Over on YouTube radio content creator Techminds has recently started a series that shows how to decode various signals using an SDR such as the SDRplay RSP1A. The first video explains what FT-8 is and shows how to decode it using the WSJT-X software. FT-8 is a modern digital HF ham mode that is designed to be receivable even in weak signal reception. However, the amount of information sent in a FT-8 message is small, so it is not possible to have a full conversation, and you can only make contacts.
In his second video Tech Minds explains RTTY and also shows how to decode it. RTTY is another much older mode that is used by the military as well as hams. To decode it he uses Digital Master 780 which is a program included in the Ham Radio Deluxe software.
Decoding FT-8 With WSJT-X And A SDRplay RSP1A SDR Receiver
Decoding RTTY With Digital Master And A SDRplay RSP1A SDR Receiver
Welle.io is a Windows/Linux/MacOS/Android/Raspberry Pi compatible DAB and DAB+ broadcast radio decoder which supports RTL-SDR dongles, as well as the Airspy and any dongle supported by SoapySDR. It is a touch screen friendly piece of software which is excellent for use on tablets, phones and perhaps on vehicle radio touch screens.
DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcast and is a digital signal that is available in many countries outside of the USA. The signal contains digital broadcast radio stations, and is an alternative/replacement for standard broadcast FM.
Early last year we posted about Welle.io a couple of times, but now the software has reached maturity as version 1.0 has just been released. Author Albrech writes to us:
We fixed a lot of bugs again and added the translation to Hungarian, Norwegian, Italian and French.
Binary packages are available for Windows, Linux and Android (APK and Play store). The macOS support is possible via Homebrew and we now that welle.io runs also on a Rapsberry Pi 2 and newer.
For questions and support please feel free to use the new forum (https://forum.welle.io).
Over on his YouTube channel user Andy Clarke has uploaded a video where he demonstrates his HackRF being used as a wideband spectrum analyzer with the HackRF Spectrum Analyzer software. About a year ago the HackRF team released a new firmware update which enabled the HackRF to be able to sweep through the frequency spectrum at a rate of up to 8 GHz per second. This allowed the HackRF to be used as a wideband spectrum analyzer which is able to display an arbitrarily large swath of spectrum. Shortly after the firmware update spectrum analyzer program by 'pavsa' was released on GitHub.
In the video Andy demonstrates the HackRF being used to view the WiFi band and show a 2.4 GHz WiFi connection between a drone and it's controller. He also shows it working with a handheld radio and the uplink of his mobile phone. Andy hopes to use the HackRF to avoid losing his drones due to interference.
Thanks to Andrey for writing in and showing us his Java based Meteor-M decoder for the RTL-SDR which he uses on a Raspberry Pi. The decoder is based on the meteor-m2-lrpt GNU Radio script and the meteor_decoder which he ported over to Java. Essentially what he's done is port over to Java a bunch of GNU Radio blocks as well as the meteor decoder. The ported Java blocks could also be useful for other projects that want to be cross platform or run without the need for GNU Radio to be installed.
In his blog post (blog post is in Russian, use Google Translate for English) Andrey explains his motivation for writing the software which was that the Windows work flow with SDR# and LRPTofflineDecoder is quite convoluted and cannot be run headless on a Raspberry Pi. He then goes on to explain the decoding algorithm, and some code optimizations that he used in Java to speed up the decoding. Andrey notes that his Java version is almost 2x slower compared to the GNU Radio version, but still fast enough for real time demodulation.
Meteor-M2 is a Russian weather satellite that operates in the 137 MHz weather satellite band. With an RTL-SDR and satellite antenna these images can be received. Running on a Raspberry Pi allows you to set up a permanent weather satellite station that will consistently download images as the satellite passes over.
Images received with Andry's Meteor-M software running on a Raspberry Pi.
Last week we posted about the release of a new TETRA decoder plugin for SDR#. The plugin made setting up a TETRA decoder significantly easier compared to previous methods, but it still required the installation and use of the MSYS2 environment on Windows.
Thanks to reader Zlati for letting us know that the TETRA plugin has recently been updated once again and now no longer requires MSYS2 to be installed first. Now it is as easy to install as any other plugin, just drop the .dlls into the SDR# folder and add the magicline to the plugins.xml file. We tested it out and decoding worked fine. At the moment the "Net info" button is not working however.
