Category: Applications

A Remote ADS-B, ACARS, VDL2 and Air Traffic Control Voice Monitoring Station with LTE Connection

Over on Reddit u/tsimola has posted about his remote ADS-B station that is accessed via an LTE connection. When an opportunity came up to install a remote ADS-B station on a tall building with unobstructed 360 degree views, tsimola decided to build the best ADS-B monitoring station that he could, and make sure that it would be easily to maintain and monitor from afar.

He notes that his ADS-B station consists of a FlightAware Prostick Plus and 16-element collinear coaxial antenna. The following components are also used:

  • Raspberry Pi 3 booting and running from SSD drive (Raspbian and ADSB Receiver Project package)
  • Power via UPS (1 hour and 45-minute runtime) and text message controlled power socket (for hard reboots)
  • Powered USB hub with three basic RTL-SDR dongles (ACARS, VDL Mode 2 and voice)
  • Three temperature sensors and one humidity sensor, 80 mm exhaust fan (filtered air intakes)
  • Magnetic switch for push notifications if the lid is opened (IFTTT and Webhooks)
  • LTE/4G router for Internet connection

In addition to the ADS-B station, tsimola has also added ACARS, VDL2, and AM voice air traffic control monitoring with a second station in the same location that utilizes three RTL-SDR dongles. This second airband station is connected to a 128 MHz tuned airband dipole antenna, with an LNA4all and GPIO labs airband filter.

As well as descriptions of the hardware, tsimola's post goes over his software choices and explains how it is securely accessed. We think that this is a very well put together build that should be replicated in other locations too.

A remote ADS-B, ACARS, VDL2 and Air Traffic Control Monitoring Station.
A remote ADS-B, ACARS, VDL2 and Air Traffic Control Monitoring Station.

[Also seen on Hackaday]

Android ADS-B Flight Tracker with 3D Aircraft Display

ADSB Flight Tracker is an Android App that allows you to display ADS-B flight data in either 2D or 3D. It works either with data shared from others over the internet via aggregation sites like adsbexchange.com, or via your own home ADS-B receiver data coming from an RTL-SDR and dump1090 server on your home network. You can also directly connect to an RTL-SDR that is running on your phone and this will allow you to get data faster with less lag. Using data shared by others from the internet could have a delay of a few seconds.

In order to keep using the 3D and RTL-SDR features you'll need to unlock them for a small in-app purchase of $2 for each feature. Initially you get about 30 minutes trial time however.

2D and 3D Screenshots from ADS-B Flight Tracker
2D and 3D Screenshots from ADS-B Flight Tracker

Some interesting 3D videos were also recently posted to the apps Twitter page @ADSBFlightTrkr. 

SDRTrunk 0.4.0 Alpha 9 Updates Highlighted

You may recall that a few years ago we released a tutorial on how to set up and use [SDRTrunk]. Fast forward a few years and the software has seen numerous changes. This application was designed primarily for tracking trunking radio systems but also has the ability to decode things like MDC-1200, LoJack and more.

The software is compatible with many Software Defined Radios such as our RTL-SDR v3, HackRF and the Airspy. Some of the newer improvements include a bundled copy of java so that an installation of java is not required on the host computer, as well as decoding improvements for P25 among other digital voice modes. You can find a full list of improvements along with the latest release on [GitHub]

The biggest feature many have been waiting for is the ability to import talk groups for their radio system into the application from radio reference. While this has not yet been implemented, user [Twilliamson3] has created a [web application] that will convert table data from radio reference into a format that is supported by SDRTrunk.

SDRTrunk Screenshot
SDRTrunk Screenshot

mySdrPlayback: MacOS Software for Browsing Through IQ Recordings from SDR#, SDRUno and More

mySdrPlayback is a program for MacOS that allows you to easily browse through IQ recordings created from multiple SDR programs. Recently the software's author (@ChrisSmolinski) 
Tweeted that he's added support for SDR# and SDRUno IQ recordings. The program is described below:

Why use this app? It makes it easy to slog through lots of recording files, looking for interesting signals. Load a file, and a waterfall for the entire file is created. You can scroll around, and if you see anything that looks interesting, you can drag select it, and then demodulate it. You can even save the demodulated audio as a WAVE file, that you can listen to later, send to someone else, or play into your digital decoding software, if it is an RTTY, SSTV, etc. transmission.

