Software Defined Radio (SDR), what are you doing with it?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Software Defined Radio (SDR), what are you doing with it?

scottjpalmer

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#268095 27-Feb-2020 20:27

There are a few SDR related threads here on Geekzone but they're related to specific issues - needing to cool an SDR, needing an aerial adaptor, etc.

Let's make this a general SDR thread for photos of your set ups, stories of your projects, tips on the lessons you have learnt, etc.

I've got a Pi and a Flightaware stick feeding ADSB to a bunch of sites. I've also got a couple of RTLSDR blog dongles which I have dabbled with a bit of radio reception with but not currently in use, looking to change that.

What are you doing?

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#2428502 27-Feb-2020 21:26

I bought an RTL-SDR Blog V3 from Amazon which has some telescopic dipole antennae included.

https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-RTL2832U-Software-Defined/dp/B011HVUEME/ref=lp_10230687011_1_1?srs=10230687011&ie=UTF8&qid=1582791145&sr=8-1

Picked up some FM radio. I looked for some aviation, fire and ambulance services but found nothing.

I was impressed with the software, tuning and spectral display (using Windows).

My general concluson like with any radio... you need a good antenna for the band of interest.

I live in a small country town with not too much radio activity.

I have too much else on the go to persue further for a while.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

richms

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#2428504 27-Feb-2020 21:29

I had a quick play with it on 433MHz and saw that the band was totally full of trash so the plan of using it to report on temperature sensors and a weather station were pointless so basically retired it. Nothing else of interest on radio that I could use for automation purposes.

A friend has some in use for their intended purpose, and they are on pi's doing TV tuner duty, but to me that is as good as useless since I have no desire for that content.

Richard rich.ms

shanes

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#2428505 27-Feb-2020 21:31

I've been thinking about asking the same question :) I recently brought one of the five FlightAware sticks that were recently for sale on GZ, and have been wondering if any of the others were up and running, michaelmurfy looks like he was one of the other four...

I started feeding FlightAware and have scottjpalmer and michaelmurfy listed as "Nearby sites". I also added FlightRadar24 and see you there as well...

Virtual Radar gives me a map with current planes and my coverage shown.

Having fun DIYing antennas to try and get a bit of better coverage, the antenna is still inside, but getting the odd plane at 150-200 NM.

It's all running in Dockers on UnRaid, so is quite a tidy setup.

psychrn

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#2428543 28-Feb-2020 00:01

some months ago I purchased a RTL-SDR Dongle with portable antennas .

According to the dongle it states DVB-T + DAB + FM +SDR

Subtitle on the unit is RTL2832U R820T2 TCX0 BIAST HF

My purpose was to listen to hamradio, Shortwave spectrum.

Im an active hamsphere operator.

Ive yet to get it set up properly

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neb

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#2428549 28-Feb-2020 02:20

scottjpalmer: What are you doing?

ADS-B receiver via PiAware.

AIS receiver via some Pi-based setup.

Davis Vantage receiver via a custom SDR stick.

Poor man's spectrum analyser, because I can't justify owning a Rohde & Schwarz.

neb

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#2428550 28-Feb-2020 02:22

shanes:
Virtual Radar gives me a map with current planes and my coverage shown.

Which can be very useful when the f****ing police helicopter is doing circuits over your house for 1 1/2 hours at two o'clock in the morning on a workday.

Just felt like pointing that out, and note the time when this was posted.

shanes

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#2428554 28-Feb-2020 06:24

Which can be very useful when the f****ing police helicopter is doing circuits over your house for 1 1/2 hours at two o'clock in the morning on a workday. Just felt like pointing that out, and note the time when this was posted.

Yes had the same recently, but during the day... the Police had denied it was them, but guess they wouldn't be advertising :)

The better half, who initially rolled her eyes when I was explaining the setup, seems to love being able to come to me and ask, what plane is going over our house :)

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davidcole

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#2428555 28-Feb-2020 06:29

I’ve got one (off tm) from Flightradar24/plane-finder think one other site. Pretty crap reception, as I tried extending aerial to my 2nd floor ceiling space but it never worked.

