2. linux
      1. gnuradio stuff
      2. non gnuradio stuff (openbts, gsm stuff, sig analysis, other general SDR sw)
  4. cool semi-legal stuff you can do with your dongle
Interested