Category: Applications

Gorizont Linux Updated to 2022.1 Edition

Thank you to Steve Cox, creator of the Gorizont Linux distribution for letting us know that is has now been updated to the 2022.1 Edition. Gorizont-linux is an RTL-SDR focused Linux distribution based on Xubuntu 20.04 LTS. It comes in a bootable .iso image for easy installation. Steve writes:

[Gorizont-linux] is still an Xubuntu 20.04 LTS based bootable .iso image for RTL-SDR only, but I've put a lot more work into writing instructions in simple English, refining things and freshening everything up to the latest available release. Here are some highlights:

gqrx 2.15.8
SigDigger 0.3.0
Universal Radio Hacker 2.9.0
gqrx-scan
Welle.io 2.4 for all your DAB and DAB+ needs.
guglielmo v0.3 for simple FM radio and DAB reception - fast, quick and light.
Baudline
fldigi
fmsg
Due to multiple issues with linux versions of Dream DRM, Dream DRM is now installed as a Win 32 .exe running under wine. It works!
w-scan for creating DVB-T/ATSC/etc. scan files for DVB TV viewing using VLC.

Various extra utilities in home folder and command line path
Much clearer instructions and scripts in simple English.

NOTE: Due to current events, gorizont linux now ships with networking disabled on boot. To use internet in a trusted environment, left-click on networking icon to the left of the battery indicator and click 'Enable Networking'.

If I was about to have to flee my home with little more than a laptop and a rtl dongle, this would be my distro of choice for staying in touch with the outside World - fast and easy to use,  yet packed with (other people's) good software.

Running an RTL-SDR on an old OpenWRT Router

With the rising cost of computing hardware like Raspberry Pi's, Jaime Badillo decided to instead make use of one of a cheap old router, and set it up as an RTL-SDR server. To do this, Jaime took his old router and installed on it the free open source firmware OpenWRT, which is essentially a Linux operating system. Once this was completed, he was able to SSH into the router and install the RTL-SDR drivers and rtl_tcp software just as he would with a Raspberry Pi 4.

Jaime has uploaded a tutorial document that shows how to installed OpenWRT, how he configured the network settings and how he installed the RTL-SDR drivers and connected to rtl_tcp remotely via SDRSharp. The tutorial is written in Spanish, however we have uploaded an English Google translated version here. Jaime has also uploaded a YouTube video showing the router server in action.

SDR# receiving data from rtl_tcp running on an old router.

Open-Weather: Contribute to a Snapshot of the Climate Crisis Through NOAA Satellite Imagery

Open-weather is an art project made up of a community of volunteers who capture NOAA weather satellite images with RTL-SDR or similar devices. The images are then collected and stitched together to form a snapshot of the planet, and to be used in various art projects. We have previously posted about some related art projects that the team behind open-weather have done in the past.

Receiving NOAA satellite images may now be run of the mill for many of us technically minded people who have been in this hobby for a while, but one of the ideas behind open-weather is to reach out and inspire people from any background to try and receive satellite weather images. This includes people and communities in the arts that may not be technically minded at all. To achieve this the team has created easy to understand guides, hosted workshops, and created artwork and performances based around the reception of these satellite images.

In a recent article on theconversation.com, the team describe how they collected 38 images from 29 volunteers, across 14 countries and six continents on the first day of the COP26 climate conference. By involving more people in the process of essentially watching the earth from afar, they hope to inspire climate responsibility and to put some thought behind how we are affecting and being affected by the changing environment. An excerpt from the article is pasted below:

This snapshot included a cyclonic weather system curling around the UK, dust clouds sweeping the Indian subcontinent, and the glaciers of the Patagonian Andes, which have been shown by geographer Bethan Davies to be rapidly receding and thinning in response to global warming.

...
 

These satellite images and field notes demonstrate that the climate crisis feels different depending on who you are and where you live. In some places, dry seasons are expanding. Elsewhere, it’s clouds of dust, increasingly volatile storms, or health effects triggered by the air that we breathe.

As politicians fail to respond to the climate emergency, a growing community of Earth-watchers has practical and political potential. Together, we might learn to be collectively responsible for, and accountable to, the environments we are changing.

Sasha Engelmann of Open-Weather receives a NOAA Satellite Image.

DAB+ Decoder Welle.io Version 2.4 Released and YouTube Demonstration Video

Version 2.4 of the RTL-SDR compatible DAB/DAB+ decoder called welle.io has recently been released for download on GitHub. The main changes include various bug fixes, the addition of Windows 11 support, and the return of the Android APK (but only with rtl_tcp support).

