Category: Applications

uSDR Updated to Version 1.6.0

Thank you to Viol for submitting news about the latest update of his uSDR software. uSDR (aka microSDR) is a lightweight general purpose multimode program for Windows that supports the RTL-SDR, Airspy, BladeRF, HackRF and LimeSDR radios. Viol highlights the latest features in the new update below: 

  • Airspy HF+ Discovery frontend support
  • ExtIO*.dll interface support. Copy ExtIO*.dll and all dependencies to the root folder and have a fun
  • ExtIO_USRP.dll and all dependencies for USRP B210 included. Just install Zadig libusb driver and go
  • LimeSDR multiple frontends switch fixed
  • FM demodulator with inverted audio spectrum
  • DCS decoder
  • additional C/C++ source examples for remote IQ passband processing TCP client
  • advanced IQ file playback options
  • display hold peak spectrum mode, zoomable and panable plot, customized colors

As always all descriptions, screenshots and binaries could be found on 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/u-sdr/

uSDR aka microSDR. A lightweight SDR receiver program for Windows.

DEF CON 30 RF Talks: Biohacking, Designing Antennas, Tracking Military Ghost Helicopters and More

DEF CON is a yearly conference with a focus on information security. At this years DEF CON 30 conference various talks on RF related topics were presented. In the past few weeks talks have been uploaded to YouTube for all to watch. Below we highlight a few we found interesting. The list of all main talks can be found on the Defcon YouTube channel, and talks from the RF Village can be found on the RF Hackers Sanctuary YouTube page. 

J9 - Biohacking Using SDR When You Don’t Know What You’re Doing

Security Researcher and BioHacker J9 presented an interesting and entertaining talk about how she used an SDR to listen in and decode a wireless pH sensor pill she ingested as part of a medical test.

What would you do if you were implanted with a medical device that broadcasts every 12 seconds?

Starting with loads of curiosity and very little knowledge about RF, how to use a software defined radio (SDR), and no knowledge of how to decode captured RF signals, I embarked on an adventure to teach myself something new. Jumping head first into the RF CTF helped greatly!

This presentation starts with cocaine and ketamine (in a controlled medical setting) and includes a near-death experience and new skills attained by building on the work of those who came before me. The end result of this adventure led me to the US Capitol to sit down with Senate staffers about the security and exploitability of medical devices.

DEF CON 30 RF Village - J9 - Biohacking Using SDR When You Don’t Know What You’re Doing

Erwin Karincic - Have a SDR? - Design and make your own antennas

In this talk Erwin Karincic explains how to design and make custom PCB antennas using home based or low cost techniques.

Most Software Defined Radios (SDRs) process a wide range of frequencies usually ranging from few MHz to multiple GHz where different antennas are used to pick up signals in a specific subset of that range. All applications using SDR require antennas to operate efficiently at very specific frequencies. Most inexpensive commercial antennas are designed either for wider ranges with lower gain over the entire range or very specific known frequencies with higher gain. The problem occurs when the researcher performs an assessment of a device and requires the use of specific frequency for which an antenna with high gain is not readily available. Most security researchers within wireless domain have outlined that their specific attack or exploit could be executed at higher range if antenna had better gain at that specific frequency. This talk focuses on bridging that gap by providing a way for researchers to create their own patch antennas without deep electrical engineering experience.

DEF CON 30 RF Village - Erwin Karincic - Have a SDR? - Design and make your own antennas

Andrew Logan - Tracking Military Ghost Helicopters over Washington DC

In this talk Andrew explains how ADS-B receivers, combined with ATC communications, public announcements and crowd sourced visual identification have helped track the activity of military helicopters operating over the Washington DC area.  

There's a running joke around Washington D.C. that the "State Bird" is the helicopter. Yet 96% of helicopter noise complaints from 2018-2021 went unattributed: D.C. Residents can not tell a news helicopter from a black hawk. Flight tracking sites remove flights as a paid service to aircraft owners and government agencies; even in the best case these sites do not receive tracking information from most military helicopters due to a Code of Federal Regulations exemption for "sensitive government mission for national defense, homeland security, intelligence or law enforcement." This makes an enormous amount of helicopter flights untraceable even for the FAA and leaves residents in the dark.

What if we could help residents identify helicopters? What if we could crowd source helicopter tracking? What if we could collect images to identify helicopters using computer vision? What if we could make aircraft radio as accessible as reading a map? What if we could make spotting helicopters a game that appeals to the competitive spirit of Washingtonians? And what if we could do all of this... on Twitter?

DEF CON 30 - Andrew Logan - Tracking Military Ghost Helicopters over Washington DC

Maverick-603: An Affordable FT8 Receiver with an Open Source RF Chip

The Maverick-603 is a US$149 FT8 receiver based on an open source RF chip design which is capable of acquiring signals between 7 MHz and 70 MHz (technically 1 MHz to 100 MHz). It is currently undergoing Crowd Funding on Crowd Supply with 7 days left in the campaign. Shipping is expected to begin in April 2023.

