Physical and Technical Specifications Back to table of contents.

The RadioScope is a rectangular metal box 8 inches deep, 4 inches wide, and 2 inches high. (It is about the size of a box of business envelopes.)

The front panel has binding posts for four input signals, as well as binding posts which break out the power and ground from the RadioScope circuitry so that the inputs can be offset from either minimum or maximum signal level, as desired. The front panel also contains 5 status LEDs to indicate network activity (data received by or sent from the RadioScope) and sampling activity on a particular input channel.

The rear panel has a power input connector, which will accept anywhere from 8 to 12 volts DC, and a 9-pin "AT" serial connector for a Ricochet radio. (A Ricochet radio is required for the RadioScope to be able to communicate with the world; velcro strips on top of the RadioScope allow for easy mounting of such a radio.)

The RadioScope has four input channels. Each one can accept an input signal between the ground and power voltage levels of the RadioScope (a range of five volts). Only one channel can be sampled at a time, with 256 sampling rates between 245 Hz and 62500 Hz. Current at the inputs should be limited to 25 mA to avoid the possibility of damage to the RadioScope.

Upon the receipt of a control signal, the RadioScope captures a burst of samples from the selected input at the selected sampling frequency, and then sends a data packet containing all of the samples back to the device which sent the control signal. Up to 950 samples may be gathered in one such burst, or "sampling period". Thus, the longest sampling period possible (950 samples at 245 Hz) is about 3.8 seconds.

The input samples are digitized with 8 bits of precision (20-mV steps), with +/- 1/2 least-significant bit (within 10 mV) accuracy.