Category: Applications

OH2BNF’s Plan for a Large Scale Raspberry SDR (LSR-SDR) Based on RTL-SDR Dongles

Thanks to OH2BNF for writing in and sharing his plan to build a "Large Scale Raspberry SDR" (LSR-SDR), which will be based on RTL-SDR dongles. To create the LSR-SDR he plans to take a 19" rack which can support up to 40 Raspberry Pi 3's, plus up to 160 USB devices, and turn it into a massive SDR array. The rack is key as it allows for simple power management of all the Pi's and other devices to be connected.

OH2BNF plans to connect 20 or so RTL-SDRs, with some operating individually and with others operating coherently via a common external oscillator. The rack may also contain some transceivers, an ICOM IC-7300, antenna switches, upconverters, LNAs and other hardware too. Once completed he hopes to move the system to a low RFI environment and operate the unit entirely remotely. With this he hopes to solve his local RFI issues. He also writes regarding applications:

Primary objectives are to incorporate automated adaptivity to the system at large – for example leveraging on band condition information, WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Report) & friends, automated signal detection and decoding, great flexibility in terms of individual cluster nodes being able to fast respond to various needs and tasks, strong emphasis in parallel processing where applicable depending on the problem type and dataset, support for multiple end users benefiting from the computing and reception capacity of the cluster – to name the most significant.

It's an interesting idea for sure, and we hope to see some updates from OH2BNF in the future.

The Raspberry Pi 19" Rack
The Raspberry Pi 19" Rack

The Lego Pi RTL-SDR FM Radio

Thank you to RTL-SDR.com reader 'JJ' for writing in with a submission for his Lego Pi Radio. JJ's Lego Pi Radio consists of a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR and is designed to be an FM Radio, MP3 and internet radio player all in one, with a cute enclosure made out of Lego bricks. The radio is controlled by an external numpad which allows for a number of presets to be chosen from.

The internet radio and MP3 players are handled in software by VLC player and a script written by JJ is used to map the numpad to RTL-SDR FM presets, or MP3 and internet radio functions. The whole unit is run headless and if anything needs to be updated such as internet radio links, JJ simply accesses the unit via an SSH shell. JJ also writes how he had to try 3 different brands of speakers before he found one that could be driven directly from the Pi with adequate sound quality. In the future he hopes to add a bluetooth remote.

One problem that JJ found was that the standard rtl_fm did not produce high quality audio. Fortunately he found the NGSoftFM software which is capable of outputting high quality FM stereo sound and is compatible with RTL-SDR dongles.

In the past we've seen a similar project that was implemented on a BeagleBone Black. The idea in that project was to switch between FM and internet radio depending on the reception quality.

Testing the Airspy with the New And Improved Version of ADSBSpy

Airspy have recently released an update to their ADSBspy decoder, which is an Airspy One/R2 compatible decoder for 1090 MHZ ADS-B signals. According to 'prog', the software developer of ADSBSpy, his setup can see almost double the number of aircraft and with fewer false positives when using the updated software. Prog writes that the secret to the improvement is some reworked DSP code that aims to exploit oversampling in the Airspy to the maximum.

We compared the new (1.0.0.38/39) decoder against the old decoder (1.0.0.37) which used to get similar performance to dump1090. The test setup was two Airspy dongles connected to a dipole antenna via a splitter, with our Triple Filtered ADS-B LNA used by the antenna. One Airspy was used to power the LNA via it's bias tee, and both units received the same amplified signal. We found indeed that the new version of ADSBSpy receives a good number more aircraft in our set up, and an increased number of ADS-B messages too.

It seems that most of the additionally received aircraft must be from extremely weak signals, because when looking in Virtual Radar Server the extra aircraft usually only show their ICAO and maybe altitude and speed until they get closer.

So far this software appears to provide the best performance on ADS-B that we've seen so far, so if you are using an Airspy for ADS-B tracking we'd like to hear results from anyone who upgrades.

The New ADS-B Spy Receives More Aircraft and Messages
The New ADS-B Spy Receives More Aircraft and Messages

QuestaSDR: New RTL-SDR Software for Android

Last year we posted about QuestaSDR, which is a simple SDR multi-mode GUI that is compatible with the RTL-SDR. Since then QuestaSDR has evolved, and is now available on Android devices as well. It looks to be a nice alternative to RF Analyzer and SDR Touch which are the most popular RTL-SDR Android apps. The description of Android QuestaSDR reads:

QuestaSDR - powerful and flexible, cross-platform Software Defined Radio Application (SDR). Built-in scheduler architecture provides integrate plugins, plugins kits and multi - UI. Typical applications are DXing, Ham Radio, Radio Astronomy and Spectrum analysis.