FT8 is a popular weak signal propagation digital mode used by ham radio enthusiasts. FT8 signals can be received and decoded all over the world even with low transmit power and poor propagation conditions thanks to its highly error tolerant encoding. A dedicated FT8 receiver allows enthusiasts to set up a 24/7 FT8 monitor without dedicating more expensive ham radio equipment to the task. Note that a computing device like a PC or possibly a Raspberry Pi 4 will still be required to run the FT8 decoding software as this is a software defined radio.

The Maverick-603 is based on a custom open source RF chip design made possible by the company eFabless. It is now possible to cheaply design and produce custom ASIC chips (at least at the lower end of the technology scale), replacing more costly FPGA designs. The technical specs of the Maverick-603 are:

  • MCU: ATMEGA1608
  • Power Supply: 3.3 V / 10 mA
  • Operating Frequency Range: 1 to 100 MHz
  • Minimum Signal Strength: -25 dBm
  • Input Antenna Impedance: 50 Ohm
  • Data Interface: SPI
  • Board Size: 2" x 1.75"
  • Capable of receiving FT8 signals
  • 7 - 70 MHZ frequency range
  • Low-power operation (1.8 Volts) means no battery or outlet is required
  • USB Connection
  • A compact surface area
The Maverick-603 FT8 Receiver
The Maverick-603 FT8 Receiver

Raspberry NOAA V2 Edition 2023 Image Released

Thank you to Manuel Lausmann for submitting news about the release of the "Raspberry NOAA V2 Edition 2023" image for Raspberry Pi's. This image has been created by Jochen Köster (DC9DD), and contains a few enhancements over the previous image, mainly by including a program that allows users to create composite images of images from the Meteor weather satellites. Manuel writes:

This is based on the well-known Raspberry Noaa V2. In this image, however, the latest MeteorDemod has been added, which makes it possible to generate composite images, which was previously only possible under Windows with Meteorgis.

Furthermore, the image has an additional FTP uploader. The image was created by Jochen Köster DC9DD. It's available from today. This image is also part of my off-grid station in Northern Norway.

Download link for the image: https://www.qsl.net/do3mla/raspberry-pi-images.html

Here is a link to the Facebook group for the image: https://www.facebook.com/groups/raspberrynoaav2edition

Here is a link to ranged from my off-grid station where this image is running: https://usradioguy.com/science/off-grid-apt-lrpt-satellite-ground-station

An example of a composite image from multiple Meteor satellite images.

Car Hacking in the Mr Robot TV Show Explained

Over on YouTube David Bombal has uploaded a video titled "Warning! This is how cars are hacked. Just like in Mr Robot." which explains how the car hacking scenes in Mr Robot worked. Mr Robot is a TV drama series about cybersecurity hackers, and it is known for portraying realistic hacks and scenarios. Back in 2019 we posted about an episode where they used a HackRF and Raspberry Pi to jam a garage door, before using the HackRF as an IMSI catcher. RTL-SDRs were also briefly used in some episodes.

David's video goes into greater detail about how realistic the hacking concepts displayed in the Mr Robot series are and if they would work in real time. In this video he goes into particular detail about car hacking. He uses a HackRF and RTL-SDR and demonstrates attacks like jamming, and signal replay.

This video is a part of a series exploring the hacks shown on Mr Robot. The full playlist can be found here.

Warning! This is how cars are hacked. Just like in Mr Robot.

Guglielmo FM and DAB Receiver Software Updated to V0.4

Thank you to Marco Greco for writing in and noting that V0.4 of his Guglielmo software has recently been released.

Guglielmo is a Linux (and now Windows) 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 an easy to use program designed for media users, rather than hobbyist technical users.

The latest additions in V0.4 include support for MPRIS controllers, support for the SDRplay V3 API and support for Windows building (although at this time there appears to be no binary file available).

The AppImage can be found here https://github.com/marcogrecopriolo/guglielmo/releases

Guglielmo: Screenshot of the DAB Interface

KrakenSDR Field Reports and Software Updates

We've recently published an update about KrakenSDR field reports and software updates to our KrakenSDR CrowdSupply page. We are cross posting here as well. This update provides some demonstrations of the KrakenSDR that users have uploaded, and provides some updates on some new software that we have been working on.

Also as we'll note shortly in a separate post, we wanted to highlight that our website for direct sales of KrakenSDR and antenna sets is now live at our KrakenSDR shop. Please note that we only have a limited number of KrakenSDRs that we can sell directly, and once they run out, all other sales must go through CrowdSupply.

Field Reports

User YouTube Demonstrations

Frugal Radio

In this video Frugal Radio unboxes and tests his KrakenSDR and Krakentenna's on a vehicle. He is able to come to the location of two unknown transmitters within minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCU0prz5As4

KrakenSDR - WOW! Amazing Direction Finding Tests : Part 2

F4IPO Demo

In this video F4IPO demonstrates his ability to use a KrakenSDR and Krakentennas to locate a TETRA transmitter within 5 minutes.

