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LOVE YOUR FM BROADCASTS? SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO "SDR"
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In April 2020, during the isolation period, I also set up again my SDR ('Software Defined Radio') that I had tried a few months ago but I did uninstall then for lack of time to understand it. To put it simply, it's sort of what would happen if you disassemble a radio receiver and put the hardware on one side and the software on another. In the SDR system, your computer is the radio receiver, with the hardware (receiver, antenna) located out of it and the software handled by an appropriate program in your computer. It's a very interesting, military (U.S. Air Force) -sourced system. For me it's a great help and its easy to use, graphically explicit interface that makes it possible to check the quality of the FM broadcasting station around my home in central Bologna |
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This is SDR handled (for example) by the dedicated 'Cubic' software that gives you a fair indication of the overall quality of the different radio stations broadcasts. This is 93,900, Radio RAI3, very possibly the best radio broadcaster that you can listen to in Italy |
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To fully appreciate SDR, I strongly recommend CUBICSDR |
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'Der Fliegende Hollander' on RAI3: little or no compression, faithful reproduction: RAI3 is still the quality benchmark for all broadcasters and not only in Italy. Sound was excellent through the tuner that I chose for this special listening session, my Sansui TU-717, with 'wide' IF filters |
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A snippet of Zemlinsky's 'Sirenetta' on RAI3 |
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It is easy to notice that the modulation of RMC2-Radio Monte Carlo, broadcasting cool music at night, is quite compressed but still quite good |
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Da
Wikipedia: "Software-defined radio (SDR) is a radio communication system where components that have been traditionally implemented in hardware (e.g. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators, detectors, etc.) are instead implemented by means of software on a personal computer or embedded system." |
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RMC using all the available bandwith with a somewhat compressed modulation on 101,300 Mhz. The frequencies that I show in this page are operative in the Bologna metropolitan area |
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This track is Radio Rai1, 89,500, a commercial radio station with no claims (nor need) of offering audiophile-quality sound (as does Radio Rai3); the sound compression is evident, as befits a station that will be listened to mostly on car radios |
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Radio Maria: 90,800, almost only voice (prayers, talk, etc.), scarce compression, a simple but 'light' broadcasting |
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Virgin Radio. Heavy compression and modulation, just the way to go for a noisy (and very good) hard-rock broadcaster |
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https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ |
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For my SDR, I use NESDR Smart |
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Sansui Tuners |
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Kenwood Tuners |
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RICEZIONE FM IN ITALIA: LO STATO DELLE COSE |
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Manutenzione+Restauro |
Service+Restoration |
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