Support Hardware:
- RTLSDR Dongle

Main features:
- Dark, Ligth, Universal, Material application style
- Many spectrum settings (FFT size, waterfall FPS and color theme)
- AM/SSB/NFM/WFM demodulator
- RDS decoder
- Record AF file
- Frequency bookmarks
- Web remote
- Supported IF-adapter, upconverter, downconverter hardware
- Rig samplerate, frequency, level and iq disbalance calibrate

To start using QuestaSDR, you will need:
- RTL-SDR dongle
- USB OTG Cable - used to connect a RTLSDR to your Android device.

Connect the USB dongle to the USB-OTG, then insert the free end of the cable into the USB port of your Android device and launch the QuestaSDR! Now you can listen to live frequency range shortwave, VHF, UHF.

Feedback and bug reports are always welcome.

Please note that I am not responsible for any legal issues caused by the use of this application. Be responsible and familiarize yourself with local laws before using.

QuestaSDR - New RTL-SDR Compatible Android App
QuestaSDR - New RTL-SDR Compatible Android App
Promo QuestaSDR v3.3.1-b3

Nexmon SDR: Using the WiFi Chip on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ as a TX Capable SDR

Back in March of this year we posted about Nexmon SDR which is code that you can use to turn a Broadcom BCM4339 802.11ac WiFi chip into a TX capable SDR that is capable of transmitting any arbitrary signal from IQ data within the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi bands. In commercial devices the BCM4339 was most commonly found in the Nexus 5 smartphone.

Recently Nexmon have tweeted that their code now supports the BCM43455c0 which is the WiFi chip used in the recently released Raspberry Pi 3B+. They write that the previous Raspberry Pi 3B (non-plus) cannot be used with Nexmon as it only has 802.11n, but since the 3B+ has 802.11ac Nexmon is compatible. 

Combined with RPiTX which is a Raspberry Pi tool for transmitting arbitrary RF signals using a GPIO pin between 5 kHz to 1500 MHz, the Raspberry Pi 3B+ may end up becoming a versatile low cost TX SDR just on it's own.

Automatically Receiving, Decoding and Tweeting NOAA Weather Satellite Images with a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR

Over on Reddit we've seen an interesting post by "mrthenarwhal" who describes to us his NOAA weather satellite receiving system that automatically uploads decoded images to a Twitter account. The set up consists of a Raspberry Pi with RTL-SDR dongle, a 137 MHz tuned QFH antenna and some scripts.

The software is based on the set up from this excellent tutorial, which creates scripts and a crontab entry that automatically activates whenever a NOAA weather satellite passes overhead. Once running, the script activates the RTL-SDR and APT decoder which creates the weather satellite image. He then uses some of his owns scripts in Twython which automatically posts the images to a Twitter account. His Twython scripts as well as a readme file that shows how to use them can be found in his Google Drive.

mrthenarwhal AKA @BarronWeather's twitter feed with automatically uploaded NOAA weather satellite images.
mrthenarwhal AKA @BarronWeather's twitter feed with automatically uploaded NOAA weather satellite images.

Video on using an RTL-SDR + Noise Generator as a Poor Man’s Network Analyzer

Over on YouTube user AE0AI has uploaded a video where he explains how he uses an RTL-SDR and a home made noise source as a poor man's network analyzer. A network analyzer is a tool that allows you to analyze the response of RF devices, such as filters. By using a noise source together with an RTL-SDR the same functionality as a network analyzer can be obtained, however of course with less accuracy.

In the video AE0AI shows us his home made noise generator, which is a based on a simple circuit that he found online. He then shows the noise generator connected to the RTL-SDR, which shows that his home made generator works up to about 40 MHz. Later in the video he tests a home made 40m filter with the noise source and RTL-SDR, and the response is easily visible. With the response visible he is able to tune the filter by adjusting the inductor windings.

We have a tutorial on the same concepts available here.

Poor Man's network analyzer for measuring filters (noise generator + RTL-SDR)

Information on Time Correlating Signals with RTL-SDRs

In a previous post back in September 2017 Stefan Scholl (DC9ST) treated us to a very interesting write up about how to localize transmitters to within a few meters using time difference of arrival (TDOA) techniques with multiple RTL-SDR dongles spread out over an area.

Stefan has recently added to his post now with some additional information on how to properly correlate signals received between multiple RTL-SDR dongles, which is one of the key parts to TDOA. He writes that he covers the following questions:

- What signal parameters influence the quality of the correlation?
- Which type of correlation calculations are available (four)
- Which are suitable with RTL-SDRs, considering noise and phase and frequency offset?

Stefan writes that his findings could be interesting to people interested in the following techniques:

- TDOA localization
- Synchronizing several RTL-SDRs
- Passive Radar

Comparing various bandwidth sizes on correlation quality
Comparing various bandwidth sizes on correlation quality