Category: News

Two YouTube Reviews of the new PortaRF – A New HackRF Portapack Combo

Recently, OpenSourceSDRLab, a Chinese store and lab that sells existing SDR products, and some unique products of their own design, has started taking pre-orders for their new "PortaRF" product. 

The PortaRF melds the HackRF and Portapack into a single PCB. They advertise it as an evolution of the PortaPack H4M, which is their popular clone of the original PortaPack, upgraded from the original. The PortaPack H4M has become one the most recommended HackRF PortaPack options on the market, even surpassing the original HackRF PortaPack, due to its high quality, excellent features, and significantly lower cost compared to the original.

The PortaRF features several improvements, including a larger 4" IPS screen compared to the 3.2" non-IPS screen on the H4M, increased flash storage from 1MB to 2MB, a higher internal battery capacity of 3000 mAh, and the addition of a new joystick control. Interestingly, OpenSourceSDRLab has also indicated that the production version may come with an AI module, which will allow the PortaRF to respond to voice commands.

The PortaRF is expected to ship around November 20, and it costs US$220, shipped from China. In comparison, the PortaPack H4M sells for US$165, shipped from China.

Recently, two reviews of the PortaRF were uploaded to YouTube. The first is by TechMinds, which provides an overview of the features and opens it up, showing the internals.

PortaRF - A NEW HackRF PortaPack Combo In One Single Board

The second review is from sn0ren who also reviews the features, and shows the internals. Sn0ren also makes some notes about his likes and dislikes with the new design.

HackRF Portapack Evolved? This is PortaRF

VU GPSDR: An RTL-SDR Expansion Board for the Vivid Single Board Computer

Thank you to Shawn from UUGear for writing in and sharing with us news about the release of "VU GPSDR" an RTL-SDR expansion board for the "Vivid Unit" single board computer. The Vivid single-board computer (SBC) is based on the RK3399 CPU (same chip used on the Orange Pi 4), and comes with a built-in 5.5" touchscreen.

The VU GPSDR is an expansion board for the Vivid Unit that, when combined with a VU Extender board, sits on the back of the Vivid Unit, transforming the computing platform into a portable SDR capable of running software like their fork of SDR++ or an OpenStreetMap display of live ADS-B aircraft positions.

The VU GPSDR also integrates a GPSDO (GPS disciplined oscillator), with a built-in GPS patch antenna, for precise frequency tuning. It also comes with a built-in HF upconverter and two encoder wheels, presumably customizable, but primarily for tuning and volume control. Finally, they have also integrated a software-controlled frequency output port for experimenters.

The Vivid Unit costs €99.00 (approximately US$115) on its own. The Vivid Unit Extender, which is required for using expansion boards, costs €25.00 (approximately US$29). The VU GPSDR itself costs €65.00 (approximately US$75). So, in total, for a complete RTL-SDR system, you are looking at a total cost of €189 (US$220).

Shawn has also recently sent us a review sample, which we will be testing out and writing a review for within the next week, so stay tuned for that!

The VU GPSDR Expansion Board for the Vivid Unit Single Board Computer
The VU GPSDR Expansion Board for the Vivid Unit Single Board Computer

NOAA 15 and 19 To Be Decommissioned Within the Next Two Weeks

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have recently announced that they are planning to decommission NOAA 15 and NOAA 19 on August 12, 2025 and August 19, 2025 respectively.

Update #7: NOAA has completed End of Life (EOL) testing activities for NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 and will commence the decommission process shortly. These two remaining satellites in the NOAA Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) Constellation are far beyond their primary mission design life. All have incurred subsystem and instrument degradation or failures and have entered a "twilight phase" where failure modes are increasingly likely. As a reminder, NOAA-18 was decommissioned on June 6, 2025 at 1740 UTC due to an unrecoverable failure to the S-Band transmitter. The remaining satellites in the legacy POES constellation will be decommissioned as follows: NOAA-15 on August 12, 2025 and NOAA-19 on August 19, 2025.

NOAA-15, NOAA-18, and NOAA-19 have long been core satellites for RTL-SDR users. For many of us, one of these would have been the first satellite from which we received weather data via the 137 MHz APT signal.

These NOAA satellites were marked end-of-life (EOL) back on June 16, 2025. However, EOL status still meant that transmissions would continue as normal. The EOL status simply marked that the satellites should no longer be used for mission-critical services, and that no attempts at repair or recovery would be made if needed.

On June 06, 2025, just before the EOL status officially went into effect, NOAA-18 was decommissioned and shut down due to a prior transmitter failure that left ground control in danger of being unable to control the satellite in the future. 

