Software Defined Radio Academy 2019
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Programme

SDRA Programme 22.06.2019

10:00 - 10:40 Prof. Dr. Michael Hartje DK5HH, Markus Heller DL8RDS: Introduction

10:40 - 11:20 Alex Csete OZ9AEC, Sheila Christiansen: SDR Makerspace: Evaluation of SDR boards and toolchains under realistic conditions from an open-source satellite communications point of view.

SDR Makerspace (https://sdrmaker.space) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency and Libre Space Foundation, with the objective of bringing innovative open-source SDR technologies to space communications.

Space is a complex environment. Attempting to incorporate SDRs into complex subsystems of space missions without sufficient understanding of the technology can add unnecessary risks and uncertainties to the mission. SDR Makerspace aims to bring open-source SDR technology to the space industry, focusing on the practical aspects of satellite communications, so as to reduce such risks.

Makers, open-source hackers, SDR enthusiasts, and researchers are collaborating on SDR hardware and software activities, focusing on rapid prototyping and development of reusable, open-source SDR components for future CubeSat missions.

The collaboration consists of many activities, which are organized into three main elements: development of reusable GNU Radio components, research and development in cutting edge technologies like AI/ML, and testing of SDR hardware and software.

Current activities are presented with a focus on the testing of the hardware and software. An overview of the investigation into the characteristics, such as, performance under realistic conditions, damage by radiation to essential parts, functionality of FPGA toolchains, the SDR-system’s complexity, and accessibility to the open-source community will also be covered.

11:20 - 12:00 Erwin Rauh DL1FY, Edwin Richter DC9OE, Markus Grundner DG8MG, Markus Großer, DL8GM: Build up your own Charly25 SDR Transceiver with Red Pitaya STEMlab 122-16: System Performance measurements and the new integrated software features.

This talk will demonstrate the essential steps in the assembly and wiring of the SDR transceiver Charly 25. The transcaiver is based on the new Red Pitaya STEMlab 122-16. We will also present latest insights in system performance measurements.

Our talk will explain the most interesting new software features such as the fully automatic diversity function and the automatic predistortion functionality via the integrated coupler and the software-controlled attenuator.

12:00 - 12:40 Prof. Dr. Michael Hartje DK5HH: Digital signal processing for the detection of noise disturbances in the ENAMS system

The ENAMS system is developed and set up by DARC in order to record and document the development of noise disturbances from electrical equipment in the range from 60 kHz to 30 MHz over a long period of time.

The system uses a Red Pitaya for signal acquisition connected to a calibrated E-field antenna. The acquisition requires an on-site evaluation in order to compress the information and thus the amount of data to be stored.

The lecture gives an insight into the principles of digital signal processing used here and shows first results.

12:40 - 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 - 14:00 Prof. Dr. Joe Taylor K1JT - Welcome Address and Questions & Answers

14:00 - 14:40 Manolis Surligas SV9SFC, Pierros Papadeas: SDR Makerspace: Exploit SDR technology for Space Communications

The SDR Makerspace is an initiative of European Space Agency (ESA), implemented byLibre Space Foundation (LSF). The goal of this program is to bring together makers,open-source hackers, radio amateurs, and a passionate community for dealing withchallenges related with Software Defined Radios in space communications. This activity consists from several sub-activities, covering a wide range of applications. All sub-activities and results of the SDR Makerspace are available as open-source.

Some of the activities that are part of the programme are presented below.The gr-leo (https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/gr-leo) is a GNU Radio module that implements a channel simulator for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. It provides both uplink and downlink channel simulation introducing most of the impairments that such channels exhibit, such as path loss attenuation, doppler frequency shift, atmospheric and rainfall pathloss based on the ITU de facto models. In addition pointing and polarization losses are also taken into consideration by the simulator. This GNU Radio module can be a valuable tool for satellite mission planning and can be used for rapid prototyping and debugging. More information can be found on the wiki page of the project(https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/gr-leo/wikis/home).

Another major activity is the gr-soapy (https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/gr-soapy). This GNU Radio module uses the SoapySDR API in order to provide a unified way for accessing various SDR hardware devices via GNU Radio in a unified and vendor free way. A unique feature of this module, is that it exposes RF specific parameters (e.g different gain stages, antenna setups, etc) based on the corresponding hardware used.

