Category: News

December 23, 2015

SDRPlay RSP API Updated to Version 1.8.0

The SDRplay team have recently released a major update to their API and drivers. The new version is 1.8.0 and they write that it should remove the DC offset, reduce in band images from strong signals, and lower the noise floor. The SDRplay is a software defined receiver that costs $149 USD. They write:

We are pleased to announce release 1.8.0 of the API for the RSP. This is a major upgrade to the API with new features and an improved gain map which should result in improved performance over a key portion of the gain control range. Currently this API is available for Windows only, but versions for Linux and Mac OS and Android will follow shortly.

The API now incorporates automatic post tuner DC offset correction and I/Q compensation. This will almost completely eliminate the DC centre spike that was previously present in zero IF mode and also correct for amplitude and phase errors in the I/Q signal paths that can lead to in-band images when strong signals are present.

There is a new gain map for the RSP which should help improve the receiver noise floor for gain reduction settings in the range of 59-78 dB. To achieve this, the IF gain control range has been increased from 59 to 78 dB. In addition, the user can now turn the LNA on or off at any point within the IF gain control range. This means that the LNA can remain on for gain reduction settings of up to 78 dB, whereas previously the maximum gain reduction that could be attained whilst the LNA was on was only 59 dB. Being able to leave the LNA on will result in improvements in the receiver noise performance for gain reductions in the range of 59 to 78 dB. The upper 19 dB of the IF gain control range have now been disabled. In practice this part of the gain control range was useless as trying to operate within this region always lead to receiver overload even when signals were very weak.

To fully exploit the features of this new API release, we have also issued release 3.5 of the ExtIO plugin. This plugin will work with HDSDR, SDR sharp (releases 1361 or earlier) and Studio 1. Automatic I/Q compensation and DC offset correction will work with later versions of SDR sharp, but we will need to update the native plugin for users of these later versions to be access the new gain map.

Similarly, users of SDR Console will gain the benefit of automatic DC offset compensation and I/Q correction, but will not yet be able to access the new gain map. We hope that a version of SDR console that unlocks this feature will become available in the near future.

Until a new release of SDR-Console is available, you can copy the API into the SDR-Console installation directory…

from C:\Program Files\MiricsSDR\API\x64\mir_sdr_api.dll to C:\Program Files\SDR-RADIO-PRO.com\mir_sdr_api.dll

The API installer has also contains an extra certificate to be more user friendly for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 users.

The new API and ExtIO plugin can be downloaded from our website at:www.sdrplay.com/windows.html

As they write that in band images from strong signals are reduced in this version we decided to do a quick before and after test using our own RSP receiver. We tuned into some TETRA signals that had exhibited images in the past on our RSP (you can see them as the yellow signals in the before image). In the new driver the images are completely gone.

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December 23, 2015

SDRPlay RSP API Updated to Version 1.8.0

We are pleased to announce release 1.8.0 of the API for the RSP. This is a major upgrade to the API with new features and an improved gain map which should result in improved performance over a key portion of the gain control range. Currently this API is available for Windows only, but versions for Linux and Mac OS and Android will follow shortly.

The API now incorporates automatic post tuner DC offset correction and I/Q compensation. This will almost completely eliminate the DC centre spike that was previously present in zero IF mode and also correct for amplitude and phase errors in the I/Q signal paths that can lead to in-band images when strong signals are present.

There is a new gain map for the RSP which should help improve the receiver noise floor for gain reduction settings in the range of 59-78 dB. To achieve this, the IF gain control range has been increased from 59 to 78 dB. In addition, the user can now turn the LNA on or off at any point within the IF gain control range. This means that the LNA can remain on for gain reduction settings of up to 78 dB, whereas previously the maximum gain reduction that could be attained whilst the LNA was on was only 59 dB. Being able to leave the LNA on will result in improvements in the receiver noise performance for gain reductions in the range of 59 to 78 dB. The upper 19 dB of the IF gain control range have now been disabled. In practice this part of the gain control range was useless as trying to operate within this region always lead to receiver overload even when signals were very weak.

To fully exploit the features of this new API release, we have also issued release 3.5 of the ExtIO plugin. This plugin will work with HDSDR, SDR sharp (releases 1361 or earlier) and Studio 1. Automatic I/Q compensation and DC offset correction will work with later versions of SDR sharp, but we will need to update the native plugin for users of these later versions to be access the new gain map.