KrakenSDR : recherche d'un émetteur TETRA

DragonOS Kraken Pro Cloud Mapper Demo

In this video Aaron, creator of DragonOS demonstrates two networked KrakenSDR devices being used with DF-Aggregator and an alpha version of our Kraken Pro Cloud Mapping software (introduced further below). One KrakenSDR is fixed, and another is on a moving boat. He is able to track a beacon on land.

DragonOS Focal Direction Finding w/ KrakenSDR + Boat (Steam Deck, GS66, DF-Aggregator, Kraken Dash)

F1MIJ Demo

In these videos F1MIJ provides multiple screen recordings of the KrakenSDR Android App in action during a drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7C5_DJkM_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiJIhRzG2Os

KrakenSDR sur la fréquence du relais de Valenciennes ( Vidéo N°2 )

Manuel Lausmann Unboxing Video

In this video Manuel Lausmann unboxes the KrakenSDR.

Ein Kraken aus Texas

Matt Blaze Twitter Thread

In this Twitter thread Matt Blaze @mattblaze describes his experience with the KrakenSDR and shows that he was able to determine the location of a 103.5 MHz transmitter. Matt notes that apart from some hardware limitations, his experience with the KrakenSDR is even better than with his extremely expensive high end R&S DDF007.

@cemaxecuter Twitter Demos

Aaron (whom we mentioned earlier) has also been heavily posting on Twitter showing how he's been successful at getting his KrakenSDR running on a SteamDeck, a new type of handheld gaming device from Valve.

He also briefly demonstrates the KrakenSDR being used as five independent receivers in SDRAngel.

Website Release

We also wanted to note that we now have our website live at www.krakenrf.com. This is mostly a marketing and general overview website. All the technical documentation and guides will remain on the GitHub Wiki.

KrakenSDR Forum

We have also now released our KrakenSDR forum at https://forum.krakenrf.com. If you have general questions, or support inquires please post there rather than through email so everyone can learn. If there are specific software bugs, please continue to post those as GitHub issues.

Kraken Cloud Pro Alpha Release

We are now releasing an early alpha version of our online 'Kraken Cloud Pro' service. We want to note that this software is still in ALPHA status. That means that all the intended features are not yet implemented, and that it may have multiple bugs. We also do not guarantee any uptime for this service at this time.

Kraken Pro Cloud is our online cloud mapping solution for KrakenSDR devices. It allows you to upload KrakenSDR direction finding data onto our central server, so that you can combine bearing data from multiple geographically distributed KrakenSDR devices. With the right geography of the receivers and transmitter, this allows you to instantly determine the location of a transmitter without needing to take multiple readings with a vehicle.

Documentation on the use of Kraken Pro Cloud is available on our Wiki at this page.

You can also do offline analysis of log files collected from the Android App or recorded via the Web GUI.

Kraken Pro Cloud Timelapse Demo

As part of the testing of the service we recorded a timelapse of a KrakenSDR station tracking a weather balloon.

The above is a video of a simple timelapse demo of the system tracking a weather balloon from a single station. Because it's only a single station, the red estimation dot can be ignored. The yellow dot indicates the actual GPS location of the weather balloon. Once the weather improves we'll be setting up a distributed two-station test.

One interesting thing to note is how the KrakenSDR tracks the balloon accurately, until the elevation angle between the antenna and balloon goes above 45 degrees which happens when the balloon rises higher and comes too close to the station. At this angle the antenna array can no longer track the balloon correctly. Once the balloon falls to a lower altitude and the elevation from the antenna is less than 45 degrees accurate tracking resumes.

In the near future we will be uploading more demonstrations like this with multiple stations set up.

niliBOX: Software for Managing RTL-SDRs and other Radios Locally and Remotely

niliBOX is a multiplatform software package in beta release that can be used to manage radio devices such as Icom radio scanners and RTL-SDRs remotely or locally. It is the evolution of the older 'PCR Anywhere' software which was specifically designed for controlling Icom Radio scanners.

Over on YouTube user Danny Shortwave And Radio DX has uploaded a video demonstrating the RTL-SDR module being used in niliBOX with his RTL-SDR Blog V3 SDR. He writes:

niliBOX developed a software for various models of computer controlled radios and also for the RTL-SDR software defined radio. I will demonstrate this by running the software while tuning the mediumwave stations. The antenna I'm using is the MLA-30 active loop antenna. This is their first initial release of this software. I will make a series of videos showing this program working. Stay Tuned. This is Version 1.0.0

They currently have Windows 64 Bit. Tested on Windows 7, 10 and 11. They also have Linux version, tested on Ubuntu and Centos 64 Bit. And also a Apple Mac version, tested with MacOS 10.14, 10.15, 11 and 12. They are also coming soon with Android and IOS versions.

Brief Demonstration of new niliBOX software for the RTL-SDR V.3 SDR USB Dongle