TITAN SDR

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THE HF BAND

Why is HF popular? Refraction of ionosphere allows medium and long-range radio

communication (by skywave propagation) Relatively low-cost equipment

Who uses HF? International shortwave broadcasting , amateur radio, CB radios, safety

(humanitarian aims), security (law enforcement), aviation (compulsory for all trans-oceanic flights), marine, military forces and for diplomatic interests (even as a back up of satellite links), but also terrorist organizations

Who surveys HF? Radio amateurs (DXers) Environmental protection agencies (electromagnetic pollution) National radio frequency agencies (detecting interfering or illegal

electromagnetic emissions) Security (national) agencies and foreign intelligence agenciesENABLIA

CONVENTIONAL RADIO SURVEILLANCE

Spectrum analyzer

or scanner

NB Receiver

NB Receiver

NB Receiver

SW Decoder (PC)

HW Decoder

HW Decoder

Audio Recorder

Audio matrix

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EVOLUTION TO SDR

USB

Acquisition receiver

Personal Computer

HW DDC (WB)

BUFFER

ADCFFT

Panoramic Spectrum

FFT WB Spectrum

Realtime Operation

SW Decoder

SW DDC (NB)

SW DDC (NB)

SW Decoder

VA

C

HW DDC (Digital Down Converter) as a dedicated chipset or FPGA core

Recording on mass storage device

Interface by Virtual Audio CableENABLIA

EVOLUTION TO SDR

SW Decoder

SW DDC (NB)

SW DDC (NB)

SW Decoder

Personal Computer

FFT WB Spectrum

Offline Operation

VA

C

Archive replay

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LIMITATIONS OF CLASSIC SDR RECEIVERS

Maximum number of NB channels significantly limited by CPU

SW implementation of DDCs is computationally expensive (especially for WB channels with large bandwidths)

Decoding /NB recording practically limited to about three channels in parallel

Spectral zoom strongly impacts CPU Smallest resolution bandwidths require large size FFTs, rising CPU

load considerably (FFT bins outside the displayed frequency span are discarded)

Performance not independent on frequency span

Just one WB channel Need for partitioning of acquisition bandwidth (into more WB

channels), to survey more spectral portions in parallelENABLIA

NOVEL APPROACH OF TITAN SDR

USB

TITAN RECEIVER

Personal Computer

4X Filters Bank

ADCFFT

Panoramic Spectrum

FFTSpectrum Assembler

BUFFER

40X NB Reconstructo

r

SW Decoder

VA

C

SW Decoder

Each NB Reconstructor aggregates adjacent subchannels

Then it performs retuning, filtering and resampling of aggregate

Filters Banks instead of Digital Down Converters

Adjacent subchannels are transferred over the USB interface

THE NEW SIGNAL PROCESSING FEATURES

Filters Banks on FPGA instead of WB DDCs WB channels are provided to PC as a collection of subchannels Filters Banks perform pass-band filtering AND decimation, which both

downconverts and preserves throughput over the USB interface

Spectrum assembler WB Spectrum is obtained by composing individual subchannels spectra

(exploiting the power complementarity feature of filters responses) While zooming, just needed subchannels spectra are evaluated, thus

saving CPU

NB Reconstructors instead of NB DDCs NB channels are obtained by aggregating subchannels, retuning (digital

rotation), filtering and resampling Processing is at low sampling rates, resulting in a reduced impact on

CPU (with respect to SW DDCs ) and allowing for many parallel NB channels

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TITAN SDR RECEIVER

16 Preselectors

Unbal/Balanced, amplification and noise rejection filtering

Anti-aliasing lowpass

AD Converter (16 bit, 80 Msps)

FPGA (Xilinx Spartan 3ADSP)

USB controller

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TITAN SDR - SOFTWARE FEATURES

