Multimon Pager Decoding on Android

Sarah (aka SignalsEverywhere) has recently released another open-source Android app that enables the multi-signal decoder Multimon-ng to be used on Android. Multimon-ng is a commonly used decoding app, that supports various protocols such as POCSAG/FLEX pagers, as well as DTMF, ZVEI, EAS and more.

The app requires the SDR++ Android app to be running in the background with an SDR like an RTL-SDR connected. The role of SDR++ is to receive the signal and send the demodulated audio over a network connection to the Multimon-NG app, which performs the final decoding.

The app APK can be downloaded from Sarah's website via a minimum $0 donation, or alternatively, built and installed from source.

Multimon-ng on Android!

Setting RF Based Atomic Clocks via Computer Speakers

Over on YouTube, Jeff Geerling has uploaded an interesting video showing how RF-based atomic clocks can be set via signals generated from a computer speaker. In the USA, RF-based atomic clocks typically receive their atomic time signal from the WWVB 60 kHz longwave radio station, operated near Fort Collins, Colorado. In other countries, different time signal transmitters operate on different frequencies. However, these time signals cannot be received everywhere due to interference or geographic limitations, making RF atomic clocks useless in these situations. 

As Jeff points out, a Time Station Emulator program can be used to locally emulate the WWVB or other time signals, which, while not providing atomic time accuracy, could still make these clocks useful again.

Most interestingly, the emulator program requires no special RF transmission hardware. Instead, it simply uses your computer speakers to broadcast the time signal.

By carefully crafting a waveform at a specific audio frequency (out of normal human hearing range), the digital-to-analog converter will generate higher frequency RF harmonics, and one harmonic will match the time signal frequency required by the RF-based atomic clock. The wires running to the speakers, and the speakers themselves, will act as antennas, leaking these harmonics into the surrounding environment. This means that cheaper unshielded speakers, such as those found in phones and tablets, tend to work better.  

In the video, Jeff uses a HydraSDR and an upconverter to receive the time signal generated by the speakers. While the time signal cannot be seen on the spectrum itself, in the demodulated audio, you can hear the signal's pulses.

Van Eck Phreaking time to atomic clocks

Pocket 25: An Android P25 Phase 1 Digital Voice Radio Decoder

Thank you to reader "EN53" for submitting news about a newly released open source Android app called Pocket 25. Pocket 25 is an Android-based APCO Project 25 (P25) phase 1 digital voice decoder based on the DSD-Neo decoder engine. It was developed by Sarah Rose (aka SignalsEverywhere), whose other software we have posted about in the past.

APCO P25 phase 1 trunked digital voice systems are commonly used in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries by emergency services. As long as the P25 network is unencrypted, it is commonly decoded to audio with an RTL-SDR and decoding software such as DSDPlus or SDRTrunk.

Pocket 25 allows users to now decode P25 signals on portable Android devices. An RTL-SDR can be connected to an Android device via a USB-OTG cable, or a remote networked RTL-SDR can be used via an rtl_tcp connection. The app also supports RadioReference accounts, automatic GPS site hopping, smart filtering, and logging.

In the readme, Sarah also notes that, because Pocket 25 is based on the DSD-Neo engine, it supports additional digital voice protocols, including DMR, NXDN, and others. However, the interface is designed around P25, so non-P25 systems may show incorrect metadata.

The software is open source and code can be found on the GitHub. There is also an active discussion about the app on RadioReference.

Pocket25 | Running DSD-Neo on Android!

Telive osmo-tetra-sq5bpf: An Experimental TETRA Decoder that Enables Voice Decryption (If You Have the Key)

Thank you to Jacek / SQ5BPF for letting us know that he's recently released a modified version of the Telive TETRA decoder for Linux. The modification allows the user to listen to TEAx-encrypted voice signals if they have the decryption key. Typically, if a TETRA signal is encrypted, there is no way to listen to it, unless you have obtained the decryption key from the network operator, or extracted it from TETRA keyloader hardware.

But because the TEA1 encryption was broken due to a backdoor being discovered in 2023, he has also added support for using the 32-bit short key directly, which can be automatically recovered from TETRA traffic using his other software called teatime. TEA1 encryption is being phased out, but many deployments still use it.

