Skies-ADSB Updated to V2.0.3

Back in 2022, we first posted about the release of skies-adsb, a browser-based app that uses ADS-B data from an RTL-SDR to provide a 3D view of the air traffic around your area. Recently skies-adsb has been updated from version 1 to version 2, bringing with it several improvements.

The new improvements include:

  • Generate custom GeoJSON map layers from Natural Earth, FAA, and OpenStreetMap data
  • Aircraft trails visualization
  • Enhanced map renderer with multi-layer vector support:
    • Aerodromes
    • Airspaces
    • States / Provinces
    • Counties
    • Urban areas
    • Roads
    • Rivers
    • Lakes
  • New aircraft follow camera controls

The YouTube video below by the author demonstrates some of the new features.

skies-adsb v2 release - RTL-SDR ADS-B 3D plane tracking app

Creating a Software Defined Radio from Tiny Tapeout Chips

Tiny Tapeout is a project that allows anyone to design and fabricate custom open ASIC silicon at a low cost by combining hundreds of projects from different people on the same chip. Each design on the the chip is freely available to use by others.

Over on Hackster.io, we've seen a post where Sylvain Munaut used two of these Tiny Tapeout chips to create a software defined radio.

On the Tiny Tapeout 6 chip, Sylvain discovered that Tiny Tapeout customer Carsten Wulff had implemented an 8-bit ADC on the chip. Then, on the Tiny Tapeout 7 chip, Sylvain found that Kolos Koblász had implemented an RF mixer. So, he decided to combine the two Tiny Tapeout chips together to build a software defined radio.

The entire build consists of the two Tiny Tapeout chips, a Glasgow Interface Explorer (USB interface), and a GNU Radio flowgraph to demodulate and display the signals received.

In his YouTube video, Sylvain demonstrates the software defined radio in action, showing that it has 2 MHz of bandwidth and is capable of receiving FM signals.

SDR with custom silicon ! Combining TinyTapeout projects.

A Review of the Discovery Dish for Inmarsat Reception

Over on the Airframes Community forum, user 'thebaldgeek' has posted a review of our Discovery Dish product. If you weren't already aware, the Discovery Dish is an easy-to-set-up and use backyard dish system for weather satellites, Inmarsat, and Hydrogen line radio astronomy.

In his post, thebaldgeek unboxes the dish and feed boxes, showing all the individual parts. He goes on to bolt the dish together and show it fully built. In the rest of the post, he compares the Discovery Dish with Inmarsat feed against three other options, including a GPS puck, our RTL-SDR Blog Active Patch Antenna, and a homemade 7-turn helix antenna.

As expected, the Discovery Dish performs the best, with the 7-turn helix coming in second, followed by the RTL-SDR Blog Patch, and finally, the GPS patch. He rightly notes that the dish does have increased wind loading over the other options, and this needs to be taken into account when positioning and mounting.

Inmarsat antennas tested by 'thebaldgeek'.
Inmarsat antennas tested by 'thebaldgeek'.

Saveitforparts: Receiving Military DMSP Satellite Data with a Hacked TV Dish

Over on the saveitforparts YouTube channel, Gabe has uploaded a video showing how he uses a hacked TV satellite dish to receive satellite weather data from Defense Meteoroloogical Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites.

These satellites were initially developed during the Cold War and featured an encrypted downlink of meteorological data. However, recently, the DMSP downlink has encryption turned off when passing over the northern half of the USA (40°-41° latitude and up to 60° North), allowing hobbyists in some parts of the USA to decode images. 

In his video, Gabe uses a HackRF SDR with an old DirectTV dish with a modified S-band helical feed mounted on a hacked Wineguard motorized platform that was originally intended for automatically pointing TV dishes on RVs. Despite some initial problems with the SatDump software crashing, he is eventually able to receive some nice, clean images.

Interestingly, Gabe also shows what the signal looks like while encrypted and how it transitions to the unencrypted signal after the satellite passes over the threshold. 

We note that it is not documented by the military why encryption is being turned off only over the northern half of the USA. Still, it is speculated that the military doesn't consider images over this part of the USA to be sensitive, and disabling encryption could help save power and help other organizations with scientific research. However, as Gabe mentions in the video, being a Cold War-era satellite, the image quality from DMSP isn't great, and more modern satellites like the NOAA series give much better images over the entire earth unencrypted. 

Grabbing Military Satellite Data With Hacked TV Dish

TechMinds: Building an Automated NavTex Receiver using a Raspberry Pi and SDRplay

Over on the TechMinds YouTube channel, Matt has uploaded a video tutorial showing how to create an automated NavTex receiver using a Raspberry Pi and an SDRplay software- defined radio.