Similarly, users of SDR Console will gain the benefit of automatic DC offset compensation and I/Q correction, but will not yet be able to access the new gain map. We hope that a version of SDR console that unlocks this feature will become available in the near future.

Until a new release of SDR-Console is available, you can copy the API into the SDR-Console installation directory…

from C:\Program Files\MiricsSDR\API\x64\mir_sdr_api.dll to C:\Program Files\SDR-RADIO-PRO.com\mir_sdr_api.dll

The API installer has also contains an extra certificate to be more user friendly for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 users.

The new API and ExtIO plugin can be downloaded from our website at:www.sdrplay.com/windows.html

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December 17, 2015

SvxLink Now Supports the RTL-SDR

SvxLink is an EchoLink and general purpose voice services system for controlling ham radio repeaters. A repeater is a radio tower that receives a weak transmission from a handheld or remote radio and then repeats the same message with greater power over a wide area. With repeaters radio communications can cover a much further distance.

Ham radio enthusiasts often set up repeaters for their own frequencies, so that they can be heard over a wider range. To control the repeater software like SvxLink is required. In the latest software update of SvxLink they added RTL-SDR support. They write:

The biggest news in this release is the support for RTL2832U based DVB-T USB dongles. This make it possible to use such USB dongles as cheap SDR (Software Defined Radio) receivers. This will open up the world of cheap receiver hardware to all SvxLink users. It will for example be very cheap to set up an extra receiver with local coverage for a SvxLink based repeater, as long as there is a network connection to the repeater. The modulation forms supported are: FM, FM narrow, AM, AM narrow, USB, LSB, CW, CW wide and wideband FM (broadcast). Running multiple receivers on the same dongle is supported as well as using multiple dongles.

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December 10, 2015

Live Right Now: The 12th Cyberspectrum Software Defined Radio Meetup

Cyberspectrum is a monthly software defined radio meetup that is held in San Francisco. During this meetup presenters show and discuss their SDR related work. The 12th Cyberspectrum meetup is occurring right now and this time there will be presentations from amateur radio astronomer Marcus Leech from Canada and wireless security researcher Tobias Zillner from Austria.

There is a live stream on YouTube shown below, and after it finishes it will also be available for viewing:

Edit: Stream is over. Marcus Leech gave a nice talk that gave an overview or amateur radio astronomy and explained some of his set up where he uses RTL-SDR dongles as the receiver.

Cyberspectrum: Bay Area Software Defined Radio #12 (Dec 2015)

Watch this video on YouTube

The overview of today’s presentations are as follows:

• Marcus Leech from SBRAC: “An integrated proof-of-concept ‘all-digital’ feed for 21cm radio astronomy”

We show ongoing work in designing and building a proof-of-concept ‘all digital’ feed for 21cm radio astronomy experiments. While many professional radio astronomy observatories are using “digitize at the feed” techniques, amateur experiments (and successes) in this are very close to non-existent.

Digitizing at the feed carries many advantages, including overall system gain stability, and the ability to carry signals over cheap ethernet-over-fiber links.

We’ll show an example feed arrangement that uses a differential radiometry approach, and does much of the initial processing right at the feed, including radiometry and spectral calculations, sending summary data to an ordinary PC host over ethernet.

Challenges and pitfalls will be discussed.

• Tobias Zillner from Cognosec: “ZigBee Smart Homes – A Hacker’s Open House”

ZigBee is one of the most widespread communication standards used in the Internet of Things and especially in the area of smart homes. If you have for example a smart light bulb at home, the chance is very high that you are actually using ZigBee by yourself. Popular lighting applications such as Philips Hue or Osram Lightify and also popular smart home systems such as SmartThings or Googles OnHub are based on ZigBee. New IoT devices have often very limited processing and energy resources. Therefore they are not capable of implementing well-known communication standards like Wifi. ZigBee is an open, public available alternative that enables wireless communication for such limited devices.

ZigBee provides also security services for key establishment, key transport, frame protection and device management that are based on established cryptographic algorithms. So a ZigBee home automation network with applied security is secure and the smart home communication is protected?

