SDR RADIO
BUT NOT LIKE YOU ARE USED TO!
Jim Gerwitz
Jan 2016
Dreaming
What if you could use a good laptop, a cheap, (under $25)
piece of hardware and some free software to do the
following things:
SOME SAMPLES
Create a “Drive-by system” which can be Receive bus telemetry signals area and create
used to pinpoint a nasty source of noise in a live map of all the bus locations in your area.
your neighborhood. Use it to receive already present WiFi signals
and detect people and objects on the other
Receive SCA audio which is a special audio side of walls
service channel that is embedded into regular Use as a PANADPTER
broadcast FM as a subcarrier Detect pulsars (rotating neutron stars)
Listen to noise bursts originating from the Build a “phase correlative direction finder”
planet Jupiter Receive Meteor M1 satellite Wx signals ,
Receive ADSB transmissions providing satellite images of weather
Create a decoder for Inmarsat AERO signals
Measure the characteristics of RF filters and
Receive GPS signals and also acquire a
antenna VSWR
position lock
Determine the radiant (origin point) of meteors Decode End Of Train and Head Of Train
showers, using meteor scatter techniques Packets
Build a passive radar system Listen to and decode P25, DMR and other
unencrypted Digital speech signals
Receive FIS-B weather reports
Create a cheap digital noise figure meter
Decode Inmarsat STD-C EGC messages
Create a low cost ozone spectrometer to
perform scientific measurements.
More Teasers • Radio astronomy.
• Listening to unencrypted Police/Ambulance/Fire/EMS
• Monitoring meteor scatter.
conversations.
• Listening to FM radio, and decoding RDS
• Listening to aircraft traffic control conversations. information.
• Scanning trunking radio conversations. • Use rtl-sdr as a panadapter for your traditional
• Decoding unencrypted digital voice transmissions. hardware radio.
• Tracking maritime boat positions like a radar with AIS • Decoding taxi mobile data terminal signals.
decoding. • Use rtl-sdr as a noise figure indicator.
• Decoding POCSAG/FLEX pager traffic. • Reverse engineering unknown protocols.
• Triangulating the source of a signal.
• Scanning for cordless phones and baby monitors.
• Searching for RF noise sources.
• Tracking and receiving meteorological agency
• Characterizing RF filters and measuring antenna
launched weather balloon data. SWR.
• Tracking your own self launched high altitude balloon • Furthermore, with an upconverter or direct
for payload recovery. sampling mod to receive HF signals the
• Receiving wireless temperature sensors and wireless applications are expanded to:
power meter sensors. • Listening to amateur radio hams on SSB with
LSB/USB modulation.
• Listening to VHF/UHF amateur radio.
• Decoding digital amateur radio ham
• Decoding ham radio APRS packets. communications such as CW/PSK/RTTY/SSTV.
• Watching analogue broadcast TV. • Receiving digital radio monodial shortwave radio
• Sniffing GSM signals. (DRM).
• Using rtl-sdr on your Android device as a portable • Listening to international shortwave radio.
radio scanner. • Looking for RADAR signals like over the horizon
(OTH) radar, and HAARP signals
• Receiving GPS signals and decoding them.
• Receiving NOAA weather satellite images.
• Listening to satellites and the ISS.
Would you be interested?
Of course you would, you are a Ham!
You can do these with an RTL-SDR Dongle!!!
RTL-SDR
• What is RTL-SDR?
• RTL-SDR is a very cheap software defined radio that uses
a DVB-T TV tuner dongle based on the RTL2832U
chipset. With the combined efforts of Antti Palosaari, Eric
Fry and Osmocom it was found that the signal I/Q data
could be accessed directly, which allowed the DVB-T TV
tuner to be converted into a wideband software defined
radio via a new software driver
SW / HW REQUIRED
• SDR Dongle – more on this in a minute
• Capable computer, laptop preferred
• Speed – 2 Gig min
• RAM size - at least 4 Gig min
• DUAL CORE PROCESSOR, i5 or bigger
• Software of your choice
• Windows software ( this has the most available SW)
• LINUX is next with some MAC programs available
• Antenna
• Note: Some programs do not work with Windows XP
System Options
• Basic System
• Dongle, Computer, antenna and software
• 25/50 MHz to 1.8 GHz, 2.5 Mhz stable BW
• Expanded System
• Dongle, (more than one, sometimes), Up-converter, computer,
antennas and software
• Many configurations
• OR, fully capable receiver 100Khz to 1.8Ghz
• Raspberry Pi is used in some systems
Dongle When purchasing a Dongle,
be careful of the frequency range.
Some units only go down to around
40 MHz or so. Some go to 25 MHz.
You only need the Dongle. The
antenna, the remote and the
mini-CD are not used.
The magic happens here
LINKS to a recommended purchase list at the end of this deck
UP-CONVERTER
if you want 100Khz to 25 MHz/50 MHz using
Dongle
Approximately 3” by 2”
Requires 5 volt external power
Full Receiver
100 Khz to 1.8 GHz
$62.41 on Amazon
TYPICAL SOFTWARE
INSTALL
RTL-SDR
Software Installation Requirements
• Need copy of whatever SW you choose, (SDR# is good
and is popular, HDSDR or POWER SDR also)
• May need .NET Redistributable to be installed if not
already
• May need Visual C++ Runtime installed if not already
• Find installation instructions for the software you choose
and follow them closely – many different setups
• Links to many of these available on LINKS page at the
end of this deck
SCREEN SHOTS FOR
GENERAL PURPOSE
SOFTWARE
RTL-SDR
• The following slides have screen captures of many
available software packages.
• This is not all of them and many new ones are added
frequently.
• TWO GROUPS:
• The first group is general purpose packages.
• The second group is more specialized for a single
purpose.
SDR# (Windows) (Free) HDSDR (Windows) (Free)
SDR-RADIO.COM V2 (Windows) (Free) Studio1 (Windows) (Paid
PowerSDR (Windows) (Free) Multimode (GNU Radio) (Free)
Linrad (Windows/Linux/MAC) GQRX (Mac/Linux) (Free)
SCREEN SHOOTS FOR
SINGLE PURPOSE
SOFTWARE
RTL-SDR
Requires additional
Hardware
Signal Direction Finding with an RTL-SDR, Raspberry Pi and REDHAWK
Something we missed posting about from last year was this presentation on “RasHAWK”, a direction
finding system (pdf) built out of a Raspberry Pi, an RTL-SDR and four antennas on a 4 way switch
running software created with REDHAWK. REDHAWK is a visual DSP development platform that
can be considered similar to GNU Radio or some parts of MATLAB.
LINKS and BOOKS
• Recommended start: http://www.rtl-sdr.com/
• Quick Start Guide with several install instructions available from: http://www.rtl-
sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/
• Where to buy: http://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/
• Setup instructions for SDR# : http://airspy.com/
• BIG List of software – (all examples pulled from here) http://www.rtl-sdr.com/big-
list-rtl-sdr-supported-software/
• LINUX library instructions: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
• “The Hobbyist’s Guide to the RTL-SDR” by Carl Laufer
• One of many books available
Lots of information available via Google. Just search for RTL-SDR.
Some General Comments
• Pay attention to the antenna connector to get the right
one for your cable/antenna. (Most are MCX).
• Dongles seem to vary a lot. Go with one off the list.
• If anyone does a Linux package installation, please share
with us non-Linux folks.
• Applications are multiplying rapidly. Share new ones if
you think there is interest.
• This might make a good project for Field day to pull in
interested parties.
• Some applications mate with the Raspberry Pi.
• Android SW is available in the “Big List”.
DEMO OF SDR#
