gnuradio setup - information about my software and hardware setup for gnuradio

Questions, comments: j c o o l e y (at) m e d i a (dot) m i t (dot) e d u
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hardware setup

My computer is a Pentium M, 1.6Mhz, 1 Gig RAM running Debian Sarge plus a custom-built 2.6.10 linux kernal. I have USB2 (essential for usrp).

Right now, I'm using a USRP revision 2 and basic RX boards from www.ettus.com, a custom layout RF frontend using a Microtune 4937 cable tuner (see the gnuradio wiki for information and schematics for this and other possible RF frontends). It is now possible to buy a similar frontend that directly plugs into the usrp from ettus.com.

Here's a picture of the usrp and frontend in a nice acrylic box that I built. The hole on the top is for a small lcd screen that I had in there too, but took out because it adds bad 120Hz powerline hum to the system (need to fix that, haven't had a chance):

I really wish I had a better antenna, that may be in the future. Right now, it's a "HDTV-ready" TV/FM antenna available from RadioShack.

software setup

My colleagues and I have posted some information about the software setup on my research group's blog, available here. This isn't a definitive guide and borrows much from the READMEs and other available documentation. It does document our experiences with getting this up and running.