A Demonstration of the RTL-SDR Receiving WiFi and 2.4 GHz ISM with a Modded SUP-2400 Downconverter

Back in April we posted about how KD0CQ found that he could receive signals up to 4.5 GHz with an RTL-SDR by using a $5 downconverter for DirecTV called the SUP-2400. The RTL-SDR can only receive up to a maximum frequency of about 1.7 GHz, but the SUP-2400 downconverter can be modified to convert frequencies at around 2.4 GHz down into a range receivable by the RTL-SDR.

When we first posted the story the instructions for modifying the SUP-2400 to use as a downconverter weren’t uploaded yet, but they are now. The modification requires decent soldering skills as it involves desoldering a few small SMD components and bridging some points with wires.

Over on YouTube user T3CHNOTURK has uploaded a video showing the downconverter in action. With the SUP-2400 downconverter and RTL-SDR he is able to receive some WiFi at 2.447 GHz as well as signals from a wireless keyboard at 2.465 GHz

RTLSDR Receiveing wifi & 2.4 ghz ism band with moded SUP-2400 Downconverter

8 comments

  1. George Ou

    Airspy only supports 5 MHz of usable bandwidth. Wi-Fi is at least 20 MHz wide, and 40 MHz or 80 MHz is now getting common. Is it possible for SDR# or GNURadio to rapidly hop between 4 frequency ranges to get a picture of what 20 MHz looks like? I realize that the performance drops since the samples are split 4 ways, maybe split 16 ways if we’re trying to look at an 80 MHz wide signal.

  2. AD5NL

    Not to mention 2.4 GHz also has the 13cm ham band, right below WiFi. I believe a couple of amateur satellites have downlinks in this range. For example FunCube2 (whenever its activated for amateur use).

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