Low cost experimental software defined radio system

This paper documents the design of a low cost experimental SDR Platform as a research tool. In order to keep costs to a minimum and provide the maximum flexibility a processor-less architecture is chosen. All signal processing is carried out using a standard notebook computer. The platform consists of four hardware elements. These are baseband transmitter board, baseband receiver board, RF transmitter board and RF receiver board. The baseband transmitter board consists of a USB 2.0 interface and two 16-bit DACs. The baseband receiver board consists of a USB 2.0 interface and two 16-bit ADCs. The transmitter RF board consists of a direct conversion modulator, local oscillator, variable gain RF amplifier and power amplifier. The receiver board consists of a low noise amplifier, a direct conversion down-converter with gain control and a local oscillator.