A while ago we posted about Osmo-FL2K which is a Steve M Osmocom project that allows you to use a cheap $10 USB to VGA adapter as an HF - 1.7 GHz transmitting SDR. Now another similar project by Ted Yapo has been released which allows the use of a low cost FT232RL based USB to Serial Port adapter as a transmit capable SDR. It appears that the FT232RL via harmonics is able to transmit up to at least 27 MHz, and possibly higher.

The basic implementation is similar to the idea used by RPiTX - that is to modulate the square wave output of a TX pin to generate an arbitrary signal at a desired frequency. Of course this results in numerous harmonics which must be heavily filtered if ever actually transmitting with some power or high gain antenna.

In his hackaday.io project log, Ted shows that he's been able to transmit AM audio at 1 MHz, and has also been able to control an RC toy at 27 MHz. For the RC toy controller he's also created a simple BPF in order to reduce the harmonics. In addition to the FT232RL chip, he's also tried other serial chips like the CP2102N but found that the signal produced was not as clean.

More information about the hack can be found on his project log, and on a recent Hackaday post.