Frequently Asked Questions

General

Why NEON ?

Greek νέον (neon) means "new one"...

Is it a commercial product?

No. At least I have no plans to produce NEON transceivers now, but who knows the future. Let me finish the prototype for a start ;-)...

Why did you make this site if it is non commercial?

I created this web-site to share some of the used technologies and ideas with you.

Will the firmware be available as an Open Source or binary download?

It is possible that the whole firmware will be published. Parts of the firmware (such as SOS3 RTOS) which can be used in other projects will be definitely available as an Open Source (under some kind of free license). In any case I need to finish the firmware before.

Technical

Why NEON uses superheterodyne architecture (with the DSP at low IF) instead of the modern direct sampling architecture?

There are limitations for exporting 14bits and higher resolution fast ADCs to Ukraine. The available 12bits ADCs does not provide the required performance. So I chose the superheterodyne architecture. When the chips with the necessary performance will be available for me. I will be able to quickly upgrade to direct sampling architecture (most of the NEON firmware will require only a slight changes, so do most of the digital units).

Also the performance of the even state-of-art fast ADCs is not sufficient to build the direct sampling frontend with the parameters competitive to the NEON analog frontend.

What technique was used to make the front panel?

It is laser engraving and cutting. The front panel (the decorative part) is made of two layer acrylic plastic.