AirSpy – A New 12Bit, 20Msps SDR Dongle Prototype by the Author of SDRSHarp

AirSpy is a new SDR Dongle currently being prototyped by the author of the popular SDRSharp software receiver platform. The technical specifications are as follows

– 24 – 1750 MHz range
– 12bit ADC @ 20msps
– Cortex M4F @ 204 MHz
– 10 MHz panoramic spectrum view
– Highly programmable / customizable

AirSpy also uses the R820T tuner, which is commonly used in the RTL-SDR as well.

Compared to the RTL-SDRs 8bit [email protected], this is a large improvement, but we hope it will not cost much more than the RTL-SDR or FunCube.

Currently, if you want more information on the dongle there is only an AirSpy Yahoo Group available.

AirSpy Prototype Front

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pd0psb

Bummer. Distribution is from USA.

In Holland price incl VAT&Duties adds up to around $295…

Quite a sum for a tiny R820T sdr.

Happysat

Ah the wonder Airspy radio lol its a 100x better then all current radio’s they claim lol
Mhh you dont want a product where if the Authors ‘feelings’ are hurt he stops all support and development on a childish way like a few months ago, when some guy did make a lot of nice features in a custom SDR build his little mind cannot cope with this.
Not really trustfull proffesional and a mature way for these kind of things its less then amateur overthere..

Spent a few hours in their IRC Channel and withness a lot of trolling for absolut no reason especially against newcomers.
Using WinXP can be enough for this troubled poor prog guy to behaive like a full blown idiot together with his loyal crew trols (most think if they please him they get a free airspy sample the irony 😉 ).
Comments or Suggestions are taken as a direct assault to him, Software domination how he calls it very very sad..
His communication skills are a very clear reason for me to stay far away from all this and everyday there are more.
They dont have ANY clue of the results of their negative impact to people..

Stefano

Like Alan, I got tired of waiting for Airspy. Last Airspy availability update was August – no comms since then. Questions about Airspy availability go unanswered – there seems to be no source of current updates on Airspy availability (tried Itlead, Airspy Yahoo group, etc).
Sorry – I waited for Airspy, but HackRF is the way to go.

Alan

I got bored waiting for this, and especially with the rudeness of the airspy creator so I bought a HackRF instead. It was delivered in under a week, goes up to 6GHz and down to 1 Mhz – yes not 10 MHz but 1 MHz, so this Airspy is looking a little out of date. Add 21MHz of bandwidth without losing samples, and I have a device I’m really enjoying. Take my advice, spend a few dollars more and own a HackRF by next week. Michael Ossmann is a LOT nicer to communicate with also.

DG9BFC Sigi

the r820t tuner can go above 1.8 gig!!! that is an info direct from the main chip designer (i found him in a newsgroup) … but i do not know the max value for upper frequency limit (something to find out)

greetz

sigi

Tehrasha

The architecture built around the R820T is most likely the limiting factor.

Nathaniel

12bits ? If the raw IQ data is pushed to the host computer, what would be the maximum bandwidth it can handle ?

Truth

UISB 2.0 (which all cheap ARM chips have) is 480Mbps (raw), but through handshakes/overheads it is more like 280Mbps (real). Transferring both the I+Q channels 280/2/12 (packing the bytes and nibbles together) this would be about 11MiB/sec or 11MHz of bandwidth.

rasz_pl

I sure hope they wont make it 12bit mode only, I rather have 20MHz of BW than some more dynamic range.

This is a stripped down half of HackRF. Shouldnt be more than $200.
Definitely no contest with rtlsdr.

Truth

The ADC’s can sample up to 80msps so (in theory) you could reprogram the device to drop the bottom 8 bits and only send the top 4 bits across.the USB to the host computer. So that would be 280/2/4 which is 35MSPS or about 35MHz of bandwidth..But looking at only the top 4 bits you would only be able to see the very strongest of radio signals. I personally would be more interested maxing the sample rate at 80msps and then decimating the samples within the ARM CPU to up the bit resolution. So decimating 80MSPS down to 2.5MSPS (/32) would give an extra 5 bits of resolution (17bits).

Truth

I suspect that the ARM chip is the LPC4370 which has an inbuilt 80msps 6 channel (multiplexed) 12 bit ADC. So for I and Q the maximum sample rate (in theory) would be 40MSPS each 🙁 On the good side this will reduce the chip count which should reduce the cost at a guess.

Somer

Pricing is the key factor nowadays and i really hope it won`t be too expensive, all these new devices are very promising, i wonder what will come in 2014 ?

Alan

With 20Msps, a basic LPF is all you need and you should pick up the AM stations, all the way up to at least 5MHz.
Still some gaps in HF coverage, but better than nothing.

Renan

H Two questions:
How can I buy? and How much?

Demian

Great news! More innovation for SDR! Any chance of upping the upper receive range to 2200 MHZ? Just wondering why the cutoff at 1750 MHZ.

Truth

The reason is the tuner chip.(Rafael Micro R820T). It has an official range from 42 to 1002 MHz according to the data sheet. So he is already pushing things out of spec (lower gain) to cover 24 – 1750 MHz.
If there was a tuner chip with a bigger range (and cheap) I’m sure he would be using it.

DLBB

Wow! This would be a real good deal if this dongle could do direct sampling, too. Like it’s discussed in Yahoo grp. And if the price is right, you have a customer for sure.