While nothing critical appears to have happened to the remaining NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 satellites as of yet, these are ageing satellites with various ongoing issues. NOAA-15 was launched in 1998, and NOAA-19 in 2009. They have long exceeded their design life.

As with NOAA-18's decommissioning, it does not appear that NOAA will deorbit the satellites. Instead, they will be left in orbit and put into a safe electrical state, with the transmitters shut down.

You can find more information about the decommissioning over on Carl Reinmann's usradioguy blog.

A Drawing of NOAA-19
A Drawing of NOAA-19

Airspy 2025 Summer Sale: 20% OFF All Airspy Products

Airspy has just announced the start of its yearly summer sale, offering 20% off all Airspy products from June 27 to June 30, 2025. The summer sale has historically only been 15% off, so this year there is an extra discount.

  • Airspy R2: US$169.00 US$135.20
  • Airspy Mini: US$99.00 US$79.20
  • Airspy HF+ Discovery: US$169.00 US$135.20
  • Airspy SpyVerter R2: US$49.00 US$39.20
  • YouLoop Antenna: US$39.95 US$31.96

The sale is active at all participating resellers, which includes our own store, where we have the YouLoop on sale for US$31.96, including free shipping to most countries worldwide (excluding tariffs!). 

We also note that recently, iTead, Airspy's manufacturing partner in China has opened a US warehouse, which means that US customers ordering from their store will not experience high tariffs. iTead sells all Airspy products, except for the YouLoop.

Some good reviews of the YouLoop include the YouTube videos done by Frugal Radio where he reviews HF reception and VLF & LF reception with an Airspy HF+, and later tests it with an RTL-SDR Blog V3 using direct sampling. Techminds also has an excellent review on his YouTube channel. 

If you're on X, be sure to retweet the sale post for a chance to win a freebie.

Airspy 2025 Summer Sale: 20% OFF
Airspy 2025 Summer Sale: 20% OFF

HackRF Pro Pre-Order: Frequency Range and RF Performance Improvements, USB-C, TCXO Added

The HackRF by Great Scott Gadgets, released in 2014, remains among the most popular software-defined radios (SDRs) on the market due to its open-source nature, affordability, wideband tuning range, wide 20 MHz bandwidth, and transmit capability.

However, over the past 10 years, very little has changed with the HackRF, with most changes only being made out of necessity due to end-of-life components. It has mostly been the open-source community and clone manufacturers innovating on the circuit.

Today, Great Scott Gadgets has finally announced the HackRF Pro.

Key improvements include expanding the lower frequency limit from 1 MHz down to 100 kHz, integrating a TCXO for enhanced frequency stability, upgrading the microUSB port to USB-C, and improving RF performance with additional shielding, a flatter frequency response, and the elimination of the DC spike. They have also added more RAM and flash memory, and added a 16-bit output mode for low sample rates.

The product is available from their usual distributors (listed on the release page) and costs US$400. Note that the HackRF Pro is currently in pre-order, with production slated to begin in July 2025 and shipping in September 2025. 

The full release article from Great Scott Gadgets reads:

HackRF Pro from Great Scott Gadgets is a Software Defined Radio peripheral capable of transmission or reception of radio signals from 100 kHz to 6 GHz. Designed to enable test and development of modern and next generation radio technologies, HackRF Pro is an open source hardware platform that can be used as a USB peripheral or programmed for stand-alone operation.

  • 100 kHz to 6 GHz operating frequency
  • Tunable from 0 Hz to 7.1 GHz
  • Half-duplex transceiver
  • Up to 20 million samples per second
  • 8-bit quadrature samples (8-bit I and 8-bit Q)
  • Compatible with GNU Radio, SDR#, and more
  • Software-configurable RX and TX gain and baseband filter
  • Software-controlled RF port power (50 mA at 3.3 V)
  • SMA RF connector
  • SMA clock input and output for synchronization and triggering
  • Convenient buttons for programming
  • Internal pin headers for expansion
  • High-Speed USB 2.0 with Type-C connector
  • USB-powered
  • Open source hardware

Compared to HackRF One, HackRF Pro introduces a host of new and updated features, including:

  • Wider operating frequency range
  • Improved RF performance with flatter frequency response
  • Modern USB Type-C connector
  • Built-in TCXO crystal oscillator for superior timing stability
  • Logic upgrade from a CPLD to a power-efficient FPGA
  • Elimination of the DC spike
  • Extended precision mode with 16-bit samples for low sample rates (typical ENOB: 9-11)
  • More RAM and flash memory for custom firmware
  • Installed shielding around the radio section
  • Trigger input and output accessible through clock connectors
  • Cutout in the PCB provides space for future add-ons
  • Improved power management

