Doing 50 Things with RTL-SDR in One Week

Thank you to Blinry who recently wrote an article about how they set themselves a challenge to find 50 things to do with an RTL-SDR in one week. Blinry writes:

Last week, I attempted the challenge to try to find 50 things to do with an RTL-SDR device in a week!

It was quite an adventure: I received satellites and radio from the other side of the world, I went on a hunt for a radiosonde, and I invented a method to communicate using the NFC tag in a library book!

I used the RTL-SDR Blog V4 for everything, plus the antenna kit, plus a long piece of wire.

Congratulations Blinry for achieving your goal and taking us on a whirlwind ride through the different applications of RTL-SDR!

NOTE: We note that Blinry's website appears to be a bit slow to load, presumably because or the large image file sizes, and because his article has become quite popular. If you're having trouble loading the images and videos, maybe try again at a later time. Alternatively, thanks to user pbnjeh on Hackernews you can try loading directly from Archive.org or https://archive.is/ZHnfV.

Blinry Receiving and Tracking a Weather Balloon using SDRAngel and an RTL-SDR Blog V4

Meteor M2-4 has not failed – it is still in the testing phase

Thank you to Robin OK9UWU who wanted to point out that the recently launched Russian Meteor M2-4 weather satellite has not failed. There have recently been rumors and videos being spread online claiming that the satellite has already failed as the LRPT and HRPT signals are currently offline.

However, the satellite is still in a testing phase and was only briefly transmitting images for a few days after launch. It is difficult to find official updates from Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, but Robin explains his thoughts on what is happening:

The satellite in question, Meteor-M N°2-4 did not fail. The reason for both the LRPT and HRPT transmitters to be off is that the primary instrument (MSU-MR) is currently undergoing a routine cleaning process to get the IR channels up and running correctly.

It's completely normal.

Other reason why it's off could be that they are testing the MeteoSAR instrument (2-4 is the first sat of this series to have this), hence why unnecessary radios might have been taken offline.

It's important to understand that these satellites are being used to do actual science, weather forecasting etc. They require careful testing and calibration which might take some time. It's not just for "cool imagery".

For example, it took months to get the VIIRS instrument running onboard of the NOAA-21 satellite.

Keep calm and nerdy!

spaceintel101.com's infographic about the Meteor M2-4 Launch
spaceintel101.com's infographic about the Meteor M2-4 Launch

Saveitforparts: Building a Satellite Antenna from an Emergency Blanket and a Rotator from an old Security Camera Mount

Over on his YouTube channel, 'saveitforpaarts' has uploaded two new videos. The first shows how he was able to build a very cheap satellite antenna for GOES satellites out of an umbrella and a metallic emergency blanket. The blanket is simply spread over the inside of the umbrella, creating an RF reflective surface. Then a linear feed with LNA and amplifier is placed at the feed point. The makeshift dish works, though the SNR is marginal, and he is only able to receive slightly corrupted images from GOES satellites.

Satellite Antenna Made From Emergency Blanket

In his second video saveitforparts builds a satellite dish rotator out of an old thrown away security camera pan/tilt mount. The mount is hacked to be controllable via an Arduino microcontroller. 

I Built A Cheap Satellite Tracking System From Spare Parts

Great Scott Gadgets URTI: Phase Two Progress Report

Over on their GitHub, Great Scott Gadgets, creators of the popular HackRF SDR, have created a phase two progress report for their upcoming URTI product. URTI (Universal Radio Test Instrument) is their next generation software defined radio which will work not only as a full-duplex SDR transceiver, but also as a vector network analyzer, spectrum analyzer and more.

In the phase two update they note that they have completed fabrication of an initial prototype board and have confirmed that all components on the board are functional. They note that much of phase four was already completed in parallel, which means the firmware and gateware development is also close to completion. So hopefully we will see more updates soon.

More information about URTI can be found at greatscottgadgets.com/urti.