The author has also released a new YouTube video tour, demonstrating the software in action, and explaining all the features.

Showing welle.io a SDR to listen DAB/DAB+.

New HAM FM and ADS-B Radar Android Apps

Thank you to James Mainwaring for submitting news about the release of his two new RTL-SDR compatible Android Apps "Ham FM Radio (RTL-SDR)" and "ADS-B Radar (RTL-SDR)". 

The Ham FM Radio app allows the user to quickly tune and listen in to the 144-148, 150-174 and 420-450 MHz ham radio communications via presets. For the second ADS-B app, James notes that it's an early release for feedback. It allows the user to receive ADS-B data and plot it on a radar like display.

We note that we've previously posted about James' other apps for FM Radio and airband listening.

The Ham RF and ADS-B Radar Apps by James Mainwaring

Global Area Coverage (GAC) Images Decoded from NOAA Satellites

Thank you to @ZSztanga and @aang254 for submitting news about their recent success at decoding the L-Band Global Area Coverage (GAC) signal from polar orbiting NOAA satellites. GAC images are low resolution, and described by NOAA as follows:

Global Area Coverage (GAC) data set is reduced resolution image data that is processed onboard the satellite taking only one line out of every three and averaging every four of five adjacent samples along the scan line.

While it's low resolution, the interesting thing about this data is that you get an image of the entire orbit, not just the data from your current location as you'd receive with the standard 137 MHz APT or L-Band HRPT signal. The catch is that the signal is usually only transmitted over the USA, and you'll need a motorized or hand tracked L-Band satellite dish setup to receive it.

We note that GAC data is not to be confused with the Direct Sounding Broadcast (DSB) signal decoding software we posted about in 2020. 

@ZSztanga has provided some more information about what images are available and who can receive it, and @aang254's tweet below provides some images and additional information:

With @aang254 we decoded GAC from NOAA satellites. It's basically a dump of reduced resolution data from the whole orbit. It includes all the instruments and is transmitted on L-band along with HRPT (mostly over USA, rarely above Europe and only NOAA-19 dumps outside the US). All the decoders are in SatDump.

There is also a schedule available (https://noaasis.noaa.gov/cemscs/polrschd.txt) that includes all the dumps in the upcoming week. It might be a bit hard to interpret, but basically there is a date and the ground station name (SVL stands for Svalbard and it is the only one receivable in Europe). Entries with "GAC" or "PBK" are referring to the GAC transmission.

We've also seen a tweet by @OK9UWU that shows a much longer image of a full orbit.

rsadsb: Terminal Based Aircraft Radar on the Raspberry Pi

Thank you to Wayne Campbell for submitting news about the release of the latest 0.5.0 iteration of his RTL-SDR compatible 'rsadsb' software package that plots ADS-B aircraft positions on a terminal based display. Wayne has also created a blog post describing how to set up a Raspberry Pi based portable ADS-B setup with his software.

The package consists of two separate programs 'dump1090_rs' and 'radar' (aka adsb_deku). The dump1090_rs program is a rust implementation of the dump1090 ADS-B decoder and 'radar'  is the terminal based map. A quickstart guide for setting up both programs is also available.

The software can run on a Raspberry Pi and works well displayed on a portable touchscreen. It appears that the terminal display is very responsive with zoom controls for the radar display, a coverage map, and a tidy list of all detected aircraft.

If you're interested in terminal based displays, we've posted about a similar terminal based ADS-B plotter called 'coole-radar' in the past, as well as a terminal based spectrum analyzer display called retrogram.

rsadsb: Terminal ADS-B Radar Display

Demonstrating the New 3D Maps in SDRAngel

In December of last year we posted about a video demonstrating the many features that the SDRAngel software comes standard with. Recently they've added a new feature which are 3D maps that can be used to visualize signal data.

In the latest video demonstration they show these 3D maps projecting NOAA weather satellite images onto a 3D globe and at the same time tracking the NOAA satellites over the globe as it produces imagery. They also show the software visualizing a 3D model of aircraft on the globe, using live ADS-B data to show aircraft maneuvers when taking off, cruising and landing. With multiple SDRs they also show how the visualization can be combined with air traffic voice. Finally they also show marine vessels being visualized via live AIS data. There appear to be a wide range of vessel 3D models implemented.