No, definitely not. Due to “requirements” on interoperability and compatibility as well as the application of ancient security concepts it is possible to compromise ZigBee networks and take over control of all included devices. For example it is easily possible for an external to get control over every smart light bulb that supports the ZigBee Light Link profile. Also the initial key transport is done in an unsecured way. It is even required by the standard to support this weak key transport. On top of that another vulnerability allows third parties to request secret key material without any authentication and therefore takeover the whole network as well as all connected ZigBee devices. Together with shortfalls and limitations in the security caused by the manufacturers itself the risk to this last tier communication standard can be considered as highly critical.

This talk will provide an overview about the actual applied security measures in ZigBee, highlight the included weaknesses and show also practical exploitations of actual product vulnerabilities. Therefore new features in the ZigBee security testing tool SecBee will be demonstrated and made public available.

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November 18, 2015

SDR Presentations Requested for FOSDEM

The Free and Open Source Developers Meeting (FOSDEM) is looking for SDR presentations to give at this years conference in Brussels, Belgium which will be held on January the 80th & 31st of January.

Software Radio has become an important tool to allow anyone access the EM spectrum. Using free software radio libraries and applications and cheap hardware, anyone can now start hacking on wireless communications, remote sensing, radar or other applications. At FOSDEM, we hope to network all these projects and improve collaboration, bring new ideas forward and get more people involved.

The track’s web site resides at: http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/FOSDEM

Here, we will publish updates and announcements. The final schedule will be available through Pentabarf and the official FOSDEM website.

To suggest a talk, go to https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM16 and follow the instructions (you need an account, but can use your account from last year if you have one). You need to create an ‘Event’; make sure it’s in the Software Defined Radio track! Lengths aren’t fixed, but give a realistic estimate and please don’t exceed 30 minutes unless you have something special planned (in that case, contact one of us). Also, don’t forget to include time for Q&A. Typical slot lengths would be 30 Minutes including QA.

You aren’t limited to slide presentations, of course. Be creative. However, FOSDEM is an open source conference, therefore we ask you to stay clear of marketing presentations. Of course, we like nitty-gritty technical stuff.

We will reserve time for interactiveness, it won’t all be talks.

If you are qualified and interested in giving a talk the submission deadline is December 4th 2015.

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November 12, 2015

An RTL-SDR Based Smartwatch for Detecting Objects Touched by the Wearer

Disney Research have just released a paper describing an RTL-SDR based smart watch that they've developed a proof of concept for. The smart watch is unique in that it can be used to actually detect the exact object that the wearer is touching.

The prototype watch does this by using the RTL-SDR to detect the electromagnetic (EM) noise emitted by particular objects and compare it against a stored database. They call this technology EM-Sense. In the paper the authors summarize:

Most everyday electrical and electromechanical objects emit small amounts of electromagnetic (EM) noise during regular operation. When a user makes physical contact with such an object, this EM signal propagates through the user, owing to the conductivity of the human body. By modifying a small, low-cost, software-defined radio, we can detect and classify these signals in real-time, enabling robust on-touch object detection. Unlike prior work, our approach requires no instrumentation of objects or the environment; our sensor is self-contained and can be worn unobtrusively on the body. We call our technique EM-Sense and built a proof-of concept smartwatch implementation. Our studies show that discrimination between dozens of objects is feasible, independent of wearer, time and local environment.

The frequencies required for EM detection are around 0 - 1 MHz which falls outside the range of the RTL-SDR's lowest frequency of 24 MHz. To get around this, they ran the RTL-SDR in direct sampling mode. The RTL-SDR is connected to the watch, but a Nexus 5 smartphone is used to handle the USB processing which streams the signal data over WiFi to a laptop that handles the signal processing and live classification. In the future they hope to use a more advanced SDR solution, but the RTL-SDR has given them the proof of concept needed at a very low cost.

An example use scenario of the watch that Disney suggests is as follows:

Home – At home, Julia wakes up and gets ready for another productive day at work. Her EM-Sense-capable smartwatch informs and augments her activities throughout the day. For instance, when Julia grabs her electric toothbrush, EMSense automatically starts a timer. When she steps on a scale, a scrollable history of her weight is displayed on her smartwatch automatically. Down in the kitchen, EM-Sense detects patterns of appliance touches, such as the refrigerator and the stove. From this and the time of day, EM-Sense infers that Julia is cooking breakfast and fetches the morning news, which can be played from her smartwatch.

Fixed Structures – When Julia arrives at the office, EMSense detects when she grasps the handle of her office door. She is then notified about imminent calendar events and waiting messages: "You have 12 messages and a meeting in 8 minutes". Julia then leaves a reminder – tagged to the door handle – to be played at the end of the day: “Don’t forget to pick up milk on the way home.”