The software is designed for advanced users to compile and run, so very little documentation is provided. However, there is a blog post here that explains the overall steps. Some additional information can be found on SQ5BPF's RadioReference post here.

TETRA Decoding (with telive on Linux)
TETRA Decoding (with telive on Linux)

SLZB-Ultima: A Quad-Radio Smart Home Radio Controller Supporting Various Protocols

While not based on SDR technology, we think that some readers may be interested in this product.

We'd like to thank Serhii, who writes on behalf of SMLIGHT in Ukraine. SMLIGHT recently released its "SLZB-Ultima" device, a compact radio platform supporting multiple wireless technologies commonly used in smart homes. 

These technologies include Zigbee, Thread, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. The device also optionally supports Z-Wave, LTE, Power-over-Ethernet, UPS backup, infrared control, and USB-over-Ethernet. The cloud-independent software supports WireGuard VPN, Dynamic DNS, Internal Zigbee hub mode, local IF-THEN automations running directly on the device, and one-click OTA updates.

The full press release is available here in this PDF.

The device is priced affordably at only US$40 on Aliexpress.

The SLZB Ultima
The SLZB Ultima

 

Spectrum Slit: A Wall Art Display That Visualizes Wi-Fi Activity via a HackRF

Over on YouTube, RootKid, who specializes in creating engineering-based art projects, has developed an interesting wall-mounted art display panel that visualizes Wi-Fi activity by using a HackRF as the monitoring software-defined radio. The display uses a Raspberry Pi, a HackRF, and a custom-made LED light bar. The HackRF receives a 5 GHz Wi-Fi channel, and the Pi translates this into activity on the LED display, creating a visual piece that lets those around know when Wi-Fi activity is high.

The idea is to show that "we live surrounded by ghosts of our own making", which refers to the invisible storm of electromagnetic signals that we created to serve us in our modern lives.

If you are interested in other projects that combine SDR and art, you might enjoy our posts on HolyPager, Hystérésia, Signs of Life, Ghosts in the Airglow, and Open Weather.

I built a light that can see radio waves

Reviving Old 1G Analog Cellphones and Demonstrating Their Security Flaws

Over on the YouTube channel "Nostalgia For Simplicity," the creator has uploaded a video where he revisits the original 1G analog cellular system, AMPS, to finally understand a mysterious phenomenon he experienced over 20 years ago as a kid, where he was able to unintentionally intercept other people's calls with his 1G phone. Using vintage hardware like the Ericsson DH668, he recreates a small AMPS network and confirms that the system is fully analog, instant, and surprisingly good-sounding. 

AMPS worked by dividing the spectrum into numbered voice channels, with each call occupying one channel at a time. In busy cities, simply tuning to an active channel could let you hear someone else’s call. In this revival setup, there is only one active call, making the effect easy to demonstrate. This is essentially wideband analog FM voice on fixed channels, something easily observable and demodulated with modern SDR hardware.

Investigating this ancient 1G tech has highlighted why 1G systems were fundamentally insecure and why the world moved on to digital standards. If you're interested, the other videos on his channel continue to explore early cell phones and their quirks.

I Revived 1G and Recreated a Childhood Mystery

[Also seen on Hackaday]

Web-Spectrum: Web-Based Spectrum Analyzer and GPS Signal Analyzer with RTL-SDR Support

Over on GitHub we've recently seen a new open source program release called "web-spectrum". Web-spectrum is a multi-purpose browser-based tool. One interesting feature is that it allows you to view the GNSS spectrum (via a connected RTL-SDR or SDRplay with an appropriate antenna), decode it to a position, and also analyze the signal for jamming. It uses gnss-sdr or Gypsum as the backend GNSS processing tool.

The tool can also be used as a real-time spectrum analyzer, and for this, it supports RTL-SDR and SDRplay as well as the tinySDR Ultra spectrum analyzer.

Finally, in addition to GPS decoding, it also supports ADS-B and ISM band decoding.

Web-Spectrum: A Browser based tool for spectrum analyzer, GNSS analysis, and ADS-B and ISM band decoding.