> undocumented feature that lets the firmware bypass the fixed WiFi and Bluetooth functionality and instead capture raw IQ baseband samples

So kind of like those TV USB sticks that you can adapt into proper SDRs?

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wiml 31 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The ones that the website hosting this article is named after?

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brcmthrowaway 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yep, Matt Ettus converted that to hundreds of millions of dollars

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BlackRabbit1 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

RTLSDRs only have a 8-Bit ADC that easily drown next to strong transmitters.

I remember the Ettus devices to be much much much more powerful.

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CamperBob2 28 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not with RTL-SDR specifically but by introducing one of the first open-architecture SDRs, the USRP.

RTL-SDR is the cheapest imaginable commodity implementation of SDR technology, while USRP was... well, pricy enough to bring in some solid revenue and get his company bought. More power to him, it was (and is) an incredibly useful platform.

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jcrawfordor an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

the Ettus USRP SDRs predate RTL-SDR by almost (not quite) a decade.

	▲	ErroneousBosh 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I was always into the soundcard HF SDRs, they were so simple and elegant. An oscillator, a ring counter, a 4052 MUX and one really fast dual opamp.