Considering BladeRF purchase and in need of guidance

Discussions related to schematic capture, PCB layout, signal integrity, and RF development
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sableandsilver
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:37 am

Considering BladeRF purchase and in need of guidance

Post by sableandsilver »

Hi folks,
In need of a bit of guidance on whether the BladeRF A9 meets my needs.

I work on set in the photo video world, and have an ongoing need to monitor RF spectrum, diagnose issues (interference and congestion), and mitigate them. Up until now Ive been using an RF Explorer 6G Combo+, which is fine as a unit, for the most part, with NutsAboutNets Touchstone Pro. Unfortunately there are a few stumbling blocks going forward:

1. The biggest single issue is Touchstone/Pro for MacOS appears to be EOL. NAN's suggestion going forward is running Rational Waves in a Windows VM, but this is not a viable/sustainable option for me.

2. Id like to be able to monitor slightly broader and/or dual frequency bands simultaneously; namely 5Ghz (where most of my video transmission/reception EQ plays) and either 2.4 (for wifi and some low end video gear) and <1ghz (for audio folks). Additionally a bit faster sweep at a given bandwidth and resolution would be a nice to have.

It seems like the BladeRF might meet my needs, but hoping to clarify whether it can achieve the points mentioned above, in concert with CubicSDR or other MacOS centric SDR software (recommendations welcome), on ARM (Apple Silicon) platforms.

Lastly, reading this on the BladeRF product page: "The bladeRF does not ship nor come with these (or any) accelerators or processing chains, they are entirely up to the end-customer to design or procure from other 3rd party suppliers." has me curious to what degree the unit is plug and play (or not), and what level of knowledge and/or effort is necessary to get the unit operating smoothly on a repeatable basis.

Thank you in advance for any feedback and suggestions. I am a video engineer rather than an RF engineer or hobbyist, so Im mainly looking for something that will work reliably for someone with limited knowledge and time to invest in this.
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