In the future news and download lines for newer versions will probably be available on the programmers radioscanner.ru forum thread which is available here (use Google Translate to read): http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic50051-9.html
Outernet Dreamcatcher Board running with a cheap satellite TV LNB
Outernet 3.0 is gearing up for launch soon, and just today they've released a blog post introducing us to the RF protocol technology behind the new service. If you weren't already aware, Outernet is a free satellite based information service that aims to be a sort of 'library in the sky'. Their aim to to have satellites constantly broadcasting down weather, news, books, radio, web pages, and files to everyone in the world. As it's satellite based this is censorship resistant, and useful for remote/marine areas without or with slow/capped internet access.
Originally a few years ago they started with a 12 GHz DVB-S satellites service that gave 1GB of content a day, but that service required a large dish antenna which severely hampered user adoption. Their second attempt was with an L-band service that only needed a small patch antenna. This service used RTL-SDR dongles as the receiver, so it was very cheap to set up. Unfortunately the L-band service had a very slow data rates (less than 20MB of content a day), and leasing an L-band transmitter on a satellite proved to be far too expensive for Outernet to continue with. Both these services have now been discontinued.
Outernet 3.0 aims to fix their previous issues, giving us a service that provides over 300MB of data a day, with a relatively cheap US$99 receiver that is small and easy to set up. The new receiver uses a standard Ku-Band LNB as the antenna, which is very cheaply available as they are often used for satellite TV reception. The receiver itself is a custom PCB containing a hardware (non-SDR based) receiver with a LoRa decoder.
LoRa is an RF protocol that is most often associated with small Internet of Things (IoT) devices, but Outernet have chosen it as their satellite protocol for Outernet 3.0 because it is very tolerant to interference. In Outernet 3.0 the LNB is pointed directly at the satellite without any directive satellite dish, meaning that interference from other satellites can be a problem. But LoRa solves that by being tolerant to interference. From the uplink facility to the satellite and back to their base in Chicago the LoRa signal travels 71,572 km, making it the longest LoRa signal ever transmitted.
According to notes in their forums Outernet 3.0 is going to be first available only in North America. Europe should follow shortly after, and then eventually other regions too. When ready, their 'Dreamcatcher 3.0' receiver and computing hardware is expected to be released for US$99 on their store. You can sign up for their email list on that page to be notified upon release.
Also as a bonus, for those interested in just LoRa, the Dreamcatcher 3.0 is also going to be able to transmit LoRa at frequencies anywhere between 1 MHz to 6 GHz, making it great for setting up long range LoRa links. This might be an interesting idea for hams to play with.
Over on YouTube user Tech Minds has uploaded a useful video which shows how to set up DMR decoding with SDR#, VB-Cable, DSD+ and an RTL-SDR dongle. He also uses the DSD plugin for SDR# which makes controlling the command line DSD+ software a little easier. If you are interested we also have a short tutorial on DMR/P25 decoding available here. The video starts from downloading and installing the software, and explains every step very carefully, so it is a very good starting video for beginners.
DMR (aka MotoTRBO or TRBO) is a digital voice protocol used by Motorola radios. Software like DSD+ is required to listen to it, but it can only listen in if the signal is unencrypted.
Tech Minds has also uploaded several other tutorial videos to his channel over the last few months including guides on how to set up the ham-it-up upconverter, ADS-B tracking, using a Raspberry Pi to create a FM transmitter and more.
How To Setup SDR # Sharp To Decode DMR Digitial Using DSD Plus And An RTL SDR Receiver on Windows 10
Back in 2016 cURLy bOi released a Windows port of the Linux based "Telive" TETRA decoder. Now the latest development in TETRA decoders is that a TETRA decoder plugin for the SDR# software has been released. This makes setting up a TETRA decoder significantly simpler than before.
The plugin doesn't seem to be officially released anywhere, but we did find it thanks to @aborgnino's tweets on Twitter, and he found it on a Russian language radio scanner forum. The plugin is available as a direct download zip from here, but we suggest browsing to the last few posts in the forum thread to find the latest version.
Installing the plugin is a little more difficult that usual, as you first need to install MSYS2 which is a compatibility layer for Linux programs. The full installation instructions are included in the README.TXT in the zip file. One clarification from us: you need to copy the files in the msys_root/usr/bin folder from the zip file into the /usr/bin folder that is in your MSYS2 installation directory.
We tested the plugin and found it to work well without any problems. With the plugin turned on you just need to simply tune to a TETRA signal in WFM mode, and you will instantly be decoding the audio.
TETRA is a type of digital voice and trunked radio communications system that stands for “Terrestrial Trunked Radio”. It is used heavily in many parts of the world, except for the USA. If you have unencrypted TETRA signals available in your area then you can listen in on them with an appropriate SDR like an RTL-SDR and decoder software like the aforementioned plugin.