URTI (Universal Radio Test Instrument) First Prototype Board

IndiaRocketGirl Receives NOAA-19 Weather Satellite Images with a Tape Measure Yagi Antenna

Over on her YouTube channel IndiaRocketGirl (@VU3BIZ) has posted a video showing how she was able to receive weather satellite images from the polar orbiting NOAA-19 weather satellite at 137 MHz.

She uses a home made four element Yagi antenna with elements made from a tape measure. This allows the elements to be easily folded down for transportation. A phone running the Heaven's above app is used to help track the satellite in the sky as it passes over, and then SatDump and an RTL-SDR Blog V3 running on a laptop is used to decode the signal into an image.

IndiaRocketGirl notes that in her next video she will show how to make the Yagi antenna that she was using. In a previous post IndiaRocketGirl also showed how she was able to receive geostationary FengYun-2H S-VISSR signals.

How to Receive Real Time Images from Low Earth Orbit Satellites | India Rocket Girl | NOAA-19

KrakenSDR Radio Direction Finding Setup and Tutorial YouTube Video

Over on YouTube user Skyler F has posted a video showing him unboxing his KrakenSDR, and KrakenSDR antenna set, and then setting it up and taking it on a test to find the location of a cellular tower. In the video Skyler shows how to set up the antenna array using the paper spacers, how to connect the KrakenSDR to a Raspberry Pi, and how to configure the Android direction finding app.

If you weren't already aware, KrakenSDR is our 5-channel coherent radio based on RTL-SDRs, and it can be used for applications like radio direction finding. It can be purchased on Crowd Supply.

Kraken Radio Direction Finding Unit Setup Tutorial and Demo

Airspy HF+ Firmware Updated to R4.0.0

The Airspy HF+ and HF+ Discovery are popular and affordable software defined radios that have a focus on excellent reception on the HF bands. Recently @lambdaprog, the creator of Airspy products has released updated firmware for the Airspy HF+ series of products. The announcement on X is shown below.

WarDragon Running KrakenSDR to TAK Python and Federate TAK Server

Over on YouTube Aaron, creator of DragonOS and the WarDragon portable SDR kit has posted a video showing how he was able to set up an run the KrakenSDR to TAK python software, as well as a Federate TAK server on WarDragon. Aaron writes:

In this video, we delve into the integration between the KrakenSDR and TAK (Tactical Assault Kit) server, orchestrated by SignalMedic. SignalMedic introduces his Python-based update to his previous NodeRed-dependent system, designed to extract data from the KrakenSDR and relay it to a TAK server.

Witness the capabilities of SignalMedic's creation as we showcase its functionalities with two KrakenSDR endpoints, transmitting lines of bearing and other information to our TAK server setup. We explore setting up and running SignalMedic's project on a WarDragon, a custom kit powered by DragonOS that I've enhanced with a KrakenSDR specifically for this demonstration.

Join us as we demonstrate the integration between the KrakenSDR and the TAK server, showcasing the ease of setup and operation, thanks to previous tutorials on setting up a TAK server and configuring inputs for KrakenSDR data streams. We address challenges encountered during communication between TAK servers and discuss the manual certificate import process from SignalMedic's server to ensure smooth operation.

Additionally, we touch upon federating two TAK servers to enable seamless information sharing between environments, enhancing situational awareness and operational efficiency.

I also mention the perviously explored the Goatak project, an ATAK client for Linux written in GO, which promises to expand the capabilities and accessibility of TAK operations on Linux platforms.

In the past we posted about SignalMedic's KrakenSDR to TAK converter, but it was recently updated to be written in full Python, so it no longer requires the NodeRED dependency.

If you weren't already aware, KrakenSDR is our 5-channel coherent radio based on RTL-SDRs, and it can be used for applications like radio direction finding. It can be purchased on Crowd Supply.

TAK (Tactical Assault Kit) is software used by the military and other organizations for visualizing geospatial information such as enemy and friendly positions. Civilian versions of TAK also exist, such as ATAK for Android. Previously we posted about how ATAK has the ability to plot aircraft positions via an RTL-SDR receiving ADS-B.

WarDragon KrakenSDR to TAK Python + Federate TAK Server w/ K2T Developer (KrakenSDR)