On 11/22/2012 4:07 AM, Rob wrote:
wrote:
Do digital receivers get discussed here much? I am working on a
receiver for the WWVB signal at 60 kHz and am looking at a very low
power all digital design in an FPGA. Of course some aspects are still
analog such as the antenna. I have been reading about loop antennas for
low frequency work. I don't plan on having an analog amplifier unless
it is needed. I may be able to sample the RF signal directly and use
processing to boost the signal out of the noise.

Has anyone done anything like this? Right now I am looking at how to
synchronize the sample rate with the carrier so that I can accumulate
the signal in a coherent manner.

Any pointers on where I could find more info?

Search for "SDR". Software defined radio. It is hot these days.

You will need the mathematical background to understand and create
designs like this. Of course there are many articles explaining
the digital signal processing, and how to build a program that does
what you want.

At 60 kHz it should be easy. People do this at 30 MHz.

There it is! I had to restart my newsreader to see this message.

Yes, the term SDR is very broad. I was thinking there might be some
folks here doing work in this area.

Yes, the math is rather intense. While the math is always essential,
there are often times when a good seat of the pants feel for the job is
important too. DSP is just the digital version of analog signal
processing. It is the "signal processing" part that is important.

Rick