Software that works with HackRF One is already compatible with HackRF Pro. We designed HackRF Pro for backward compatibility, following the same basic architecture of HackRF One but with many small enhancements. Prior to shipping HackRF Pro, we will publish a migration guide that will show software developers how to take advantage of certain new capabilities of HackRF Pro, but out-of-the-box HackRF Pro will behave like HackRF One with superior performance. In addition to host software compatibility, our migration guide will address firmware, allowing developers to port custom firmware to the new platform and take advantage of its unique capabilities

The HackRF Pro
The HackRF Pro

HydraSDR RFOne: A New Upcoming SDR Similar to the Airspy R2

Recently, we have heard news about a new upcoming SDR called the HydraSDR RFOne, created by Benjamin Vernoux, who also worked on the design of the Airspy. The HydraSDR RFOne appears to be very closely based on the Airspy R2 design, and it has very similar specs, including a 24-1800 MHz RX range, 12-bit ADC, and up to 10 MSPS sampling rate output, giving 9 MHz of spectrum.

While HydraSDR is very similar to the Airspy R2 in design, as it uses the same main LPC4370 and the same overall design and layout, there are a few minor changes. The HydraSDR RFOne uses a Rafael R828D tuner chip, instead of the Rafael R820T2 tuner. The R828D has three input pins; however, it appears that only one pin is connected to the SMA input port. The other two ports are connected to uFL connectors on the PCB, which are inaccessible from the metal enclosure.

A second interesting feature is that it comes with a much larger enclosure that can house up to three HydraSDR boards in one. Also, a USB-C connector is used instead of the microUSB (we note that the device would still be USB2.0, not USB3.0).

Another differentiating point is that HydraSDR will be made in the USA, versus China, where the Airspy R2 is made. This may be good for US customers now that the Trump-China tariffs have been implemented. But we have recently seen that iTead, Airspy's Chinese manufacturing partner, recently opened a US store with US stock. So it seems that the retail price of the Airspy will not appear to be affected by tariffs.

HydraSDR with a Single Board
HydraSDR with a Single Board
HydraSDR with a Three Boards
HydraSDR with a Three Boards

You can find more information about the HydraSDR at https://hydrasdr.com. This is still a 'coming soon' landing page; however, if you enter your email, you will be sent a PDF file with the full spec sheet and multiple photos. Pricing for the HydraSDR does not yet appear to have been released.

Over on X, a few early reviewers have already received samples, as we can see some early tests in these posts.

HydraSDR Pinout
HydraSDR Pinout

Updates To NOAA-18 Decommissioning: NOAA-18 Has Now Shut Down

A few days ago, we posted news that NOAA-18 was to begin decommissioning steps effective immediately due to a recent transmitter failure. Multiple reports have now confirmed that NOAA-18 has indeed shut down as of 1740 UTC 06/06/2025.

The usaradioguy.com blog has further updates for those who are interested. The official notice from NOAA can also be found here. Interestingly, it appears that NOAA-18 will not be de-orbiting as it lacks the required propulsion system to do so. So it will remain in orbit as space debris.

A user using a hobbyist station in Sweden also captured the shutdown remotely during APT image reception, as shown in the image below.

Farewell and thanks for your long service NOAA-18!

The final NOAA-18 APT pass captured by SA2KNG in Sweden, and processed remotely by Thomas:douwes.co.uk
The final NOAA-18 APT pass captured by SA2KNG in Sweden, and processed remotely by Thomas:douwes.co.uk

 

RTL-SDR Blog V3/V4 USB-C Model Released For Sale

We're happy to announce that we have released a new USB-C version of the popular RTL-SDR Blog V3 and V4 dongles on our store at www.rtl-sdr.com/store!

Many members of the RTL-SDR community have been requesting a USB-C version for some time now. The dongle circuitry is identical to your favorite V3 and V4 models, but the USB-A plug has been replaced with a USB-C female plug instead.

The new V4c RTL-SDR Blog V4 with USB-C Plug
The new V4c RTL-SDR Blog V4 with USB-C Plug

Please note that you will need a USB-C cable to use the dongle (not included); however, we always recommend using a USB cable with the dongle anyway to avoid strain on your USB ports and to get the dongle further away from the RF-noisy PC. Also, please note that the dongle is still USB 2.0, as simply changing to a USB-C plug does not change the USB spec.

So far, we have only produced a small batch of these USB-C dongles as a trial to test the market. If they prove popular, we will increase the number of dongles manufactured. 

For now, we are only shipping these new units worldwide from our warehouse in China. They can be purchased at www.rtl-sdr.com/store. Amazon USA will be stocked with a few hundred of these dongles within about a month.