Workshop – In the workshop, EM-Sense assists Julia in her fabrication project. First, Julia checks the remaining time of a 3D print by touching anywhere on the print bed – “five minutes left” – perfect timing to finish a complementary wood base. Next, Julia uses a Dremel to cut a piece of wood. EM Sense detects the tool and displays its rotatory speed on the smartwatch screen. If it knows the task, it can even recommend the ideal speed. Similarly, as Julia uses other tools in the workshop, a tutorial displayed on the smartwatch automatically advances. Finally, the 3D print is done and the finished pieces are fitted together.

Office – Back at her desk, Julia continues work on her laptop. By simply touching the trackpad, EM-Sense automatically authenticates Julia without needing a password. Later in the day, Julia meets with a colleague to work on a collaborative task. They use a large multitouch screen to brainstorm ideas. Their EM-Sense-capable smartwatches make it possible to know when each user makes contact with the screen. This information is then transmitted to the large touchscreen, allowing it to differentiate their touch inputs. With this, both Julia and her colleague can use distinct tools (e.g., pens with different colors); their smartwatches provide personal color selection, tools, and settings.

Transportation – At the end of the day, Julia closes her office door and the reminder she left earlier is played back: “Don’t forget to pick up milk on the way home.” In the parking lot, Julia starts her motorcycle. EM-Sense detects her mode of transportation automatically (e.g., bus, car, bicycle) and provides her with a route overview: “You are 10 minutes from home, with light traffic”.

The EM-Sense watch detecting a door. The RTL-SDR dongle is the small square box under the watch.

EM-Sense: Touch Recognition of Uninstrumented Electrical and Electromechanical Objects

Watch this video on YouTube

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November 9, 2015

Meteor M-N1 Satellite Wakes up from the Dead

RTL-SDR.com reader Happysat recently wrote in with some news. A few days ago a weather satellite image decoding enthusiast from Argentina was waiting for a pass of the Russian Meteor M-N2 satellite when he discovered a strong LRPT signal at 137.1 MHz, even though the Meteor M-N2 satellite was not in sight yet. It turns out that the signal was coming from the old Meteor M-N1 satellite which was supposed to have been shut down in September 2014 due to several problems it had. The received signal is strong enough to produce a good black and white weather image, but because the satellite is not longer physically stable, sometimes the Earth’s curve can be seen in the images.

Recent images received from the resurrected Meteor M-N1 weather satellite.

The exact reason as to why it is transmitting again is unknown, but it is speculated that it is due to a breakdown of the chemicals in the batteries. Last year we posted about how sometimes satellites which have been decommissioned and shut down can spontaneously begin transmitting again when their batteries undergo a chemical change due to thousands of failed recharge cycles. The chemical change allows the batteries to conduct electricity from the solar panels directly to the electronics, which on Meteor M-N1 could be reactivating the transmitters and imaging sensors. If this is what happened then the satellite will only be able to transmit during the day.

The Meteor M-N2 satellite is the currently official active satellite. It transmits weather satellite images with the LRPT protocol which can be received and decoded with an RTL-SDR dongle. We have a previous post on this showing an offline LRPT decoding tutorial and more recently a tutorial showing how to decode LRPT in real time. The same processes can now be adapted to the resurrected Meteor M-N1 satellite by choosing the 80K symbol rate option in the LRPT decoder.

Happysat who submitted this news originally writes:

A few days ago some guy in Argentina was waiting for the pass of Meteor M-N2 and on SDRSharp waterfall he did see LRPT Digital signals on 137.100MHz, but Meteor M-N2 was not in sight yet…

This relatively strong signal was coming from the defunct Meteor M-N1 satellite left out of control in September 2014 last year and was shutdown, although LRPT Transmissions in the past where very limited and sporadic.

Meteor M-N1 did suffer from many problems at this was the first Russian digital weather satellite in the M-series onboard many hardware in experimental stages.

After this report I tried also to capture some signals from Meteor M-N1 (some other amateurs already got small portions of images) but the satellite only transmits in direct sunlight, batteries are not charging any more.

Indicating maybe like the other older ‘deadsat’ some chemical reaction did occur inside the batteries so the power goes from the solar panels directly to the transmission parts.
It did happen before, mostly on older satellite’s only a unmodulated carrier is present when the sunlight conditions are optimal.

