Back in June 2016, Alexandru Csete put together a very cool demo in which he used a LimeSDR board together with gr-dtv, to create an HD digital TV transmitter. In this latest demo, Evariste Okcestbon has paired a LimeSDR Mini with a Raspberry Pi Zero plus Raspberry Pi Camera, to create what may well be the smallest DVB transmitter ever made; in any case, certainly the most compact that is assembled from off-the-shelf components and powered by open source software!

In the video, Evariste takes us through the transmit chain comprised of: Pi Camera → AVC2TS (H.264 encode and transport stream encapsulation) → DVB2IQ (DVB-S modulator) → LimeTX (I/Q streaming tool) → LimeSDR Mini transmitting on 1.2 GHz amateur TV band.

A Raspberry Pi plus rtl-sdr is being used on the receiving side and this is configured to give a spectrum display, before switching to display the live video stream upon reception.

We hope you will agree that this is not only a fantastic example of what can be achieved with the LimeSDR Mini and Raspberry Pi, but a particularly exciting development for amateur radio also!

Andrew and the LimeSDR Mini Team