> While it is true that there has been a significant boost in the area > of PC-based SDR hardware and software over the last few years, the > technology has existed and been practiced for as I remember.
Oh sure. Sorry, to be clear I didn't mean that the field was new, just that for a long time the barriers to entry were quite high. You either needed very expensive hardware, or the knowledge to build your own antenna to connect to a sound card. This was either beyond most people's ability, or they just didn't know it was possible because it wasn't well known about outside enthusiast circles. But once people started hearing about all the things you could do with a $20 USB device with few other skills required, that's when so many new people were drawn to the field because it became so much simpler to get involved. I'm sure there are many programmers out there who are not very handy with a screwdriver or soldering iron, but now they too can contribute to SDR. I think that's going to be where the biggest change will happen. The more people involved, the more innovations we'll get. > If I should guess why there aren't so many mature SDR applications out > there I would say that it is because SDR spans over so many > engineering disciplines. Writing a good SDR application requires > understanding of RF, analog, digital, DSP and last but not least, > software engineering. That's very true. And hopefully now that many more software engineers can get into the field very easily, we will see even more great applications. I would also add mathematics to your list, because although it is covered in those fields, I have a basic understanding of most of them but it's the gap in my knowledge of maths that is my current stumbling block. > Yeah, it's a life long learning. Definitely :-) Cheers, Adam.