Support for other SDR recording file formats is possible, you'll need to work with me by providing sample files and details on the format. This program is presently for macOS only. Support for Windows may happen... stay tuned!

mySdrPlayback now supports SDR# and SDRUno IQ Files.
mySdrPlayback now supports SDR# and SDRUno IQ Files.

New LNA + Filter for Radio Astronomy Hydrogen Line Observations Released by NooElec

NooElec have recently released a new LNA + filter combo called the "SAWbird+ H1 Barebones" which significantly lowers the entry bar for new amateur radio astronomers. It's designed to be used with RTL-SDR or other SDRs for radio astronomy, and in particular reception of the Hydrogen line.

The filter is centered at 1.42 GHz with a 70 MHz bandpass region. The LNA has a minimum gain of 40dB. For hydrogen line observations it is important that the LNA have very low noise figure, and this LNA fits the bill with a ~0.5dB to ~0.6dB noise figure. An additional feature on the PCB is an RF switch that is electrically controlled via expansion headers. This switch allows you to switch out the LNA for a 50 Ohm reference which is useful for calibration in more serious radio astronomy work.

This LNA draws 120mA of current meaning that it will work with the RTL-SDR V3 and Airspy's bias tee, but probably not with the SDRplay's bias tee which is limited to 100mA and seems to trip a fuse at higher current draws. For an SDRplay you could use external power instead, although you will need an additional DC blocking cap to prevent power from entering the SDR and destroying the ESD diodes.

If you don't know what the Hydrogen line is, we'll explain it here. Hydrogen atoms randomly emit photons at a wavelength of 21cm (1420.4058 MHz). Normally a single hydrogen atom will only very rarely emit a photon, but space and the galaxy is filled with many hydrogen atoms so the average effect is an observable RF power spike at 1420.4058 MHz. By pointing a radio telescope at the night sky and integrating the RF power over time, a power spike indicating the hydrogen line can be observed in a frequency spectrum plot. This can be used for some interesting experiments, for example you could measure the size and shape of our galaxy. Thicker areas of the galaxy will have more hydrogen and thus a larger spike. You can also measure the rotational speed of our galaxy by noting the frequency doppler shift.

Although this LNA lowers the entry bar, in order to receive the Hydrogen line with the SAWBird+ H1 you will still need a ~1m+ satellite dish and a feed tuned to 1.42 GHz or high gain Yagi, horn or helical antenna. Antennas and feeds like this are not yet available off the shelf, but if you search our blog for "hydrogen line" you'll see many project examples. 

The NooElec SAWBird+ H1. For Hydrogen Line Observations.
The NooElec SAWBird+ H1. For Hydrogen Line Observations.

KerberosSDR App Update: Heatmap + Precise TX Localizing & Turn by Turn Navigation Demo Videos

We have just released an updated version of the KerberosSDR Android direction finding app. If you didn't already know KerberosSDR is our experimental 4x Coherent RTL-SDR product. With it, coherent applications like radio direction finding (RDF) and passive radar are possible. Together with the KerberosSDR direction finding Android app it is possible to visualize the direction finding data produced by a KerberosSDR running on a Pi3/Tinkerboard.

The KerberosSDR hardware is currently in preorder status on Indiegogo for the second production batch, and we expect it to be ready to ship out this month. If you preorder then you'll be able to purchase a KerberosSDR at a reduced price of USD$130. After shipping for batch two begins the price will rise to USD$150.

The new version of the KerberosSDR Android app adds the following features:

  1. Heatmap Grid Plotting
  2. Precise TX location pinpointing when enough data points are gathered
  3. Turn by turn navigation to the RDF bearing direction / TX location
  4. Bearing moving average smoothing

To understand what these features are, we've released two demo videos showing them in action. In the first video we use the new features to find an 858 MHz TETRA transmitter, and in the second video we find a 415 MHz DMR transmitter. The first video explains the new features so we recommend watching that first.

