LibreSDR
Simon Brown • January 13, 2025
On Order
After talking on QO-100 with Mike, G0MJW, I've ordered a LibreSDR from AliExpress where it's known as "SDR AD9363 AD9361 ZYNQ7020 ADI Pluto communication experiment platform". The device is available in the OpenSourceSDRLab Store.
Reasons for the order:
- This device is becoming quite popular,
- Is compatible with the ADALM Pluto from Analog Devices,
- Has an ethernet port,
- Offers more bandwidth than the ADALM Pluto, something I've been looking for.
When it arrives and I have it working I'll report back with another blog entry.
Specification
- Using XC7Z020-2CLG400I chip 7z020-2I
- The AD9363 chip is configured as the AD9361 chip, the frequency range is 70MHz~6GHz, and the maximum sampling rate is 61.44MHz. As a result, the laboratory test shows that it is significantly different from the AD9361
- PS 1GB DDR3 32bit bit width, frequency 1066M
- 32MB QSPI Flash, support TF card
- Onboard JTAG circuit and USB to serial port, one line for power supply and debugging
- Support USB OTG, can be master or slave, all USB interfaces use TYPE-C interface, OTG mode is automatically recognized, and the USB port is turned on for power supply
- Adopt VCXO, support PPS or 10MHz tame Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
- Adopt 10-layer PCB wiring, impedance matching, signal integrity design
- The product adopts CNC shell to strengthen heat dissipation and ensure strength;
Images Etc.
Images and text in this post from
AliExpress. If the links change then just search for "Software defined radio SDR AD9363 AD9361 ZYNQ7020 ADI Pluto communication experiment platform".
All image copyright AliExpress and Open Source SDR Lab. They're not mine.
SDR Television Found and fixed an unused massive memory allocation (up to 10GB), may have caused systems to freeze. Fixed fatal bug in matched filter array allocation. Changed the default transmit bandpass shaping filter roll-off to 0.20 in transmit and receive. Please look at the images below and apply the change. SDR Pluto Now show the AGC gain and RSSI. Added Default link to select the recommended gain - Fast Attack, 0dB visual. Known Problems Add support for tracking transmissions with (?) non-standard PCR data, example is G8GKQ. Using Pluto & variants, sensitivity is not as good as a NIM (hardware tuner). Will compare with SPECTRAN ECO in a week or so.
Unexpected Beta #4 I wasn't planning to release another beta, but there was an error with a download link in the Blog port for Beta #3, also a few worthwhile improvements have been made, so here I go.
Major Change Scroll down to the SDR Radio information. The bandwidths available for SDR Television when using a Pluto / LibreSDR have changed.
BATC Net, May 22nd 2025 Here's a snippet from the British Amateur Television Club net on QO-100. I hope it doesn't scare you.
UI Refresh And More...
After too much grief, I've decided to stop using Wi-Fi to connect the small NUC systems in the computer room to my network: DX Cluster (Ubuntu) SDR Server (Windows) User Forums (Windows) These servers are in constant use, causing the wireless transmitter on my TP-Link AX50 to fail. By switching over to a wired network there's less demand on the wireless transmitter and the whole network has become far more reliable. In future I will only use Wi-fi when there's no alternative. I'm keeping a spare router ready just in case the AX50 fails.
Inside All this equipment is installed in my computer room, next to the office.
SDR Television video from Australia
Sounds Like... And before I start, may I apologise for the delay in finding the cause of the noise.
