Cost Effective Capture of multiple IQ streams for Phase Arrays

This paper introduces a new and affordable method of realising 10 IQ Software Defined receivers, and how to synchronise them. We first discuss the need for multiple IQ and the available techniques. We then introduce the RTL-SDR and Matlab as a very low cost prototype implementation of 10 IQ streams. This leads to the design and manufacture of a PCB to distribute a single clock to multiple RTL-SDRs. The required modifications to the RTL-SDRs to receive the distributed clock and other modifications to improve the overall performance are presented. We then describe how to attain raw IQ data and synchronise the receivers. Finally, we prove all 10 can maintain a phase lock over a frame of 7 seconds.