KerberosSDR Radio Direction Finding: Heatmap + Auto Navigation to Transmitter Location Demo 1

KerberosSDR Radio Direction Finding: Heatmap + Auto Navigation to Transmitter Location Demo 2

SignalsEverywhere: Creating a DIY Upconverter with a HackRF and RF Mixer

Over on YouTube Corrosive from the SignalsEverywhere channel has uploaded a new video showing us how you can make a DIY upconverter using a HackRF as a signal source and a cheap $10 RF Mixer. An upconverter converts lower frequencies into higher frequencies. For example, an upconverter is commonly used to convert HF signals into VHF, so that VHF/UHF only SDRs can receive HF.

In the video he uses the HackRF as a local oscillator source, a cheap RF mixer on a breakout board, and an Airspy as the receiver. In most circumstances if you needed and upconverter you'd just purchase one like the Ham-it-up, or the Spyverter for ~$40. However the interesting advantage of using a versatile signal generator like the HackRF is that it results in an upconverter that can upconvert HF to almost any frequency. Even without any filtering (which is recommended to remove signal images), Corrosive fings that he has excellent HF reception.

This video is an excellent way to learn about how upconverters work.

HackRF and RF Mixer = DIY RTL SDR Up-converter | Basics of the Passive ADE Mixer

 

Creating Wide Area Composite Images with WXtoIMG + Weather Satellite Failure Updates

With so many independent people receiving weather satellite images from the NOAA satellites daily, an interesting collaborative task is to stitch these images together to create a wide area composite image. Fortunately the WXtoIMG software already has stitching as a feature.

Over on his website "usradioguy" has created a tutorial explaining how to use WXtoIMG to stitch together multiple NOAA weather satellite images that have been uploaded to individuals websites. As well as the tutorial he has created a table of people's websites that contain recent and the required "pristine" processed images that can be used for stitching.

NOAA Weather Satellite Composite by Jeff Kelly (New Jersey, US), Mike Kimzey (Philadelphia, US), David Kunz (San Francisco, US), Cornelius Danielsen (Norway), Alan Hinton (UK), Michael Sørensen (Denmark), and Hans-Juergen Luethje (Germany).
NOAA Weather Satellite Composite created with images from Jeff Kelly (New Jersey, US), Mike Kimzey (Philadelphia, US), David Kunz (San Francisco, US), Cornelius Danielsen (Norway), Alan Hinton (UK), Michael Sørensen (Denmark), and Hans-Juergen Luethje (Germany).

Weather Satellite Failure Updates

We also wanted to provide a brief update on some weather satellites that we RTL-SDR users often receive.

NOAA 15: About two weeks ago NOAA 15 failed and was producing glitched images. However after a few days it came right again, only to have failed again at the end of last month. It appears that the camera scanning motor is getting stuck due to being low on lubricant as the satellite is now well past it's intended life cycle at 11 years old. If you're interested, some info on how the camera on these satellites works can be found here. There is currently no plan for a fix, the only hope is to wait and see if the motor unsticks.

Meteor M2-1: Meteor M2-1 has also recently suffered problems yet again with it's orientation control, and we're regularly seeing off-axis or distorted images that show the curvature of the earth. Over the weekend it was turned off, and should be reset this week. This problem seems to occur and be fixed often, so hopefully it will be back online soon.

Meteor M2-2: The recently launched Meteor M2-2 is functional, but it is still in the testing phase, so is sometimes being turned off. Do not be alarmed if no signal is received sometimes.

GOES-17: GOES-17 is reported to be experiencing problems with it's infrared camera due to a blocked heatpipe, however it appears that they are able to work around this issue and obtain 97% uptime.

A Distorted Meteor M2-1 Image from R4UAB Blog.
A Distorted Meteor M2-1 Image from R4UAB Blog.