The RTL2832 USB dongle recievers are already common knowledge among many radio amateurs and a way to introduce the SDR technology to everyone – although i’m not fond of it, given it’s poor performance. We are basically talking about a TV-tuner using custom software that allows it to work just as a ham radio reciever, with the obvious limitations of a US$ 10 product no bigger than my thumb. Because they are cheap and they offer a wide frequency coverage though, they got really popular and manufacturers even started making them especially for amateurs.
Next need though would be transmit capabilities; enter the Hides UT-100, an USB dongle with transmit and recieve, the same wideband coverage, but with a heftier price – around US$ 200-230.
Based on a IT9507 ccHDtv all-in-one transmitter chip, an IT9133 RF tuner + demodulator and an AD8345 mixer, this little wonder works from 50Mhz to 950Mhz plus 1200Mhz to 1350Mhz in various configurations: the UT-100A can transmit 2Mhz to 8Mhz wide and recieve 5Mhz to 8Mhz wide, the B (the one you want) has the narrower 2Mhz to 4Mhz recieve, the C only transmits and the D only recieves. There are separate antenna ports for RX and TX, the output power is 0dBm (1mW) and there is a digital attenuator from +6dB to -25dB to deal with strong signals on recieve.
The software of the UT-100 allows transmission of video streams from webcams or prerecorded materials – there are already good results is the ATV community, look at OE7DBH’s experiments, and hopefully someone will make the effort to adapt a decent software to use SSB and FM on these.
For more info on these, please review the datasheet.
View Comments (2)
Interesanta solutie pentru ATV! Multumesc de info Razvan.
Cu placere, chiar ma gandeam sa iau unul la un moment dat dar adevarul e ca nu prea am timp sa ma joc cu el - software-ul nefiind foarte bine pus la punct pentru asa ceva.