Had another cheapie one that didn’t work for flight radar and I tried picking up weather stations with it, but couldn’t find any.

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Gordy7

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#2428588 28-Feb-2020 08:33

Just read about a HackRF-One which covers up to 6GHz... could be good for WiFi diagnostics.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2428624 28-Feb-2020 09:36

scottjpalmer:

I've got a Pi and a Flightaware stick feeding ADSB to a bunch of sites. I've also got a couple of RTLSDR blog dongles which I have dabbled with a bit of radio reception with but not currently in use, looking to change that.

What are you doing?

I'm doing the same with a generic RTLSDR dongle. Running PiAware on oldest Pi, feeding data to FlightAware and FlightRadar24. Dongle connects directly to a 5dBi omnidirectional antenna. No doubt some improvements could be made to the setup, but I'm not in an optimal location so I'm pleased with my coverage of the west coast of the North Island, and towards Australia.

All up on the roof and PoE powered. Up until a few weeks ago it was 802.3af to 12V, regulated to 5V using an SBEC for radio controlled aircraft. It was cheaper to do it that way when I first set it up. I now use an 802.3af to 5V adaptor. I also take a feed from the 5V pins on the Pi to power the weather station so I don't have to get up on the roof and change batteries.

I did play briefly with some SDR software, but I figured I'd get another dongle for that or a real SDR. Never happened.

Gordy7

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#2428662 28-Feb-2020 10:44

shanes:

Which can be very useful when the f****ing police helicopter is doing circuits over your house for 1 1/2 hours at two o'clock in the morning on a workday. Just felt like pointing that out, and note the time when this was posted.

Yes had the same recently, but during the day... the Police had denied it was them, but guess they wouldn't be advertising :)

The better half, who initially rolled her eyes when I was explaining the setup, seems to love being able to come to me and ask, what plane is going over our house :)

Had a small plane doing circles for an hour or two during the day above our small town.

Got out my 60x zoom camera which easily showed the rego and who it belonged to...

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

neb

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#2428684 28-Feb-2020 11:05

shanes:
Which can be very useful when the f****ing police helicopter is doing circuits over your house for 1 1/2 hours at two o'clock in the morning on a workday

Yes had the same recently, but during the day... the Police had denied it was them, but guess they wouldn't be advertising :)

With a callsign of PLC1 I don't think they could deny this one. I wasn't too fussed, but Mrs.Neb is a light sleeper and has early morning starts.

neb

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#2428727 28-Feb-2020 11:11

Gordy7:
Just read about a HackRF-One which covers up to 6GHz... could be good for WiFi diagnostics.

The HackRF is nice, but not the best design in terms of layout and shielding, you get markers every 10MHz and other interference phenomena from the electronics, and it's bandwidth-limited by its USB interface. If you want to use something for WiFi diagnostics you can get pure SDR-based ones for a fraction of the price, and if you want a cheap spectrum analyzer there's the RF Explorer range. For an alternative to the HackRF, try a SignalHound, although I don't have any experience with it so don't know its quirks.

[Pause]

Ah, they've gone into the higher-end market, prices are now higher than a second-hand R&S for most of their range. RF Explorer would be the best option for exploring WiFi and similar.

msukiwi

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#2428735 28-Feb-2020 11:22

neb: With a callsign of PLC1 I don't think they could deny this one. I wasn't too fussed, but Mrs.Neb is a light sleeper and has early morning starts.

PLC3 currently on a trial in Christchurch. Very active. Luckily I have my own ADSB tracking as it does not show on commercial sites.

neb

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#2428738 28-Feb-2020 11:26

msukiwi:
neb: With a callsign of PLC1 I don't think they could deny this one. I wasn't too fussed, but Mrs.Neb is a light sleeper and has early morning starts.

PLC3 currently on a trial in Christchurch. Very active. Luckily I have my own ADSB tracking as it does not show on commercial sites.

Yeah, I noticed that according to some flight logging site it was currently sitting on the ground at a helipad in Onehunga. There was flight data there but it seemed to be delayed by some hours.

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