In addition, SDR Makerspace includes a series of radiation characterization and testing activities. Currently, an initial investigation has been completed regarding the radiation immunity of the components of eight commercial SDR devices. A follow up activity will perform actual radiation tests on these devices. The results are available on the repository of the sub-activity (https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation/sdrmakerspace/radtest/wikis/home). Several other activities (GNU Radio CCSDS transceivers, SIMD enabled LDPC decoding, compression of raw IQ samples) are expected to finish on the next few weeks. All of these activities will be described in more detail in the final paper if this abstract is accepted for afull paper submission.

14:40 - 15:20 Christoph Mayer DL1CH: KiwiSDR as a new GNURadio Source

The KiwiSDR, which was developed by John Seamons ZL/KF6VO, is a software-defined radio (SDR) add-on board (so-called "cape") for the popular BeagleBone Black single-board computer It covers the frequency range from 0 to 30 MHz and is controlled via a web interface. Currently there are almost 400 KiwiSDRs online. In this talk, an interface for the KiwiSDR for GNURadio is presented, along with applications involving the demodulation of digital signals on HF.

Thanks to the on-board GNSS receiver integrated in the KiwiSDR, precise time stamps are attached streams of I/Q samples provided by the KiwiSDR, and the use of these time stamps for Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) geolocation is discussed.

15:20 - 16:00 Mack McCormick, W4AX: FlexRadio: SDR Technology that Will Change How you Operate HF

FlexRadio, the Software Defined Radio pioneer and leader in the amateur radio market, has brought leading-edge capabilities, operating methods and equipment to the amateur world for over 15 years. In this session we will discuss the benefits for contesters, rag chewers and DXers of software defined radios. The discussion will include the differences between SDRs and more traditional HF radios (superheterodyne and homodyne) with an emphasis on the technology differences, the unique operating benefits afforded by those differences and cost advantages.

In addition, we will discuss multiFLEX, a new capability unique in the world of amateur radio. This new capability, included in SmartSDR 3.0, will be explored and the operating benefits for different types of operators will be discussed.

16:00 - 16:40 Mario Lorenz DL5MLO: The AMSAT-DL/QARS Ground Stations for Qatar-Oscar 100

Since February 2019, the first geostationary ham radio transponder, Qatar-Oscar 100 on board of Es'hail-2, is open for general use. The main difference to prior amateur radio transponders in space is that several functions, like beacon generation and LEILA (Leistungs-Limit-Anzeige, Power Limit Indicator) operation are not run on the spacecraft, but instead are ground based. To perform these functions, a SDR with a partial FPGA implementation has been designed and built.

In this talk, I will present the architecture, design and implementation of the (redundant) ground stations in use at the Es'hailSat Satellite Control Center, QARS Doha and AMSAT-DL in Bochum.

16:40 - 17:20 Dr. Carles Fernandez: An Open Source Global Navigation Satellite Systems Software-Defined Receiver

GNSS-SDR (see https://gnss-sdr.org) is an open source, software-defined Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receiver. This software application takes care of all the digital signal processing chain (from the output of the Analog-to-Digital Converter of a radio-frequency front-end, or from raw sam- ples stored in a file), performing signal acquisition and tracking of the available satellite signals, decoding the navigation message and computing the observables needed by positioning algorithms, which ultimately compute the navigation solution.

Several outputs are provided in standard formats, including RINEX observation and navigation files, RTCM-104 v3.2 message streaming via TCP/IP and NMEA-0183, as well as KML, GeoJSON, and GPX files for Geographic Information Systems, map representation and Earth browsers. Currently, the software is able to process GLONASS L1 C/A, GPS L1 C/A, Galileo E1b/c, BeiDou B1I, BeiDou B3I, GLONASS L2 C/A, GPS L2C, GPS L5 and Galileo E5a signals, in all possible combinations, including multi-constellation and multi-frequency configurations.

The software leverages on the GNU Radio framework, inheriting multithreading scheduling and a modular, scalable architecture. The software is designed to facilitate the inclusion of new signal processing techniques, offering an easy way to measure their impact in the overall receiver performance under fair conditions, as well as the expansion to other signals.

17:20 - 18:00 Final Discussion

Published

Feb 4, 2019
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