Performance Analysis of a Software Defined Radio System Using a Handheld Two Way Radio
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47709/brilliance.v6i4.9513Keywords:
Software Defined Radio (SDR), Radio Communication System, GNU Radio, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), Frequency ModulationAbstract
Radio communication systems remain widely used because of their reliability, simplicity, and operational flexibility. The development of Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology has enabled radio signal processing to be implemented in software, providing greater flexibility for signal analysis and system evaluation. This study aims to design and analyze a radio communication system using a Handy Talkie (HT) as the analog transmitter and an RTL2832U Software Defined Radio (RTL-SDR) as the receiver. The received signals were processed using GNU Radio to evaluate transmission performance at different communication distances. System performance was assessed by measuring the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and evaluating audio quality using Wideband Frequency Modulation (WBFM) and Narrowband Frequency Modulation (NBFM) demodulation techniques. Experimental results show that at a distance of 10 m, WBFM achieved an SNR of 36.6 dB, while NBFM produced clearer audio with an SNR of 42.5 dB. At 50 m, signal attenuation reduced performance, with WBFM and NBFM achieving SNR values of 31.7 dB and 35.4 dB, respectively. At 100 m, both techniques experienced performance degradation due to increased attenuation and noise; however, NBFM maintained slightly better performance, achieving an SNR of 17.1 dB compared with 16.0 dB for WBFM while preserving more intelligible speech. These results demonstrate that NBFM provides superior transmission performance and audio quality compared with WBFM, making it more suitable for SDR-based analog radio communication systems.
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