Thank you to RTL-SDR.COM reader Steve Hagerman for writing in and sharing his Python script that allows SDR++ users to convert a CSV file of frequency bookmark information into a JSON file that SDR++ recognizes. Steve explains:
[In SDR++] one of the biggest issues is in making frequency bookmarks. SDR++ uses a JSON file to store frequency bookmarks which is hard to edit manually. While there is a direct means to enter bookmarks directly in SDR++, it is tedious and requires too many mouseclicks.
To fix this I wrote a Python script to take easily made XLSX Spreadsheet of frequencies to convert to a JSON file that can be used directly with SDR++.
Over on his YouTube channel Aaron, creator of the DragonOS image (a Linux image with many built-in SDR compatible programs) has uploaded a new video showing how it is possible to run the Windows only AISMon software on Linux, using WINE. WINE is a Windows emulator for Linux which allows users to run some Windows software on Linux.
In the video Aaron shows how to set up WINE on the DragonOS Linux image, how to run AISMon with it, and how to set up the Virtual Audio Cable sink which is required to pass the audio from SDR++ to AISMon. He also shows how he tests his setup using the AIS-Simulator software with a HackRF, and an RTL-SDR for receiving.
Over on his YouTube channel, TAKEAPART has recently uploaded a new video showing how to set up a cheap ADS-B FlightAware feeder using an RTL-SDR Blog dongle, and a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W. The Raspberry Pi 2W is a US$15 computer that is capable of running the PiAware ADS-B feeding software which uploads ADS-B data to the FlightAware.com flight tracking service. If you are a contributor to this service, you can get a Premium FlightAware subscription for free.
In the video, TAKEAPART shows how to install the PiAware software on the Pi 2W, and how to configure the PiAware settings. Finally, he shows it in action, receiving flight data with a homemade 1/4 wave ground plane antenna.
Cheapest ADS-B feeder RTL-SDR and Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (PiAware/FlightAware)
Over on YouTube channel 'TAKEAPART' has uploaded a short video showing how he tracks aircraft via an RTL-SDR Blog V3 dongle and his car's Android head unit. The head unit is capable of running the ADS-B Radar App available on the Google Play store.
Once the app is installed, it's a simple matter of plugging in the RTL-SDR Blog V3 unit and running the app to start tracking aircraft.
How to ADS-B Radar in the CAR - Tracking Planes...
Back in 2022 we first posted about adsb_deku and radar-tui, a TUI (terminal user interface) for displaying ADS-B aircraft locations with an RTL-SDR receiver. A terminal user interface means that no desktop GUI is required, instead, the map and aircraft are drawn in the terminal window using just text characters.
adsb_deku and radar-tui are based on the open-source ratatui library. Recently, Orhun, one of the maintainers of ratatui wrote in and wanted to share a YouTube video he created demonstrating radar-tui in action. In the video, Orhun explains the RTL-SDR, shows how to set up radar-tui, and shows a demo of it in action.
Guglielmo is Linux, Windows (and, in this recent update, x86 MacOS) based RTL-SDR FM and DAB tuner software that supports SDRs, including the RTL-SDR, Airspy, SDRplay, HackRF, and LimeSDR. It is designed to be easy to use for media users rather than hobbyist technical users.
Version 0.6 fixes bugs and adds the following features:
Software automatic gain control
Support for multiple devices for RTL-SDR and SDRplay
SatDump is a popular program used to receive and decode images and other data from various weather satellites. SatDump works great RTL-SDR Blog dongles and with our Discovery Dish, an easy-to-use dish and feed for receiving L-band and other weather satellites. Recently SatDump version 1.2.1 was released, which brings several new features including:
Meteor-M Calibration - Temperatures and radiances are now available from the Meteor-M infrared channels, including enhancements like Cloud Top IR.
Archive Loader & EUMETSAT Archives (and EUMETCAST) Support: Metop, Meteosat, Sentinel-3 and more! - Users can now open data from the EUMETSAT archives in SatDump.
Windows ARM64 Support - One of the few SDR programs that has Windows ARM64 support.
JUICE Support - JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) is an ESA probe tasked to study three of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, namely Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. During a recent Earth slingshot it was possible to receive.
AIRS and CERES Support - Hyperspectral sounder and radiation budget instruments on the Aqua satellite
Arctic Weather Satellite Support - AWS is a weather satellite recently launched in July 2024 with 1707 MHz downlink and similar parameters to METOP, so it should be accessible to many.
IASI (imaging channel) Calibration - Calibration for the hyperspectral sounder onboard METOP satellites.
GOES-R L2 Product Support - Pre-processed models from NOAA that include Rain Rate per Quarter Hour, Land Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature, and more.
GOME Fixes - True Color for METOP satellites.
Miscellaneous AVHRR and MHS Fixes - Calibration stripes and other strangeness is less likely to occur even with a bad signal.
Miscellaneous Composites - Many new composites are available.
We've recently come across an X post by Jamie Vital who notes that he has created a site called armsdr.com which is dedicated to tracking which SDR-related software has support for Windows 11 on ARM64.
The Windows OS is most commonly run on x86 and X64 CPU hardware. However, in recent years Microsoft have been pushing to add support for ARM CPUs as well. ARM CPUs are generally lower performance, but significantly more efficient in terms of power use, so they are excellent for battery-powered devices, and so they are commonly used in devices like phones and single-board computers.
Linux is well supported on ARM CPUs, and recently Apple have begun selling computers with ARM CPUs, the Apple M1 and M2. However, Windows support for ARM is still quite lacking, and not very popular. This leaves people who unwittingly purchase a Windows 11 ARM64 laptop mostly out of luck when it comes to running common SDR programs, as programs written and compiled for x86/x64 CPUs will not run on ARM64.
armsdr.com notes that currently only one program, SatDump, has official Win11 ARM64 support. Other programs like rtl_433 and SDR++ have unofficial support, and pretty much every other program has no support, although some may work in emulation mode. But to complicate matters, for emulation mode to work without dropping samples, you need to use librtlsdr drivers that have RAW_IO enabled.
We note that some developers of programs like SDR++ are also refusing to add official Win11 ARM64 support due to the feeling that Windows on ARM has too many issues to be worth supporting. Combined with how low the Win11 ARM64 userbase is, this is most likely the attitude of most developers. Because of these reasons, we strongly suggest avoiding purchasing Win11 ARM64 machines if you want to run SDR software.
