DSP based software/digital PLL detector for satellite beacon receivers

The paper addresses the design, implementation and test of a beacon receiver coherent detector by using a DSP based software controlled phase locked loop. The system is built around a user developed card, with fast sampling ADCpsilas and dedicated signal processing programmable chips, interfaced with a DSP kit. The DSP implements the loop filter by programming in real time a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO). The preliminary results are presented and discussed. Future software developments and other tracking/detection algorithms are discussed.