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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

This looks interesting, but not particularly well marketed. Probably close to $4K configured to do basic RF work but I found it interesting. I am a bit surprised it doesn't have a basic FPGA + ADC/DAC module that could provide transceiver functions. (it may, it could just be the sparse descriptions)

I have been noodling on the idea of a "modular" amateur radio and this popped up on my research on whether or not there was something out there already doing that.

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Maybe not entirely what you're looking for but certainly modular. https://quanticxmw.com/

That is pretty cool.

Kind of clever, but you could probably accomplish most of this with modules from Mini-Circuits:

https://www.minicircuits.com/

Very cool, asking as a layman, what parts would one use to implement hobby level microwave, two way, point to point communication?

ubiquiti gear? https://store.ui.com/collections/operator-airmax-and-ltu

Surplus ones from eBay. Buying this stuff new would send most of us to the poorhouse.

I've also been working up an idea. You can do a lot with a frontend and ADC that can be on a single board and push everything into the digital domain where board to board connectors work better. I want to do a vhf/uhf+ dual slot modular SDR handheld that has first class data support, so no stupid AF modems to get APRS or M17.

Pretty much. There is an interesting protocol for sending IQ data over Ethernet (VITA 49.2) which can be decoded in an FPGA and dumped into a data stream. LVDS pairs work too of course. I've got a 4MSPS ADC which is being driven by an ICE40 FPGA to generate a 1MSPS fully analytic stream. 1MHz of bandwidth isn't really good for WiFi or Bluetooth but you can easily do all of the common modulations in use by amateurs.

How are you thinking you'll structure your frontend? I've been looking at ZIF, maybe the CMX991 or similar.

One thing I've also been investigating is the possibility of pushing the bandwidth way up to 10-20MHz and using a larger FPGA for DSP then conversion to PCIe. An increasing number of smaller SOCs/SOMs are supporting PCIe so that opens up interesting options like a CM4 on the low end or a Jetson Nano on the high end for all manner of shenanigans.

    LNA -> band filter -> mixer -> LPF -> ADC
                            |
                           LO

My current bodged together setup as 40/20/15/10M filters tied to a 4:1 RF switch (mini-circuits).

The "easy" design is the reference design for the AD9863 (they even have layouts you can use) but I wanted to see if I could make it so that the entry level version was very inexpensive and you could add money for more capability.

Nice, that's a good band selection. With the 9863 you could pretty much cover everything without even mixing but you'd be looking at some high end FPGAs and processors

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