ECE 4670 Communications Laboratory

Catalog Course Description

Laboratory experiments demonstrating material taught in ECE 4625/5625. Use is made of spectrum analysis to study baseband signals and signal processors. Topics include AM, FM, PM, sampling, TDM, digital modulation, errors, and complete communication systems.
Corequisite: ECE 4625
Offered: Spring (S)

Syllabus

Course Syllabus as of January 05, 2026 10:18:33

Course News 1/21/2026

I have posted a small correction to Lab 1 Problem 1. The signal generator voltage into 50 ohms should read 2v p-p, not 1v p-p. The problem is expecting 1v peak. The calculation with 1v rms is just another example calculation, not something you have to test with.

Welcome to ECE 4670 for Spring 2026. In Spring 2026 Chiranth Siddappa will again be teaching the lab course, but now in a new location on the campus. At the start of the Spring 2026 semester the lab is moving to the Anschutz Engineering Center (AEC) 318. This building is on the east side of the current engineering building. The current is starting a major renovation Spring 2026, with much of the building currently closed off for the renovation project. The old lab location is in the closed off area.

In taking the lab course the use of Python and Jupyter Lab notebooks is central to the workflow for the lab experiments. The best option for setting up Python and Jupyter Lab, with the added ability to use Pyaudio for a hardware in the loop experiment, is via a via Python 3.13 virtual environment via Miniconda as of February 09, 2026 09:01:05. The information in the above linked document applies to using the lab PCs and as well as setting up your own laptop. Setting up your own laptop is preferred.

Lab Assignments
Supporting Materials

Each lab consists of a reader PDF file, a Jupyter Notebook zip package, and a PDF rendering of the notebook to allow you to preview it before you start working with it. A grading rubric is also provided, but may be superseded by your instructor.

Lab 1

Lab 1 as of January 21, 2026 08:57:51.
Lab 1 sample notebook zip as of October 06, 2024 09:58:10 and rendered to PDF as of as of October 06, 2024 09:58:10.
Grading rubric as of October 06, 2024 09:58:09.

Lab 2

Lab 2 as of October 28, 2025 12:28:33.
Lab 2 sample notebook zip as of October 06, 2024 09:58:11 and rendered to PDF as of as of October 06, 2024 09:58:11.
Grading rubric as of October 06, 2024 09:58:10.

Lab 3

Lab 3 as of October 28, 2025 12:28:35.
Lab 3 sample notebook main zip as of October 28, 2024 07:47:43 and Lab 3 large csv files for notebook demos zip as of October 28, 2024 07:50:19. The rendered to PDF as of October 06, 2024 09:58:12.
Grading rubric as of October 06, 2024 09:58:09.

Lab 4

Lab 4 as of October 28, 2025 12:28:36.
Lab 4 sample notebook zip as of October 28, 2024 07:31:32 and rendered to PDF as of as of October 06, 2024 09:58:13. Music test file zip for testing your PyAudio setup.
Grading rubric as of October 06, 2024 09:58:12.

Lab 5

Lab 5 as of October 28, 2025 12:28:38.
Lab 5 sample notebook zip as of October 28, 2025 12:28:38 and rendered to PDF as of as of October 06, 2024 09:58:14.
Grading rubric as of October 06, 2024 09:58:13.

Lab 6

Lab 6 as of October 28, 2025 12:28:29.
Lab 6 sample notebook zip as of May 06, 2026 05:35:33 and rendered to PDF as of as of May 06, 2026 05:34:02.
Grading rubric as of October 06, 2024 09:58:14.

Lab 7

Lab 7 as of October 04, 2024 03:29:30.

Supporting materials include surface mount component data sheets, lab test equipment documentation, and RTL-SDR set-up files.

Component Data Sheets

KeySight Field Fox N9914A 6.5 GHz

KeySight 33600 Trueform Waveform Generator

RTL-SDR

Learning Python

Python Basics a tutorial written in Jupyter Notebook. ZIP.

Link to Anaconda. This is the scientific Python I recommend. This applies to learning Python via just Jupyter Lab.

An IDE I also recommend is VS Code with many nice extensions for Python, Julia, and Jupyter, C++, just to name a few.

Cheat sheet for MATLAB/Python/Julia

NumPy2MATLAB and IPython reference card