anyone here messing with SDR (Software defined radio)

[Hugo Drax]

Amazing the stuff you can do with these 18 dollar dongles.

Right now you can set one up with the free software out there and have a 2Mhz wide spectrum in view at all times. mess with digital signals and decode them.

ie: Mototrbo, P25 etc..

even the 600 dollar scanners cant decode everything these little devices can do since all the software is user written and not locked down.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I have a dongle based upon the RTL2832U chipset.
I played with it for a few hours but never really got around finding out what the full capabilities are. I do think that a better (active) antenna can help a lot in improving reception. It would be great if i could adjust it in such a way that it can receive the EM interference signals from the planet Jupiter. That would be great.
To use such a dongle for amateur radio astronomy. Maybe someone has more experience.

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/
http://www.spaceacademy.net.au/spacelab/projects/jovrad/jovrad.htm

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.
Essentially, this means that a cheap $20 TV tuner with the RTL2832U chip can be used as a computer based radio scanner. This sort of scanner capability would have cost hundreds or even thousands just a few years ago. The RTL-SDR is also often referred to as RTL2832U, DVB-T SDR, or the “$20 Software Defined Radio”.
There are many other software defined radios similar to the RTL-SDR, but they all come at a much higher price. The FunCube PRO+ is a good receiver similar to the RTL-SDR, priced at around $190 USD. There is also the soon to be released HackRF (~$300USD) and BladeRF SDRs ($420 and $650), which can both transmit and receive.
What is Software Defined Radio?
Radio components such as modulators, demodulators and amplifiers are traditionally implemented in hardware components. The advent of modern computing allows these traditionally hardware based components to be implemented into software instead. Hence, the software defined radio. This enables easy signal processing and thus cheap wide band scanner radios to be produced.

Jupiter's sporadic radio emissions, first noted in 1955, can at times be very intense. In fact, they are exceeded in intensity only by strong solar radio bursts. Detectable in the short-wave radio band from 10 to 25 MHz, Jovian signals are an ideal source for a first project in radio astronomy.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I just read that the dongle i have, might not be able to go low enough in frequency depending on the used tuner. :|

 

[William Gaatjes]

I played with the dongle on windows xp.
Now that i have windows 7 i need to re install it.

I looked up my usb vid pid and according to this list :
http://rtlsdr.org/hardware-usb

VID, PID, tuner, description
0x0bda, 0x2838, E4000, ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle

I have the E4000 tuner.
Frequency range:
Elonics E4000 52 – 2200 MHz with a gap from 1100 MHz to 1250 MHz (varies)
That means i will need a mixer to be able to shift signals between 10MHz to 25MHz to above 52MHz.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Sigh, it seems it does not work under W7 64bit. I have the WINUSB drivers loaded but SDR# cannot communicate with my dongle.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Yahoooo. When using a hub, it does not work. But when i plugged the dongle into a usb port from the pc directly. It works.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I am using mines with windows 8.1 64bit.

I found a frequency used by repomen, they use NXDN48 narrow band digital modulation, which scanners cannot pick up but SDR can with DSD.

Pretty cool to hear them in action.

Oh if you use sdr console you can create 6 virtual radios and listen to all of them concurrently.

Anyhow I ordered Friday a ettus USRP B200. You can watch up to 56mhz of spectrum and it goes from 70mhz to 6ghz

 

[John Connor]

I was interested in getting one to monitor ADS-B. I would like something that can tune shortwave though. The only known method I know of is some kind of convertor.

I've used DSD, but with a Pro-2042. For some reason the mic in wasn't outputting the audio through the laptop speakers and I think it has to do with a simplex audio card. I tried DSD with a Netbook and it worked, but decode rate wasn't very good. Probably due to the proc's power capability.

I just stick with scanners and receivers.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I am a bit lazy, but how do you get Digital Speech Decoding working with SDR# ?
I downloaded the DSD program, it executes but nothing happens.
I have not read through all the web pages and youtube movies yet.

We have the C2000 system here for the ambulance, fire department and the police. and the P2000 paging system. By accident while sifting through the Frequency spectrum i noticed something was transmitting and it sounded like digital data being transferred. Would DSD also be able to decode this data ?

I looked up the aviation frequencies but i cannot hear anything. I need a better antenna. Right now i am using the DVB-T antenna with tuner gain at maximum.

 

[Hugo Drax]

You need to download dsd+ and then this software called virtual cable. What virtual cable does is let you route the audio to the dsd program that is open.

I had much better luck decoding with sdrconsole 2.2 vs SDR#

Also I messed with ads-b just download adsbsharp and your good to go.

