Introduction

The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) products are a family of computer-hosted hardware offered by Ettus Research, LLC. and its parent company, National Instruments, for making software radios. The USRP product is intended to be a comparatively inexpensive hardware device for software radio. The USRP hardware connects to a host computer through a high-speed USB or Gigabit Ethernet link. The connection enables host-based software to control the USRP hardware and prepare signals for transmission or reception.

The USRP family was designed for flexibility, allowing developers to make their own daughterboards for specific needs with regard to connectors, different frequency bands, etc. The entire USRP design is open source, including schematics, firmware, drivers, software, and even the FPGA and daughterboard designs.

The USRP1 has been loaned to the TC Maker to contribute to the community's ham radio and rf research disciplines. The USRP and related hardware is available for use only by TCM member hams and those whom have garnered permission from smittex by display of sound electronic and radio competence.

Here's a brief list of some of the USRP1's most outstanding specifications:

• Four high-speed analog-to-digital converters, each capable of 64 MS/s at a resolution of 12-bit, 85dB SFDR (AD9862).
• Four high-speed digital-to-analog converters, each capable of 128 MS/s at a resolution of 14-bit, 83dB SFDR (AD9862).
• An Altera Cyclone EP1C12Q240C8 FPGA.
• A Cypress EZ-USB FX2 High-speed USB 2.0 controller.
• Four extension sockets (2 TX, 2 RX) in order to connect 2–4 daughterboards.
• 64 GPIO pins available through four BasicTX/BasicRX daughterboard modules (16 pins each).
• 6 MHz of available bandwidth
• < 200 μs PLL lock time

Here's a list of Daughterboards we have:

• LFTX (Transmits only; DC-30MHz)
• LFRX (Receives only; DC-50MHz)
• TVRX (Receives only; F-Type connector)
• FLEX400
• FLEX900 (750-1050 MHz, Tx 200 mW)
• RFX1200 (1150-1450 MHz; Tx 200 mW)
• FLEX1800 (1.5-2.1 GHz; Tx 100 mW)
• RFX2400 (Tx 50 mW)
• DBSRX

And some Antennae:

• Log Periodic 900-2600MHz PCB directional antenna, 5-6 dBi, needs SMA connector
• 900MHz dipole antenna
• SMA-to-BNC Adaptor

The USRP ties in nicely with Gnu Radio ¹⁾. It is far too large to document but the very minimum here to show how we've set it up in our shack, therefore, it is imperative to use the Gnu Radio wiki as your reference.

From a base Ubuntu 11.04 x86 install, open up Synaptic Package Manager, select 'gnuradio' and 'gnuradio-companion', accept their dependencies, and apply your changes. Note: your 'Universe' repository must be enabled.

Open up your terminal and execute the commands:

• $ mkdir ~/.gnuradio
• $ touch ~/.gnuradio/config.conf
• $ cat /etc/gnuradio/conf.d/grc.conf » ~/.gnuradio/config.conf
• $ grc

The Gnu Radio Companion visual programming language will appear.

(more to come)