HackRF. Wideband SDR receive... and transmit!!

[Smokey]

I'm surprised we haven't talked about this here yet.  This project looked really cool with the beta hardware, and now it's gone to Kickstarter for a production version.  This could be a serious game changer for SDR.  In addition to having fully functioning beta hardware, Michael Ossmann has some serious credibility from past projects and associations like Travis Goodspeed.  I just might have to take the plunge on this one.  It's worth a look.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mossmann/hackrf-an-open-source-sdr-platform

[Rasz]

and here is a video from the kickstarter



:DDD  damnit they are like twins, every time I see Ossmann (ccc, hak5) I think Jon Lajoie.

Hardware is nice and dude has a proven track record of delivering, really nice campaign.

[Lightages]

I really like this project and think I would buy in. My concern is that they have gone way over their goal so does this mean they have also gone way over their ability to deliver all the requests?

[Psi]

My concern is some regulation organisation will jump on them at the last minute and legally stop the sale due to it being able to transmit on any frequency including private bands.

A lot of police scanners have entire frequency ranges locked out for legal reasons.

However it does look awesome and i really do want to back it.

[Smokey]

The USRP has been available commercially for a really long time now and I haven't heard of any regulatory issues with them.

[Smokey]

Ha!  That video in the second post has nothing to do with the HackRF.  It's just some guy with a joke kickstarter that kinda looks like Ossmann.  It would be cool if Rasz might make that a little clearer, but either way, the actual HackRF kickstarter link is in my first post.

[mikeselectricstuff]

My concern is some regulation organisation will jump on them at the last minute and legally stop the sale due to it being able to transmit on any frequency including private bands.

A lot of police scanners have entire frequency ranges locked out for legal reasons.

However it does look awesome and i really do want to back it.

It would need a power amp to have enough range to be a problem, not to mention someone needing to connect an antenna.
As-is it's an RF signal generator - I don't see anyone trying to ban those.

[Stonent]

My concern is some regulation organisation will jump on them at the last minute and legally stop the sale due to it being able to transmit on any frequency including private bands.

A lot of police scanners have entire frequency ranges locked out for legal reasons.

However it does look awesome and i really do want to back it.

I used to do a lot of scanning in the early 90s. There would be times I would come across some things in the police range that would be scrambled.

[Psi]

wow, that is low, -15dB at 6ghz.
Nevermind an amp, you'd need a preamp too.

[Rasz]

Very nice project and was wanting one - until that is, I started to watch the video clip you've posted. Watched it till just over the half way mark then quit the video.

Shame.

hahaha, no way
haha, I just peed a little
either my sarcasm detector is broken or they are indeed twins

[garak]

I'm sorry to resurrect a zombie thread, but I really had to add this. I looked at getting one of these recently, and the one massive dealbreaker is this:

"HackRF can be used to transmit or receive radio signals.  It operates in half-duplex mode: it can transmit or receive but can't do both at the same time"

(emphasis mine)

That and the fact that it's USB 2.0. I decided to save my pennies and buy a USRP B200 when I can.

This article is also worth a look. http://www.taylorkillian.com/2013/08/sdr-showdown-hackrf-vs-bladerf-vs-usrp.html