Wideband Channels

NarrowbandChannels ofWB3

NB1 of WB3

WB3

TITAN SDR - SOFTWARE FEATURES: NB CHANNELS LIST

List of NB Channels

Output to VACs (Virtual Audio Cables) or additonal audio cards

Tuning frequencyDemodulation modesAudio card outputChannel Bandwidth

Output by LAN to software decoders

WAV file recording status

TITAN SDR - SOFTWARE FEATURESEach spectrum scope can be closed (x button), for better view of the others.Typically the Panoramic Scope is closed after tuning of WB channels:

Frequency Range 100 kHz – 32 MHz (up to 40 MHz by IF Input)

Noise Figure 100 KHz - 1.5 MHz NF = 15.25dB

1.5 MHz – 32 MHz NF = 14.2dB

Preselectors (16) Low Pass: 0-1.54 MHz

Band Pass (1.44-32 MHz): 1.44-2.07, 1.88-2.7, 2.4-3.46, 2.96-4.26, 3.56-5.12, 4.22-6.08, 4.88-7.03, 5.53-7.96, 6.46-9.31, 7.81-11.24, 9.74-14. 03, 12.53-18.05, 16.55-23.17, 21.67-28.17, 26.67-32

Attenuation 0dB, 10dB, 20dB, 30dB

Clipping -8dBm (@ 0dB Attenuation)

Wideband Channels Number of Channels: 4

Bandwidths (kHz): 312.5, 625, 937.5, 1250, 1562.5 , 1875, 2187.5

Maximum Total Bandwidth (kHz): 2187.5 , 1875, 1562.5 and 1250 for 1, 2, 3 and 4 Wideband Channels, respectively

Narrowband Channels 16 (Basic), 40 (Extended) or unlimited (only constrained by PC hardware), independently tunable within Wideband Channels

TITAN SDR - TECHNICAL SPECS

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TITAN SDR - TECHNICAL SPECS

Panoramic Scope 0 Hz ÷32 or 40 MHz, 5kHz RBW

Wideband Scope 312.5 ÷ 2187.5 kHz, min RBW 19.07 Hz (Spectrum & Waterfall)

Narrowband Scope RF: 39.06 kHz, min RBW 19.07 Hz (Spectrum & Waterfall)

Audio: 5512.5 ÷22050 Hz , RBW 5.4 ÷ 21.5 Hz (Spectrum & Waterfall)

Modes SSB, AM, NBFM, CW, eSSB, FSK, DRM (Dream or DRM Software Radio supported)

Selectivity 100 dB (Stop Band Attenuation)

Sensitivity -116 dBm (0.34 µV) SSB at S+N/N=10dB, 15MHz, 2.4 kHz BW

Recording One Wideband Channel (proprietary file format)

All Narrowband Channels (.wav files)

Interface to SW Decoders By VAC (Virtual Audio Cable)

By LAN (support for Hoka Electronic software decoders)

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A/D Conversion 16 bit, 80 Msps

Image Rejection 90 dB typ.

IIP3 >37 dBm

SFDR >108 dB

Alias Rejection 115 dB

Antenna Input 50 Ohm BNC

IF input 50 Ohm SMA - Bandwidth: 0.1÷ 40MHz

PC Interface USB 2.0

Operating Temperature 0° - 40° (°Celsius)

Supply Voltage 9VDC +/-1V

Supply Current 2.5Amp

Dimensions 243mm x 52mm x 145mm (WxHxL)

TITAN SDR - TECHNICAL SPECS

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POTENTIALITIES OF THIS APPROACH

Automatic detection of emissions Wideband spectra, though useful in locating time continuous

emissions, are of little or no help in detecting pulsed emissions, which occur at unknown frequencies

Some aid would be highly appreciated in locating emissions when they occur, especially in offline operation, when lengthy acquisitions have to be scanned for activities

Each subchannel could be monitored on FPGA by a corresponding detector and activities could be notified to the user and possibly recorded for later consultation

Data compression As a consequence of detection, recording of WB channels could

regard only subchannels within which some activity is being revealed, thus dramatically reducing storage requirements (even in terms of HD write speed)

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