NavTex is a safety and navigational information radio text broadcast system for mariners, typically broadcast at 518 kHz and 490 kHz. On ships, it is typically received by dedicated hardware that prints out information on a piece of paper as it comes in. However, with an appropriate antenna and an SDR, it is possible to receive and decode NavTex signals at home. 

In his video, Matt shows how a Raspberry Pi loaded with a piece of software created by "boat-comm" can be combined with an SDRplay RSPdx to create a homemade automated NavTex receiver. Matt shows how to install the software and goes on to demonstrate it in action.

Currently, only SDRplay receivers are supported by boat-comms software, but it's possible that in the future, other SDRs may be supported, too.

Automated NavTex Receiver Using A Raspberry Pi & SDRPlay SDR

If you're interested, boat-comm also has a video about his software available on his YouTube channel and we've embedded his video below.

NAVTEX on raspberrypi for sailors

Saveitforparts Checks out the Discovery Dish

Over on his YouTube channel 'saveitforparts,' Gabe has uploaded a video checking out and reviewing our Discovery Dish product that we successfully crowd-funded on CrowdSupply back in December 2023.

Discovery Dish is designed as a low-cost way to dive straight into backyard satellite experiments, including receiving L-band and S-Band weather satellites as well as Inmarsat satellites. It also offers an easy entry into making galactic Hydrogen line observations.

The dish is a 70cm prime focus dish, that can easily be broken down into three parts for easy storage and transport. The feeds are fully integrated, meaning that the feed antenna, LNA, and filtering are all in one unit and built into a waterproof enclosure. This means there is no need to purchase individual components and figure out waterproofing.

In his video, Gabe unboxes the Discovery Dish, builds it, and uses the L-band feed to receive a few images from GOES 16, Meteor M3, Meteor M4, and METOP weather satellites. He goes on to successfully test reception with the S-band feeds on NOAA weather satellites, before testing out the Inmarsat feed and successfully receiving signals. Finally, Gave notes that he hopes to test out the Hydrogen Line feed in a future video.

Checking Out The Discovery Dish - A Simple & Easy-To-Use Satellite Antenna For Everyone!

Jeff Geerling Explores the CaribouLite Raspberry Pi Hat

The CaribouLite is a software-defined radio hat for the Raspberry Pi that was successfully funded on Crowd Supply in early 2022. Despite being a few years old, we've rarely heard news about the CaribouLite being used. However, Jeff Geerling, a popular YouTube maker, recently uploaded a video about CaribouLite.

In the video, Jeff explains that he uses a Raspberry Pi 4, noting that the newer Raspberry Pi 5 actually cannot be used, as they have changed the architecture by placing an RP1 chip in between the SMI memory interface used by the CaribouLite to transfer data. He goes on to show the installation procedure, referring to the instructions he's written on his blog post. Jeff goes on to demonstrate the CaribouLite operating in GQRX, and receiving some example signals.

Finally, Jeff shows how he powered the CaribouLite via the Raspberry Pi PoE (Power over Ethernet) hat, noting that he had to use GPIO and a custom 4-pin extender to support both hats at the same time. He then shows how he mounted the stack in his Raspberry Pi rack.

Radio Hacking 101: Raspberry Pi SDR with a CaribouLite

The Taylorator: Flooding the Broadcast FM Band with Taylor Swift Songs using a LimeSDR

Over on Hackaday and creator Stephen's blog, we've seen an article about the 'Taylorator,' open source software for the LimeSDR that floods the broadcast FM band with Taylor Swift music. In his blog post, Stephen explains how he wrote this software, explaining the concepts behind audio preparation, FM modulation, and what computing hardware was required to implement it.

The advertised use case of the Taylorator is obviously a bit of a joke; however, as the video on Stephen's blog shows, his software can play a different song on every broadcast FM channel. So, there could be some use cases where you might want people to be able to tune an FM radio to custom music on each channel. Of course, you could also just use it to play a practical joke on someone.

In terms of legality, in his blog post, Stephen notes that blasting the broadcast FM band on every channel is probably not legal and may go against the spirit of low-power FM transmitter laws in most countries. However, he notes that spreading a few mW over 20 MHz of bandwidth results in a weak signal that is unlikely to travel very far. Regardless, we would advise potential users of the software to check their local laws before going ahead and playing around with something like this.

The software is open source and available on Stephen's GitLab.

The Taylorator: Broadcasting Taylor Swift songs on every broadcast FM channel
The Taylorator: Broadcasting Taylor Swift songs on every broadcast FM channel