Field Expedient SDR: Introduction to Software Defined Radio (black and white version)

I had some minor experience in messing with GnuRadio Companion before reading this book so I was concerned at first that it wouldn't be technical enough. I was wrong. This book is amazing. Not only does it take you through tutorials on how to do things, it also explains why things work and gives you more knowledge to play around and know what you're actually doing. This is something lacking from most SDR tutorials, which either just tell you what to do with no explanation, or become overwhelming with required knowledge and information. This book doesn't delve too heavily into the physics and theory behind RF, which is actually great! It explains just enough for you to understand, but not too much as to not overwhelm. I am excited to read the next two books in this series, which does cover analog and digital signal processing. You will finish this book with the knowledge of how to play around further with GnuRadio and actually be able to understand why some things work and others don't.

This is by far one of the best introductory books for GNU Radio Companion. It's an easy read and the projects are explained in an easy-to-understand format. My only complaint is that the book references the WX GUI blocks which are no longer supported by GNU RC. With a little work, it was easy to figure out which QT GUI blocks to substitute for the projects. Once that was done, everything worked just fine. I liked this book so much I just purchased VOL 2 and 3 of the series.

(edited typos)a good balance of hands on and tech info.Uses wx gui examples, which are deprecated from GNU radio - the user must find their QT equivalents in the GNU radio menus. If you are new to open source don't let this scare you off - twenty minutes of Internet search plus a small amount of trial and error will get you going.does not get into the math, which I'm familiar with, but does a great bite-sized job of getting the reader doing cool things early and often.apparently vol 4 has been a long time coming ... Very much want to see it.

Nice hands on intro to GNU radio and SDR concepts. Even if you are familiar with the math involved, the author's intuitive non-mathematical introduction is illuminating. Some comments: if you are a Windows user, ignore the advice to "Use Linux". The Windows version is trivial to install (download and execute the installer and your ready to go) and avoids having to set up a Linux system and follow multiple pages of installation instructions. The Windows version worked perfectly for all the examples. Also, be aware that WX GUI was deprecated in version 3.8 of GNU radio, so use an earlier version (I used 3.7.13.5) since the examples use WX GUI. Finally, the set of 3 books should probably be combined into a single book. This would avoid the repetition of the very tedious Linux install instructions, and people could simply skip chapters they don't need.

I'm glad the author took the time to write this book. I purchased another popular SDR book and it was basically t said do this and then that and there you have it. They gave very little explanation of why you did this and that. This book, however, explains the workings of SDR and why making certain tweaks may, or may not, work. Everything is explained in layman's terms, unlike many other resources that expect you to know the terminology and workings of typical SDRs. On top of that, you don't need to have an SDR dongle to use this first book in the series. The author provides downloads that substitute for having a dongle so that you can learn without one. You do need to install GNU radio, but the author clearly explains how to do this, so well that a computer dunce like me was able to pull it off. I peppered the author with a series of questions at one point and he answered back to every one within 24 hours. I was impressed enough with this first book, and knowing the author was willing to help, that I went ahead and bought the next two in the series. Although parts of these next two do ask you to have an SDR dongle of your own, the concepts are so well explained and screenshots provided for each project in the series, that you could learn much from these without even buying a dongle. I do hope the author comes out with number four in the series.

I have not been able to do all of it yet but good start. Just need to buy hackRF now $340??

This book was recommended by a well-regarded subject-matter expert so I had high expectations --- all were exceeded. The book is excellent and I look forward to volumes II & III (already purchased). The author does an excellent job enabling reader to quickly grasp and build upon various topics (enough just-in-time theory, screen-shots and practical examples). By doing the examples, one quickly determines what they may have missed by merely "reading" the examples. I found this augmented my understanding of mathematics of sin-waves, etc. and provided a holistic perspective for RF/SDR/GnuRadio. The combination of theory, exercises and especially the screen-shots is a winner. It's obvious Paul has talent in these technical topics and a method for conveying the information extremely well.JG

This is a great book for beginners, I am working on a course to teach high school students about communications electronics and find this series of books very good. There are almost no books on GnuRadio and the HackRF, these books fill an important need in this area. I have many years of experience in Comm Theory and DSP, but Linux and GnuRadio are new to me. I was having difficulty getting GnuRadio running on my new Ubuntu Linux machine and the authors responded very rapidly to my emails with advice on how to get it running. I'm very appreciative of their timely responses and great advice. I highly recommend these books.