Great Scott Gadgets HackRF One SDR TRx
In stock, shipped in 1 to 2 days
Supply Scope
- HackRF One board in case
- USB cable, 0.5 metre
WIMO Expert opinion
The HackRF One is a test equipment module for RF related experiments and measurements which covers a frequency range from 1 to 6000 MHz. It is used for experiments and measurement setups with open source programs for SDRs, own software development for radio communications and measurements in amateur radio. The hardware was developed by Michael Ossmann (USA) as an open source device, backed by a strong Kickstarter funding project. It is now sold as a commercial product as well.
Please refer to the frontend block diagram. The HackRF One board is characterised by a very high flexibility when choosing the signal path. RF switches at all critical junction points allow the selection of various components, based on user programming.
After the antenna input two MGA-81 GaAs MMIC amplifiers follow, one serves the input, the other the output path. The amplifiers ICs can be selected in and out of the signal path by RF switches (SKY13317).
The
amplifier block is followed by a low-pass and a high-pass filter, which
can be used to limit the signal in either path (input/output). After the
filter the signal arrives at an RF mixer RFFC 5072. This mixer can be
used up to 6GHz. The signal is mixed up or down, depending on user
programming and finally fed to the baseband circuitry. Mixer and filters
can be bypassed by further RF switches, allowing the IF signals to be
switched directly to the amplifiers or directly to the antenna.
As baseband chip a Maxim MAX2837 component is used, which covers a frequency range of 2.3 to 2.7 GHz. The chip uses monolithic filters which provide for a very linear signal and a low noise figure. The IQ data is then passed to an ADC/DAC chip Maxim MAX5864. This ADC as well as the DAC uses has 8 bit resolution. A maximum sample rate of 20MS/s is supported by these converters. The digital signals are finally passed to a Xilinx XC2C CPLD. The entire system and all interfaces are controlled by a powerful ARM Dual Core Cortex processor (NXP LPC4320). The board further supports 1MB flash memory.
Software for the HackRF One Board
Links about HackRF One:
- New Video series by Michael Ossmann Introduction to SDR (english)
- The manufacturers website, Great Scott Gadgets
- The project Wiki on Github Here you can find up to date firmware for download.
- HackRF Presntation at GRCon 12 (Video, English)
- HackRF Present and Future at NYU CSAW 13 (Video, english)
- The initial Kickstarter Project
- Short HackRF review in Germany by c't Hacks (Heise)
- RF Analyzer - Android APP for HackRF (english)
From time to time we hear the disappointment of customers returning the HackRF One, because he or she expected something totally different. To avoid this in the future, we want to clear up some widespread misunderstandings.
- The HackRF One is not a ham radio! The HackRF One is a transmitting and receiving SDR that is meant for experimentation. It helps thousands of students, hackers, hobbyists, experienced radio amateurs and researchers to test new radio transmission paths and was a brilliant development in its time. But it certainly does not replace an amateur radio and it does not want to!
- The sensitivity of the HackRF One is lower than that of the simplest handheld radio for amateur radio. This is due to the design with the 8 bit AD-converter, the missing pre-amplification, the missing pre-filters and the limited computing capacity. But the HackRF One is not supposed to be very sensitive, it is enough if a signal is received over the lab bench. Of course you can increase the sensitivity with a large external antenna, external preamplifiers and filters and hear all kinds of transmitters in individual band ranges - but the effort is much greater than if you buy a conventional radio right away.
- The transmitting power is deliberately limited to an extremely low level. It is sufficient to send a signal over the laboratory bench to a receiver, nothing more should happen. If you are thinking of adding an amplifier to the HackRF One, you have to consider that the signal is not filtered at all and probably is not very clean spectrally.
- The HackRF One has no provisions for normal amateur radio operation. There is no microphone connection, no S-meter, no loudspeaker, there is no control possibility except through the software on a computer. To be able to use the great potential of such an experimental SDR, one has to study the theory of digital signal processing quite intensively. This requires knowledge of English, a lot of mathematics, some physics and a lot of insight in software. This is all manageable and also very exciting, but requires a lot of commitment and time. If you don't want to invest that, the HackRF One is surely the wrong choice.
- The HackRF One is one of the most versatile products to learn how SDRs work. But if you are looking for a quick and universal introduction to amateur radio, you should better choose a conventional radio and gain first experiences with it.
We will be pleased to assist you in the selection of SDRs and radios to avoid misunderstandings and disappointment.
Product Name | HackRF One |
---|---|
Brand | Great Scott Gadgets |
Supply Voltage [V] | 5 V (USB) |
Weight | 100 g |
Antenna Connector | SMA socket |
Frequency Range | 0.1 - 6000 MHz |
In stock, shipped in 1 to 2 days