Re: debian-hams task SDR detail
On 04/02/16 11:42, Apostolos Kefalas wrote:
> On Πεμ, 2016-02-04 at 10:57 +0100, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>>
>> On 04/02/16 01:26, A. Maitland Bottoms wrote:
>>> Daniel Pocock writes:
>>>>
>>>> I was looking at http://blends.debian.org/hamradio/tasks/sdr
>>>>
>>>> and it lists a whole range of SDR related packages
>>>>
>>>> Is there any wiki about SDR on Debian?
>>>
>>> I do not know. But I really could contibute to one if I knew
>>> about it.
>>
>>
>> I started one here:
>>
>> https://wiki.debian.org/SoftwareDefinedRadio
>>
>> and linked to it from the DebianHams page
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> Out of all the packages listed:
>>>>
>>>> - do any provide a ready-to-run receiver, or do they all
>>>> require the use of additional scripts or programming? E.g.
>>>> GNU Radio requires the user to download one of several
>>>> available flow graph samples
>>>
>>> Receiver: `apt install gqrx-sdr` - run /usr/bin/gqrx Handles
>>> lots of hardware, rtl-sdr, uhd, hackrf, rad1o, airspy, bladerf
>>> and more...
>>>
>>>>
>>>> - do any provide a ready-to-run transceiver?
>>>
>>> yes, if your computer sound card is wired to transceiver
>>> audio. (Some rigs have USB with audio endpoints.) And some
>>> keying/PTT circuit....
>>>
>>> `apt install freedv`
>>>
>>> `apt install quisk`
>>>
>>> quisk needs a config file written in Python. Much of quisk is
>>> in Python. I am in the process of preparing my next quisk
>>> upload to be in the Debian Hams package pool, so it won't just
>>> rely upon me.
>>>
>>> Note: these applications I mention were all released in Jessie,
>>> and newer and current versions are available in
>>> jessie-backports.
>>>
>>>> Furthermore, do you envisage it is possible to make a
>>>> ready-to-run SDR receiver or transciever using a Debian
>>>> Hamradio Blend live image or if not currently possible, would
>>>> it be achievable for a GSoC student to fill in some or all of
>>>> the gaps to make this happen?
>>>
>>> I've been quietly working on making this a reality. It's time
>>> to make more noise.
>>>
>>> I'll be at Dayton.
>>
>>
>> I had a brief chat to the GNU Radio people at FOSDEM and they
>> have some interest in GSoC again this year, so it could be
>> possible to make a collaborative effort to recruit and mentor one
>> or more students to work on different aspects of this. They also
>> have a live image based on Ubuntu:
>>
>> https://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/GNURadioLiveDVD
>>
>>
>>
and that may also provide a useful point of reference.
>>
>> Another thing that comes to mind: supporting digital modes like
>> D-Star,
>
> Check Digital speech decoder https://github.com/szechyjs/dsd
>
> You can pipe rtl_fm output to dsd, or use the gnuradio module of
> DSD
>
> https://github.com/argilo/gr-dsd
>
> I also know that GQRX developers have a version of GQRX with DSD it
> is not released to the public yet in favour of freedv.
>
>
>> System Fusion
>
> http://hb9uf.github.io/gr-ysf/
>
> "Insights gained from this work might be used to add YSF support to
> e.g. DSD"
>
>
>
>> and DMR in SDR. Do any of the packages currently support any of
>> that? Has anybody done any analysis of the software stack that
>> would be required, e.g. are the codecs already available as
>> standalone library packages?
>
> I do not think that any of these programs will ever enter debian
> repos due to mbelib.
>
OK, I see that is a patent issue:
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Digital_Speech_Decoder_(software_package)#Patent_Issues_with_mbelib
Patent laws generally do permit people to study a patent and
implementation. Ham radio is fundamentally about self-education. Has
anybody clarified the extent to which hams could, by themselves,
download and study that code?
Debian already distributes the flashplugin-nonfree helper script to
make it convenient for people to get the nonfree Flash binary, I
wonder if a similar approach would be valid for mbelib? On the other
hand, simply avoiding it may be the better way to sway people towards
unencumbered algorithms. If thousands of hams start running a Debian
Live-based SDR that only works with free algorithms, that may actually
be enough to influence the proprietary vendors to change.
Regards,
Daniel
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