Design and Implement USB-Based AM Radio Receiver

[abdo375]

I have a project in one of my classes, the aim of the project is to interface a circuit which you will design with a computer through a USB port, I read a lot about software defined radio's and I was thinking of building a very basic one which will receive AM signals and then convert them through an A/D to the computer where I well preform the demodulation through software that I've written.
I was hoping to know if this project could be achieved through a 2-3 Month period, I've had and still having a typical EE course load, Although I haven't taken any Antenna classes yet or any DSP.

 

[berkeman]

Sounds like a fun project. As long as you have the USB part covered, the rest of the project is very practical for a 2-3 month period. Do you have experience building analog circuits in the 1MHz region? Or will you be using the front end of an existing AM radio? It might be quickest to get a good AM radio kit, and just substitute your ADC for the stuff after the first down-conversion stage (or even before the first mix). What S/H and ADC are you planning on using? What will be the characteristics of your anti-alias filter?

 

[abdo375]

Thank you for your response berkeman and sorry it toke me so long to get back to you, but it's just because I'm in the middle of my midterms and I don't log-on much these days
anyways;

1-I've got the USB part covered (as a matter of fact that the only part I've got completely covered).

2-I pretty much have zero experience building 1Mhz frequency circuits.

3-A friend of mine told me to just go with an existing AM radio, but I'm thinking of building it my self to get the experience, anyway, I'm still considering the options, I borrowed from the library "Telecommunication Circuit Design Second Edition by Patrick D. van der Puije" which has some circuits of the RF part of the AM demodulator, so do you think that I should do it my self or just get the radio.

by the way this may sound strange to you but here in Egypt we don't have Radio kits (although I'll be looking for one), so I'll probably have to buy a usual one and get the antenna part from it, again about the ADC I don't have the luxury to purchase any kind of ADC I want, I'm limited by the one's found in stock, so after my midterm I'll go see what they have, which will probably be in the low frequency range, so I'll probably have to build a circuit to step down the frequency (I know this violates the term SDR) and then consider the anti-aliasing filter.

again thank you for your time, and I hope I get the time to replay soon.


PS: sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors but it's 6 AM in here and I'm kinda sleepy.

 

[NoTime]

I would think that a radio kit would be something you would be able to find with google easy enough.

If your selection of ADCs is limited then you might be constrained to digitizing the already demodulated audio.

 

[berkeman]

Here's a source of electronics kits that you can order:

http://www.transeltech.com/kits/kits1.html