Student Work
Development of a Software for Field Field Strength Meter Calibration
Type:
Bachelor Thesis / Project Work
Summary:
In many countries, regulations limit the electromagnetic field strength around licensed amateur radio stations to ensure public safety. When dealing with complex station setups and environmental conditions, measurement results are often the only possible evidence. Therefore, the proper calibration of used field strength meters is essential. This project aims to update an existing Windows software [1] and develop a new calibration setup based on Linux. The software should be platform-independent, built using C++ or Rust with a focus on Test-Driven Development and Documentation. It should communicate with measurement equipment via IEEE488 and USB, while also recording a video stream of the measurements. Remote control functionality is desired, with a split between server and host seeming like a reasonable approach. Finally, the software should output measurement results in a spreadsheet format. Once the new software is set up, measurements will be taken and compared to those obtained with the old legacy system.
Supervisor:
Links:
Development of APRS TX/RX iGate
Type:
Bachelor Thesis / Project Work
Summary:
Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) is an amateur radio-based system for real time digital communications of information of immediate value in the local area. Data can include object Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, weather station telemetry, text messages, announcements, queries, and other telemetry. APRS data can be displayed on a map, which can show stations, objects, tracks of moving objects, weather stations, search and rescue data, and direction finding data [2]. The objective of this project is to develop an APRS RX/TX iGate, on a custom designed PCB.
Supervisors:
Prof. Matthias Jung and Prof. Hakan Kayal
Links:
Development of Software for ADALM Pluto SDR
Type:
Bachelor or Master Thesis
Summary:
The objective of this project is to develop a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) application for controlling the ADALM Pluto FPGA SDR plattform [2], manufactured by Analog Devices. The software will provide functionalities for both signal reception (RX) and transmission (TX). Moreover, it will include a waterfall diagram and spectrum view, along with the capability to demodulate and modulate Single Sideband (SSB) signals [3]. Additionally, the software will support the connection to the Pluto via ethernet and audio input and output via the computer's sound card. The implementation will be based on the Qt framework, with [1] serving as the initial reference. The primary purpose of this SDR application is to establish communication with the geostationary satellite QO-100.
Supervisors:
Prof. Matthias Jung and Prof. Guido Dietl
Links:
QSL Card Image Processing on Embedded Devices
Type:
Bachelor or Master Thesis
Summary:
By sending a QSL card [1], radio amateurs confirm a successful radio connection, compare picture. These cards are partly written by hand or printed with a computer. In the QSL distribution center of the German Amateur Radio Club e. V. (DARC), these cards are evaluated by employees, sorted and then delivered to the appropriate recipient (target callsign). The goal of this project work is to automate the reading process with the help of image processing and machine learning. The project has three stages of development:
- design of an algorithm and first prototype for field segmentation and subsequent text recognition. For example, using tools such as Keras or Tensor-Flow. The difficulty lies in distinguishing source and target call signs.
- fine-tuning of the algorithm with further training data.
- implementation of the algorithm on an embedded AI platform.
Supervisors:
Links:
ONGOING: Development of an Hardware Accelerator
Type:
Bachelor or Master Thesis
Student:
Matthias Keckl
Summary:
The objective of this project is to develop an hardware accellerator to solve a mathematical optimization problem. For the problem presented in [1] there exists a customized solver, based on C++/MPI, which can be executed on large computing clusters. The algorithm is based on an branch an bound algorithm. In each node some simple calculations have to be performed, which could also be accellerated on an FPGA.
Supervisors:
Links:
ONGOING: Construction of a QO-100 Portable Station
Type:
Bachelor or Master Thesis
Student:
Moritz Gellermann
Summary:
The goal of this project is to design and construct a QO-100 station for portable operations. The objective is to build a portable station with focus on digimodes like FT4 and FT8. A 2.4 GHz antenna, shall be designed for TX. For RX a standard LNB coudl be used. For transmission (TX) amplification, the student can either utilize the amplifiers mentioned in references [1,2] or attempt to build a custom amplifier. To receive (RX) and generate the RF signals, the ADALM Pluto SDR [3] will be employed, and it can be controlled through the SDRConsole Software [5]. To ensure the stability of the Pluto SDR FPGA system's clock, a GPS Disciplined Oscillator (GPS-DO) will be implemented. For instance, reference [4] provides a suitable option, but the student may also consider developing a custom GPS-DO and PCB.
Supervisors:
Prof. Matthias Jung and Prof. Guido Dietl
Links:
- https://www.sg-lab.com/AMP2400v3/amp2400_v3.html
- https://www.sg-lab.com/PREAMP2400/amp2400_v1.html
- https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/evaluation-hardware-and-software/evaluation-boards-kits/adalm-pluto.html
- https://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=107&products_id=301
- https://www.sdr-radio.com/console
