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VHF FM Aircraft receiver:
VHF FM Aircraft Receiver is a superregenative receiver developed for listening to FM transmitters but also tunes the aircraft band and the top portion of the FM broadcast band. Receives both AM and FM (107mHz to 135 MHz). You can use this receiver with the any FM transmitter. The receiver is amazingly simple using only one transistor for the receiver section and one IC for the audio section. This circuit is a self-quenching regenerative RF receiver also known as a superregenerative receiver.
[via]
VHF FM Aircraft receiver - [Link]
This project goes through the process of designing and building a simple RF transmitter and RF receiver pair that operate at 27 MHz. Only basic parts like 555 timers and 2N2222 transistors are used to make the modules, so it’s generic but fun.
Simple Pyro RF Transmitter – Receiver (27 MHz) - [Transmitter - Receiver]
electronicsblog.net writes:
Old wish to make digitally controlled FM tuner come true when I found on Ebay cheap module with TEA5767 (Low-power FM stereo radio for handheld applications).
This module size is only 11.2mm x 11mm. TEA 5767 supports I2C.
For antenna i have used just 75 cm long wire, because that is 1/4 of wavelength at 100 MHz. TEA5767 doesn’t have audio amplifier, sound output level is very low, headphone can not be connected directly. During testing i had connected audio output to PC audio system.
Arduino FM receiver with TEA5767 - [Link]
Andrew built a DIY GPS receiver with an accuracy of ~25m - [via]
A homemade GPS receiver built from the ground up using discrete components and featuring a limiting IF, followed by 1-bit ADC ahead of DSP signal processing in a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA. Fast FFT-based search and navigational solutions are computed by “C” code on a Windows PC
Homemade GPS receiver - [Link]
SiRFstarIII based GPS RADIONOVA provides complete GPS system solution for embedded GPS applications
Antenova Ltd, an integrated antenna and RF solutions company, announced a special sub-$3 price offering of its GPS RADIONOVA SS3 Receiver Module – a complete GPS receiver including SiRFstarIII GPS IC and all front end RF components in a very small low profile single package module. The SS3 GPS Receiver Module is a complete drop in solution for a wide range of embedded applications including ‘GPS mouse’ (USB dongles), personal trackers, automatic vehicle locators (AVLs), vehicle black boxes, data loggers, media tablets and portable media players (PMPs). [via]
Complete GPS receiver module for under $3 - [Link]
Much as humans and other animals see via waves of visible light that bounce off objects and then strike our eyes’ retinas, radar “sees” by sending out radio waves that bounce off targets and return to the radar’s receivers. But just as light can’t pass through solid objects in quantities large enough for the eye to detect, it’s hard to build radar that can penetrate walls well enough to show what’s happening behind. Now, MIT Lincoln Lab researchers have built a system that can see through walls from some distance away, giving an instantaneous picture of the activity on the other side.
The researchers’ device is an unassuming array of antennas arranged into two rows — eight receiving elements on top, 13 transmitting ones below — and some computing equipment, all mounted onto a movable cart. But it has powerful implications for military operations, especially “urban combat situations,” says Gregory Charvat, technical staff at Lincoln Lab and the leader of the project. [via]
Radar can see through walls - [Link]
Silicon Laboratories Inc. released the industry’s first single-chip hybrid TV receiver family designed to simplify the design of TVs, set-top boxes (STBs), Blu-ray recorders and PC accessories. The new receiver family includes the Si2185 hybrid receiver, which combines a digital/analog TV tuner, a multi-standard analog demodulator, and DVB-T and DVB-C demodulators into a fully integrated, monolithic solution. The receiver family also includes the Si2115/13/11 digital-only receivers designed for DVB-T and DVB-C digital STBs offering terrestrial and cable reception.
The new Si2185/15/13/11 receiver family enables TV and STB developers to eliminate numerous external components such as surface acoustical wave (SAW) filters, tracking filter inductors, wirewound inductors and low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), thereby simplifying their designs and reducing BOM cost. The receiver family’s unprecedented single-chip integration can enable a total system savings of up to 75 percent compared to more complex two-chip solutions. [via]
Industry’s first single-chip hybrid TV receiver - [Link]
The Si4840 and Si4844 from Silicon Labs are the first CMOS AM/FM/SW radio receiver ICs with analogue tuning and digital display that integrate the complete receiver function from antenna input to audio output. Based on Silicon Labs’ proven and patented digital low intermediate frequency receiver architecture, the Si4840 and Si4844 deliver superior RF performance and interference rejection. The integrated control algorithm provides an easy and reliable control interface while eliminating all of the manually tuned external components used in a traditional receiver. [via]
AM/FM/SW receiver integrated on a single CMOS chip - [Link]
Fastrax has unveiled the Fastrax UC430, which combines a high-performance GPS receiver with an integrated chip antenna in a miniature package. Measuring just 9.6 x 14.0 x 1.95 mm including antenna, the low-power module is ideal for use in handheld computers, digital cameras, mobile phones, asset tracking devices, and other applications with space and power constraints. [via]
Integrated GPS module provides advanced localisation support - [Link]
NashblackCat writes to inform us of a chip that reads weather radio data: [via]
Silicon Laboratories makes an IC Weather Band (WB) radio called the Si4707. This IC is capable of using the specific area message encoding (SAME) and also supports the detection of the 1050Hz alert tone that is used by the National Weather Service. Currently no Arduino shields exist that could be used in a manner to receive, use, and/or display the broadcast alert data such as severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings. I think a shield like this would be great to implement all kinds of interfaces to this publicly available data resource. Some examples include Twitter alert system, VOIP streaming of audio broadcasts to your cellphone, and even a radio
Si4707 weather band radio receiver ICs – [Link]