Surprisingly after I did record and process the 80K symbol rate QPSK signal from Meteor M-N1 with Vasili’s excellent QPSK Plugin a very nice image was generated!

Not only the sunlight provides power to the transmission part but also there is enough power to activate the imaging system which is quite amazing!

Visible channels 1-2-3 are fully working but the image is only Black and White Calibaration of the sensor are not okay so no color images can be created.

Nevertheless its a very nice addition for current LRPT weather amateurs and a big surprise its even working better when nobody controls it 😉

Because the stabilisation system failed there is no proper correction to orientate the camera and on some passes one can see the earths curve!

There are some conflicting reports about the status of Meteor M-N1 found on the internet:

Status Inactive
Details on Status (as available)

MSU-MR was functional with limitations (calibration issues and higher noise level in the IR channels).

MTVZA-GY instrument was functional with limitations due to failures of on-board memory and atmospheric sounding channels.

Severjanin instrument non-operational.

DCS was functional with limitations due to interferences to signals from ground sources.

GGAK-M was operational with significant limitations.

LRPT was functional with limitations due to information compression errors.

Finally, the stabilisation system failed on 23 September 2014 and the instruments could longer be operated.

On October 1, 2014 Meteor-M No 1 was withdrawn from operational use and transferred to the study of the chief designer. The decision on further operation of the spacecraft will be taken upon completion of the research program.

Its not clear the problems did got solved, and I ‘think’ M-N1 started a second life on his own. Time will tell how long the satelitte will function.

Some details:

https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/m/meteor-m-1

http://planet.iitp.ru/english/spacecraft/meteor-m-n1_eng.htm

A color image received on Meteor M-N1. Colors may not be perfect. Submitted by Jan.

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October 7, 2015

SDR# updated to revision 1400 & SDR Touch updated to V2.6

The popular SDR# software which is often used together with RTL-SDR dongles has recently been updated to revision 1400. This new revision brings an interesting new feature which automatically estimates and displays the peak, floor and signal to noise ratio (SNR) values of the currently tuned bandwidth. Watching the SNR metric is very useful when tuning the RF gain settings, as best reception is obtained when the SNR value is maximised. The author also writes that there have been several radical changes to the code that leverage the latest .Net 4.6 framework which should improve the signal processing quality, CPU usage, user experience and hardware support. The changelog is pasted below:

Enhanced the Center tuning mode and extended it for RTL-SDR;
Enhanced the spectrum display;
Changed the frequency labelling to use multiples of 2.5/5/10 or frequency steps;
Added Peak, Floor and SNR estimation for the selection;
Enhanced the defaults for better user experience;

We note that some plugins may break with this update so be sure to make a backup if upgrading. Vasili, one of the most active SDR# plugin programmers has updated most of his plugins to work on this new version now.

Revision 1400 of SDR# with SNR estimation.

In addition to this update, over on the Android OS the popular mobile app SDRTouch has been updated to version 2.6. This new version brings the following features and improvements:

Baseband recording and file playback

Direct sampling support for full-band receivers

Improved SSB image rejection

Fixed tuning step

Manual filter bandwidth

Improved accessibility

Bug fixes

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October 5, 2015

Airspy Revision 2 Released

The Airspy is a $200 USD software defined radio that has a frequency range between 24 – 1700 MHz, bandwidth of up to 10 MHz and a 12-bit ADC. We consider it to be a good upgrade from those who have gotten into SDR via the low cost RTL-SDR.

Recently the Airspy hardware was updated to revision two. The new revision improves upon the first design by reducing noise, improving the USB connector, improving the ESD protection and improving compatibility with the soon to be released Spyverter upconverter. The full release is pasted below:

We have sensitive ears! The demand for ever cheaper, higher performance and ruggedized SDR receivers is driving the professional market. Due to the large demand from our professional customers, we upgraded recently our original Airspy One design to Revision 2. This new revision improves the following points:

Better USB noise immunity

Better ESD protection on the RF input

Added ESD protection on the dual High Speed ADC inputs

Better RF Shielding

Better RF Filtering

Replaced the USB connector with a custom designed, more robust, 4 through hole points model

Better thermal stability

Better compatibility with the SpyVerter

The old revision is no longer produced, and all new shipments will be based on the R2. We are eager to get your feedback about these improvements!

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