For 18 bucks these little usb dongles sure provide plenty of tinkering fun.

 

[John Connor]

We have the C2000 system here for the ambulance, fire department and the police.

C2000 is Tetra and can't be decoded and no scanner exists to decode Tetra.

 

[PsiStar]

I am about to jump into SDR ham radio. I have been completely inactive for a very long time, but the current SDRs are very fascinating. There are digital modes that can be received even when they are a few dB below the noise floor, diversity reception, exceptionally low intermod on transmit via pre-conditioning (in software), watch entire ranges of frequencies on multiple bands simultaneously and receiving specific signals are available with a mouse click.

Ham licensing in the US went no code several years ago. Entry level licensing is pretty straight forward with testing sites typically just a few minutes away for most ... more sparse areas of the US are probably less than an hour.

For receiving & playing around for no investment, check out http://websdr.org/

 

[John Connor]

http://websdr.org/

I just saw that web site not too long ago. I go to Globaltunners too.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I bought a B200 which is real neat. you can also transmit 100mw with it. I can watch 32mhz of spectrum at one shot in windows.

I have a program running that will automatically log anything that pops up in the spectrum and tune to it automatically as well.

The B200 is better than the 20 dollar dongles because it has a much lower noise floor and more sensitive to weak signal activity.

years ago you would need to spend 5-6 digits dollar amounts to get Rohde and Schwarz equipment to be able to do what you can do with a B200 USRP device.

 

[PsiStar]

I just bought a 200W transceiver. Runs HPSDR . I am hoping that I will find the find the time to get into programming, at least just a bit.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I just bought a 200W transceiver. Runs HPSDR . I am hoping that I will find the find the time to get into programming, at least just a bit.

what kind of transceiver?

Anyhow. I bought a Elad FDM-S2 SDR to cover 5khz-60mhz

http://shop.elad-usa.com/sdr-radio/fdm-s2/

with the 2mate controller
http://shop.elad-usa.com/accessories/tmate2-usb-tuning-system/

and a dell laptop dell inspiron 15 (250 bucks) amazing how cheap they sell now.

For a dedicated setup, this now replaces the WJ-8711A, it kills it in sensitivity/noise floor. and the Spectrum/waterfall and audio quality as well.

I can grab lots of interesting HF traffic, stuff that would have been difficult to intercept in the past. stuff like burst traffic etc..

 

[PsiStar]

I followed Elecraft for a long time and for quite a while would have only bought thier equipment except for all of the knobs & pushy buttons. I like the computer only interface and plan to be able to use all remotely. More about how well that works out later.

I was then going to buy an Apache Labs radio, but I decided for the money the support is not what it should be. I canceled the order and found SunSDR.com. I have ordered a SunSDR2. Expected delivery is in the next few weeks. To go along with it is a GPS disciplined 10 MHz reference oscillator for certain digital modes and if I should ever get interested in some GHz transverters.

In other words, I decided that I preferred working with the Russians versus expensive South Asians versus very expensive Texans. I think the Russians have the best business plan and have a radio + software that is able to meet what is being marketed. Apache Labs probably has the most advanced hardware but the capability is limited by the open source capability ... volunteers do not write code as fast as paid heathens.

I am looking to play with digital codes such as Olivia as well as station control packages like DXLab and HRD. High frequency radio location is also of interest but no one actually has the software for that.

 

[mariajesus]

Hi,

I use my rtlsdr Stick for radio astronomy since a couple of years. I began with radio astronomy 8 years ago, with all kind of self-made circuits and logarithm detectors for my radio telescope. The way to enjoy radio astronomy for me began with this stick. It is not comparable with any other qualitative SDR but I think it is more than enough for detecting radio sources. It is fascinating how the Milky Way looks like, using a radio telescope with a heart of 6 Eur.

A description in German and Spanish of the RTLSDR Radio Telescope and a link to the currently logged data:

GERMAN -> http://www.germersogorb.de/html/l-band_radioteleskop.html
SPANISH -> http://www.germersogorb.de/html/radiotelescopio_band_l.html

DATA -> http://www.germersogorb.de/html/lbandlive.html

SOME OBSERVATIONS -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6QUKUJI6YQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW5iYIOEA4c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL3YYqwJ0tA

Best regards,
Mariajesus

 

[inachu]

http://websdr.org/ is awsome wow!

Happened to dance to a spectrum and it sounded like the bridge of star trek enterprise but without the sound of the computers beeping! I had it playing for 45 minutes.