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Listening to FM Radio in Software, Step by Step

Issue 125

From Issue #125
September 2004

Sep 01, 2004  By Eric Blossom
 in
Get started in software-defined radio with a project that can tune in two FM stations at once.
Summary

We've walked through a fully functional but stripped-down multichannel FM receiver. We managed to turn a couple thousand dollars' worth of hardware into the equivalent of two $5 transistor radios, and we learned a bunch in the process. For those of you interested in pursuing FM listening, the GNU Radio code base includes a substantially higher fidelity FM receiver (hifi_fm.py), along with all kinds of other goodies.

Right now, a lot of interesting work is being done with GNU Radio. Some are focusing on mobile ad hoc networking, others on the legacy amateur radio waveforms, some on software GPS and another group is working on designing the next-generation ground-to-space amateur satellite communication system. Although the GNU Radio toolkit is mostly indifferent to I/O devices, most of these efforts are using or planning on using the USRP as the interface between the RF world and the PC.

Resources for this article: /article/7650.

Eric Blossom is the founder of the GNU Radio Project. Prior to his involvement with software radio, he spent many years in the secure phone business. When he's not hacking software radio, you're likely to find him practicing yoga or jujutsu. He can be reached at eb@comsec.com.

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@dinesh

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/18/2010 - 16:57.

and that is why lots of americans don't have jobs, right?

fm demodulation

dinesh's picture
Submitted by dinesh (not verified) on Sun, 12/20/2009 - 19:24.

sir, i need the total detail of fm demodulation which have sdr applications using vhdl domain and also matlab programs and vhdl coding for all about fm demodu.........
fm demodu rceiver circuit diagram also plz send it to my mailid as soon as possible sir

details

saamy's picture
Submitted by saamy (not verified) on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 04:53.

I would like to start a New Fm station. can u give the details for what r the software we want to bye

Off-Line station break-out

JLM's picture
Submitted by JLM (not verified) on Fri, 08/19/2005 - 17:21.

If the break-down of the signal(s) into multiple stations is too much for your CPU, how about recording a more raw version of the input and then breaking it down into multiple stations at a more leisurely rate, possibly even on more than one computer.

If this seems reasonable, could you give some ideas on where to make these changes?

Thanks

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