Using RPiTX as a 2FSK Transmitter

Over on his blog, Rowetel has been experimenting with 2FSK transmissions and the new v2beta branch of RPiTX. RPiTX is a piece of software for the Raspberry Pi that enables it to transmit RF signals via a GPIO port, with no other hardware required.

In his tests he's been creating 100bit/s 2FSK test frames, transmitting them at 7.177 MHz, and receiving and decoding them on another PC with a hardware radio. The results show that the transmission is working perfectly, with only minor artefacts caused by RPiTX. Rowetel also notes that the narrow band spectral purity of the RPiTX output is remarkably clean. The only worry is the wide band harmonics which can easily be removed with filtering.

This shows that RPiTX could easily be used as a transmitter for amateur radio purposes, assuming proper external filtering is applied. Rowetel also mentions that he hopes that cheap radio technologies like RPiTX could one day be used to help reduce the cost and difficulty in covering the 'last 100 miles' of communications in the developing world.