Inside Frequency Control

Podcasts have never been more popular. Whether you are commuting, in the gym or just relaxing at home, they’re a fantastic way to stay on top of personal interests as well as developments in your industry. For engineers and project managers working in the RF industry, some of the biggest growth is expected to occur in the field electronic warfare, which is slated to become a nearly $20 billion industry by 2026. To help you gain a sense of where the electronic warfare industry and the defense sector as a whole are headed in the near and long-term, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best podcasts relating to these topics. 

Can you hear that?! ...Listen closely. Can you hear it now??

...Those are Christmas bells jingling in the distance because the holiday season is here once again!!!

We've compiled a list of our top 7 favorite organizational and productivity tools that we use here on a regular basis at Bliley Technologies. We think they will help you stay more productive, organized, and on time than you've ever been, and therefore, help you to make this a more productive year. Oh and by the way, they're all completely FREE (and even fun) to use!

Software Defined Radios (SDRs) are constantly evolving. It seems like "the latest and greatest" SDRs are always popping up somewhere with today's rapidly growing technology. We thought it'd be helpful to provide you with some of the most popular and top rated SDRs in today's market.

CHECK OUT OUR 2018 UPDATE HERE.

We tried to include a wide variation of prices, applications, frequencies, and ease of use on the following list. This way, it'll be more likely that you'll find the best Software Defined Radio for your needs in the following list. 

Without further ado, here are 12 great Software Defined Radios for you!

*Descriptions taken from product pages
**Disclosure: This post that contains affiliate links.

1. RTL-SDR (R820T RTL2832U)

• What a great place to start! This RTL-SDR is cheap and great for beginners or those on a budget. 
• Applications include general radio scanning, air traffic control, public safety radio, ADSB, AIS, ACARS, trunked radio, P25 digital voice, POCSAG, weather balloons, APRS, NOAA APT weather satellites, radio astronomy, meteor scatter monitorin, and more
• Frequency: 500 kHz to 1.7 GHz and has up to 3.2 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth

2. Red Pitaya

3. NooElec NESDR

• Included: NooElec USB dongle, antenna, remote control
• RTL2832U interface IC & R820T tuner IC on USB dongle
• Full compatibility with a large array of software packages

4. Quadrus

• DRU-244A-1-1-PCI SDR hardware digitizer
• 1 ADC chip with 1 analog input
• 1 DDC chip with 4 radio channels

5. HackRF One

• Operating Frequency: 1 MHz to 6 GHz
• Matching male SMA ANT500 antenna & USB cable included
• Compatible with GNU Radio, SDR#, and more

6. RPD-100

• 6U Compact-PCI form factor hardware development platform that can be used for a variety of applications, such as Software Defined Radio.
• Optimized to provide high performance signal conversion using high speed ADC’s and DAC’s.
• Other applications: WiMAX, Satellite MODEM's, RFID, Wireless Communication Systems

7. Ubertooth One

• 2.4 GHz Transmit and Receive.
• Suitable for Bluetooth experimentation
• Can also operate in monitor mode, monitoring Bluetooth traffic in real-time.

8. Usmile

• Frequency: 100KHz-1.7GHz
• Built-in 100Mhz upconverter combined with Built-in HD R820T allow better receiving of short wave than using direct SDR’s Q tunnel
• Easy to set-up, just connect it and you’re ready to go!

9. AirSpy

• Alternative to both cost sensitive and higher end scanners while featuring the "best radio browsing experience of the market" thanks to the tight integration with the de facto standard SDR# software.
  
• External GPS or Rubidium clocks supported for professional use
• Full HF Coverage

10. National Instruments USRP

• Flexible and affordable transceiver that turns a standard PC into a powerful wireless prototyping system.
• Supports multirate DSP for physical layer communications and helps you integrate .m file scripts and C language algorithms.

11. ThinkRF's WSA5000

•  Large frequency range of 100 kHz up to 27 GHz and wide instantaneous bandwidth of up to 100 MHz.
• Supports 160 MHz instantaneous bandwidth

12. Seeedstudio KiwiSDR Kit

• SDR covers the 10 kHz to 30 MHz (VLF-HF) spectrum.
• Demodulation modes: AM, AMN, LSB, USB, CW, CWN, NBFM.
• RF antenna connector: SMA and terminal block.
• GPS receives the Navstar system on L1 frequency 1575.42 MHz.

Are You Experiencing Phase Noise in your Applications?

Phase noise is a pain. Learn about phase noise and how to instantly eliminate it in amplifiers, radars, and communication systems. 

Full Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a small commission in you click through and make a purchase.

Here at Bliley Technologies, we are always trying to incorporate new tools to increase productivity and collaboration within the company, and ultimately drive innovation that will propel Bliley into the next 85 years.

Here is a list of the top 4 free productivity and colloboration tools that our leadership team uses every day to ensure we're delivering the most value for our customers. (Learn more about our leadership team here.)  You too can download them to see an immediate increase in your company's productivity and collaboration! 

Wondering what to get those picky engineers in your life for fathers day? Well we've got that figured out for you! Here are 10 great gifts that engineering dads will surly love.