On 05/03/15 16:04, gareth wrote:

Now, it is possible that with the onset of SDR, that such an
approach would be obselescent, but SDR itself is already notorious
for being an off-the-shelf Cheque Book (CB) approach both for
the hardware and also the software.

Would you describe gnuradio or Matlab as an "off the shelf"
approach ?

The schematics for the Ettus range of USRPs and daughterboards are
available, anyone so inclined could build their own should they
choose rather than purchasing one. See
http://files.ettus.com/schematics/

I've published examples of gnuradio flowgraphs before, so wont repeat
them, but you can get a DVB dongle for about 6 UKP from ebay, for which
gnuradio has drivers for.

There are plenty of other examples out on the internet, why not give
gnuradio a try ? It really isn't off-the-shelf, and you will have to
twiddle bits and pieces (gain levels, squelch values, filter widths
etc to get things exactly how you want them)

I look forward to comparing your flowgraphs to my own methods


73s

Iain