With improved technological successions, wireless communication applications have been incessantly evolving. Owing to the challenges posed by the multipath wireless channel, radio design prototypes have become elemental in all wireless systems before deployment. Further, different signal processing requirements of the applications, demand a highly versatile and reconfigurable radio such as Software Defined Radio (SDR) as a crucial device in the design phase. In this paper, two such SDR modules are used to develop an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless link, the technology triumphant ever since 4G. In particular, a non-coherent end-to-end OFDM wireless link is developed in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band at a carrier frequency of 470 MHz. The transmitter includes Barker sequences as frame headers and pilot symbols for channel estimation. At the receiver, pulse alignment using Max energy method, frame synchronization using sliding correlator approach and carrier offset correction using Moose algorithm are incorporated. In addition, wireless channel is estimated using Least Square (LS) based pilot aided channel estimation approach with denoising threshold and link performance is analyzed using average Bit Error Rate (BER), in different pilot symbol scenarios. In a typical laboratory environment, the results of BER versus receiver gain show that with 4 pilot symbols out of 128 carriers, at a gain of 20 dB, BER is 0.160922, which is reduced to 0.136884 with 16 pilot symbols. The developed link helps OFDM researchers to mitigate different challenges posed by the wireless environment and thereby strengthen OFDM technology.

The article is devoted to the development of a method for increasing the efficiency of communication channels of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the conditions of electronic warfare (EW). The author analyses the threats that may be caused by the use of electronic warfare against autonomous UAVs. A review of some technologies that can be used to create original algorithms for countering electronic warfare and increasing the autonomy of UAVs on the battlefield is carried out. The structure of modern digital communication systems is considered. The requirements of unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturers for onboard electronic equipment are analyzed, and the choice of the hardware platform of the target radio system is justified. The main idea and novelty of the proposed method are highlighted. The creation of a model of a cognitive radio channel for UAVs is considered step by step. The main steps of modelling the spectral activity of electronic warfare equipment are proposed. The main criteria for choosing a free spectral range are determined. The type of neural network for use in the target cognitive radio system is substantiated. The idea of applying adaptive coding in UAV communication channels using multicomponent turbo codes in combination with neural networks, which are simultaneously used for cognitive radio, has been further developed.