Connect VLF antenna to raspberryPi

adcantennaraspberry pisampling

I want to connect two VLF antenna (given below) to a RaspberryPi using it's GPIO ports with a MPC3008 ADC.

Desired frequency range is between 3kHz to 30kHz, and MPC3008 supports 200,000 samples/sec max. sampling rate. I can sample the the data coming from the antenna without aliasing.

But, does the RaspberryPi support that sampling rates?

and should I use a gain amplifier?

Miniature Very Low Frequency Antenna
VLF Antenna

ANTM1. This miniature 6 inch long antenna can be tuned from 3 KHz to
39 KHz with an external capacitor value of 0.1 uF to 370 pF. @ 370 pF
tunes to @ 39 KHz. 0.1 uF tunes to @ 3 KHz.

Weather proof sealed. 6 inch wire leads. Great for series resonant use
in small transmitters or receivers. 1 watt max.

Best Answer

If you are seeking to receive AM modulated broadcasts, you can make the situation better by adding a "One Chip AM Radio circuit" using something like the TA642 between your antenna and the MPC3008. Without a receiver circuit, you will have to do the demodulating within the Raspberry Pi software.

The Raspberry Pi SPI can clock at up to 20 Mhz as listed on Pi exchange However, the Raspien operating system running in background might need to be modified so as to not let the operating system consume too much of CPU time.

If not using a receiver (do your own software demodulating) then some signal conditioning will be still be needed (pre-amp) between the antenna (and capacitor tuning) and MPC3008. Depending upon signal strength (as questioned by Andy Aka in comments) the signal from antenna (capacitor) tuned circuit is likely to be in the realm of micro-volts (uV). Perhaps 600 uV or even 4000 uV (strong station). This small ( AC ) signal would have low resolution in a 3.3v or 5v ADC.