JoeN:
Ah, it makes sense. If the IF frequency is reasonable enough then the ADC can be a mid-power one and not one of those non-exportable weapons grade ones. I don't know a lot about how front ends change RF to IF but since they obviously do it well enough this finally makes sense.What do you think of this radio? $100,000 has become $1200 has become $300 and soon probably $17.97 at WalMart.
The IF is in the 2.3 to 2.7GHz band. But that then is direct-converted by a MAX2837 transciever chip to/from baseband quadrature where the DAC and ADCs can handle it (2 each for quadrature).
wiki is here: GitHub - greatscottgadgets/hackrf: low cost software radio platform