A GNU Radio DCF77 Time Signal Decoder

DCF77 is a long wave time keeping signal transmitting at 77.5 kHz from Frankfurt, Germany. It has been active since 1 January 1959. Using simple amplitude modulation, the signal encodes the current time and date, which is used by some devices like railway station clocks in Germany. Because it's a long wave signal transmitting at 50kW, it's possible to receive the signal across Europe, and sometimes even further away if propagation conditions are good.

Recently a DCF77 receiver and decoder program based on Python and GNU Radio has been uploaded to GitHub by henningM1r. It includes a simulator written in Python so you can simulate your own DCF77 signal for testing the receiver too.

Currently the decoder has been tested to work with an Airspy HF+ Discovery SDR, but it should work with any SDR capable of receiver 77.5 kHz if the GNU Radio source block is changed out.

DCF77 GNU Radio Decoder
Tweet
Share
Reddit
Vote
Email

Related posts:

  1. Using a Yardstick One, HackRF and Inspectrum to Decode and Duplicate an OOK Signal
  2. A new VOR Decoder Written in Python
  3. New DSD Block Available for GNU Radio
  4. Reverse Engineering the Outernet Signal
  5. Video Demonstrating the iBiquity HD Radio Decoder
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

1 Comment
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments