[450] I/Q and cheap Spectrum Analyzers

[David McKenzie]

you don't need a radioactive source, you can sample background
radiation like sparkfun did with their 2012 free day for true
randomness.

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 9:39 PM, John Foege <john.foege at gmail.com> wrote:
> While the bulk emission of radioactive sources can be modeled
> probabilistically via a poisson process, the individual emissions of
> alpha, beta, gamma rays (whichever you fancy) are totally
> non-deterministic and thus provide a fantastic source of real
> randomness.
>
> And the fact that it's possible to build such a thing with crap
> scrounged from old 1950s labs on ebay...that's the coolest part!
>
> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 3:36 AM, John Foege <john.foege at gmail.com> wrote:
>> My mind is too busy contemplating building a quantum random number
>> generator to be of any use to you guys right now....
>>
>> 2kV PSU, scintillator, photomultiplier, some pulse shaping and
>> sampling circuitry and voila...
>>
>> Where the f* am I going to get a radioactive source though? Anyone has
>> some Cesium laying around? :P
>>
>> And the question that will indoubtedly be asked is, WHY? Why? Because
>> science is damned interesting!
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 1:21 AM, Bob <n1ujs at toast.net> wrote:
>>> Well get on board and help us out Mr. Technology!  We want a dongle device
>>> which interfaces your PC with an rf sampler and allows you to measure
>>> deviation, maybe even turns your PC into a scope and whatever else we can
>>> add to it.  We need to make it and market it before anyone else does in a
>>> package simple and cheap enough for the average ham.  Are you in?  We could
>>> be rich!!!
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 10:52 AM, John Foege <john.foege at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> When I saw you guys (Bob and Dave) mentioning these things, I think it
>>>> warmed my heart for a few milliseconds....
>>>>
>>>> :)
>>>>
>>>> Awesome indeed that you are starting to get as nerdy as me about the
>>>> electronics....
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>>>
>>>
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