Hi Group
I´v seen a lot of postings about limesdr and Radio HAM usage in HF and VHF UHF spectrum, but has any one made a well working replicate-able setup to drive at PA and what about band pass filters etc.
I love the idea to build my own HAM rig around a nice pice of hardware as the LimeSDR
Best Regards
/Foggy
Simple question but complex answer! You can begin your quest searching SDR radio by defining frequency range. Different specification for different HAM bands. LimeSDR-USB covers 0.1-3.8GHz but overall performance depends also on antenna, BPF, LNA, low noise power supply, quiet neighborhood…
Sometimes high bandwidth A/D is a curse but for WiFi, DVB, 4G etc. is a must. HF HAM bands ocupies only 0.5MHz (average), VHF little more but for hardcore contester 40-50 KHz without images of unwanted signals is more than enough.
LimeSDR-USB inputs specs are compromise and if you want something better then built by factory, use soldering tool and modify-fix. For any band high quality BPF is a must!
I’m currently focused on 2m and so far managed to build 50W PA, LNA NF 0.6dB PGA103+ with selective BPF and 11el 6m Yagi (YU7EF design). I worked many station using FT8 digital mode (my raports are usualy 6-10dB better then I receive), listen two station via Moon using JT65B mode (I hope soon 2 way contacts with 4x11el and 1KW!), some FM-CW-SSB signals from satellite on 70cm, listen about 90 countries from all continents on 20m FT8 with dipole at attic, 4m high. Because this is SDR CW and SSB are much easier to receive and analyse how HAM signals can be distorted by squeezing last wats from final PA.
In short: LimeSDR-USB perform very nice. Can you can find better SDR? Yes, but with much higher price!
73 de yt7pwr
THANK for your reply.
Sounds like You got it
High sensitivity, selectivity and output enough so
what can, f.ex… Expert Electronics MB1 SDR PC box do that you can´t do with your DIY setup? or top price ICOM with waterfall, bells and whistles.
If i´m not as good as you, and instead buy my modules for my DIY super Ham rig
will this product
get me closer to the ultimate RIG, and make it ready for a real PA? (0,2-1,5kW)
At the end I only need the real TX power for HAM bands and the small output from LimeSDR it self is plenty of power not to cause havoc and world collapse on all other bands.
So only HF VHF and UHF amateur bands is requiring a high power output at the very end of this dream build.
Do you think my build plan is a stupid idea will I be better of with mcHF and a big PA
/Foggy
Works good as Ham Radio.
But need an better USB/LSB/FM/AM encoder from my wavein to IQ Datastreaming.
First test runs great : https://youtu.be/sMUkYmDtorM