radio free earth
GnuRadio has released a hardware peripheral that allows soft radio. This is going to be big. Very, very big.
Put in simple terms, this means that radio signals can be affordably processed by a general-purpose computer instead of a custom-built piece of hardware. All the frequencies flying through the air affect every bit of metal they come in contact with -- it's decoding those mashed-together frequencies meaningfully and in real time via a system electronic components that's the trick. Well, these guys have built a system that enables simulation of those components in software, allowing a single computer to emulate a vast array of radically different radio devices. It's already capable of receiving HDTV broadcasts. With the right software it could receive XM radio. Hell, with the right software a geek could now set up his own cell phone company. A big antenna (or lots of small ones) and some spectrum rights from the FCC are all that would be stopping him (well, okay -- this specific device would probably not be up to the task beyond the proof-of-concept level. But a similar one would be.).
The complete implications of this are still unclear. Up until now it's been a somewhat high-profile but imposibly nerdy project that no one was sure would ever bear fruit. But now it has -- or at least, it has overcome the theoretical hurdles that could have made software radio intractable, and released a tool making homebrew radio accessible to everyone. No one's sure exactly what effect these developments will have, but everyone seems to agree that it's a revolutionary shift in how broadcasting can be done -- and more importantly, by whom it can be done.
Satellite transmissions, police band communication, virtually anything that's broadcast can now be picked apart or put back together by your PC -- and that includes massively parallel attempts at decryption. Security through obscurity is no longer an option, nor is it far-fetched to imagine that folks will now spend their spare computer cycles trying to crack the encryption coming from HBO's satellite (or the government's) instead of searching for aliens.
This puts a lot of power in the hands of anybody with a thousand bucks. Look for it to be outlawed almost immediately.
Comments
I imagine a day soon when satellite tv, radio, Tivo, cell phones, everything...will fit in an iPod mini, fully integrated. Set it next to your plasma screen at home and run your television/internet. Take it with you for music, email, phone, etc... All of these separate gadgets will be gone. Or at least you'll have the option of integrating them.
Sounds like good news for pirate radio—I've read that there's been one or two stations popping up around the DC area. Could these be using this new thingamajig? If so, I'm calling 9x.x "KCDC" right now.
Scott, it'd certainly be nice. I've got my doubts, though. Doing radio in software requires some significant processing power (nothing a desktop can't handle, though). There are certain physical realities that you can't escape -- power consumption being the biggest. I think we'll get that dream gadget, but it probably won't do software radio -- it'll get fed data over a catch-all internet connection.
Kriston: this particular device hasn't shipped yet, so they're probably not using it. This device's specialty is digital radio (I didn't mention that). Not sure if it could handle an analog signal like FM radio meaningfully, but it'd probably be overkill anyway. From my understanding FM radio isn't too hard to do -- I believe any competent EE with a budget could set up a small pirate radio station.
I read about that anti-inauguration radio station, too (WSQT I think). Nothing's coming in for me on 1680 AM right now, but I'll check back in. I'd be pretty curious to hear them (although they'll almost certainly get shut down by the FCC well in advance of the election, if they haven't already).
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