Softrock SDR and Loop Antenna Controlled by Arduino via Infrared

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This video presents a Magnetic Loop antenna controlled by Arduino (Duemilanove ATmega 328) working with Softrock Ensemble RX II.
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The Antenna controller system receives a command via infrared transmitter similar to a TV remote control.

There is a circuit responsible for the infrared receiver coupled to the Arduino.
Every action performed on the remote control is sent to the Arduino and treated by a program I developed specially to control the stepper motor.
That way I can move the capacitor clockwise and counterclockwise.
The current level demanded by the stepper motor (28BYJ-48 5V) is high, you can not control it directly from the Arduino.
To solve this problem, I used a circuit based on the ULN2003.
To facilitate programming for the infrared receiver and the stepper motor, I used the public libraries for irRemote and Stepper (see references). With them I saved several lines of code.

My Magnetic Loop antenna was based on models collected on the Internet.
In particular, I used the instructions and tips from Alex (PY1AHD), which sells this kind of antenna with a better look than showed in this video (see ).

In first analysis it does not seem to make much sense to use a magnetic loop antenna with SDR because it has a high "Q". In other words, its bandwidth is very narrow, opposing some of the best characteristics of the SDR that is able to monitor a wide spectrum of frequencies in receiving mode.
But in my case, the magnetic loop antenna has been a good option for SDR operation indoors.


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You can see more about Magnetic Loop Antennas accessing these URLs:





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