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Comment Re:awesome! (Score 2) 135

The hardware would do it, you would have to write software and maybe MyHDL code for the gate array.

If we manufacture this in the U.S. and source all of the parts in the U.S. and take a reasonable margin, it will come out to $500. We don't want to go to Asian manufacturing and parts or make a lower-cost edition with some parts removed until the initial version is salable. We figure that it will take a lot of time for us to learn about Asian manufacturing, and we don't want you to have to wait.

Comment Re:Bye bye Uniden (Score 2) 135

I haven't really been thinking about scanners. Yes, I guess you could make some really good Open Source software for scanning with this. We could make a receive-only version. It would just be less parts on the board. Unfortunately it would have cellular-lockout, at least until we can fix that portion of ECPA. It's not like cell phones are unencrypted any longer.

Comment Re:GNUradio? (Score 1) 135

This is meant to be an entire FCC type-approved transceiver with spurious emissions low enough to amplify to the full legal limit for the band. You can use it with GNURadio, but you can also run the entire system stand-alone through its on-board computer and gate-array without GNURadio. HackRF has turned out not to be a very good receiver, and is not meant to be a legal transmitter regarding spurious emissions. USRP + some daughter boards might work similarly, and have higher performance in some ways, but cost a lot more and don't have low enough power drain to go handheld.

Comment Re:Ground Penetrating Radar potential (Score 2) 135

There was a TAPR paper a year ago from guys who did chirp-mode radar on HF and plotted the entire surface of the earth via ionosphere skip. OK, it was low resolution, but very impressive.

Yes. SDRs have been used for NMR, CAT, and radar besides the usual communication stuff. One of the issues is whether they will turn from transmit to receive fast enough. If not, you might need two, or one of those cheap stick receivers and a converter.

Comment Re:Sounds pretty awesome... (Score 5, Informative) 135

It would be possible to use it in a short-range transmit mode or as a receiver without a ham license. That said, I spend several years of my life helping to get rid of the Morse Code test for radio hams, so that smart folks like you could just take technical tests to get the license. They aren't that difficult. It might be worth your time.

Comment Re:Too CPU hungry (Score 1) 188

Most rendering engines aren't single threaded, and most browsers use GPU acceleration. However, on mobile adding a bunch of animations will surely lower battery life, so I just switched from Chrome to Firefox on my Android device as animated and sound filled ads are evil and Chrome mobile lacks extension support.

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