Category: News

RTL-SDR with HF Upconverter Mod Built In by Kn0ck

Update: KN0CKs products are now available at http://www.kn0ck.com/HF_SDR/.

A few months back we posted about Marty Kn0ck’s plans to sell an RTL-SDR dongle with integrated HF upconverter.

This dongle is now for sale at easy-kits.com.

His RTL-SDR + HF upconverter combination is different to the other combinations posted previously, as Marty uses tiny surface mount components to fit the entire HF upconverter within the dongle casing itself. The result is an RTL-SDR that is capable of tuning between 0 and 30 MHz which goes for $100 USD.

Marty Kn0ck Integrated RTL-SDR

RTL-SDR/HackRF Live DVD

If you’ve been wanting to use your RTL-SDR or HackRF on Linux, but didn’t know how to or couldn’t be bothered installing all the software, there is now a live DVD downloadable thanks to Reddit user rtl_sdr_is_fun. With a live DVD you can boot into an Ubuntu OS (with many pre-installed SDR related programs) directly from the DVD without the need to install anything.

The Live DVD is only available for 64-bit CPUs.

See more information about the Live CD and the software it contains in this release note, and see the Reddit thread here.

Direct Download:

http://files.persona.cc/linux/ubuntu/ubuntu-12.04.2-custom-sdr-amd64.iso

Torrent: (seeded by server and supports webseed)

http://files.persona.cc/linux/ubuntu/ubuntu-12.04.2-custom-sdr-amd64.iso.torrent

New RTL-SDR Adaptation for HF and VHF/UHF For Sale

A few months ago we saw a Hungarian hardware developer selling a custom RTL-SDR software defined radio which included an upconverter built into the PCB.

Now a new Brazilian hardware developer has begun selling similar home made RTL-SDR units that can receive HF by default. Note that the page is in Portuguese, but Google translate does a reasonable job at translating.

These units come in a nice box and are capable of receiving between 0 to 1750Mhz.  Attached to the box are two UHF (SO-259) 50 Ohm connectors, one for an HF antenna and one  and a USB port. The developer also provides a CD which seems to come with the drivers, SDRSharp and some plugins. We aren’t sure if this SDR is using direct sampling or an upconverter to get HF signals as there don’t seem to be many details about the modifications made on the page.

The price is $185 Brazilian Reals, which is about $82 USD.

Combined RTL-SDR and Upconverter

The page links to a video showing the SDR in action which is shown below.

SDR Touch Updated to Version 1.6

Version 1.6 of the popular Android based RTL-SDR software defined radio software, SDRTouch has been released. News comes via this forum post.

This release adds the following

  • Waterfall
  • Speed optimizations
  • Fixed squelch clicks
  • Fixed a few crash cases

They have also made the FFT engine about 3 – 4 times faster than in previous versions.

Download it from the Google Play store

sdtouch

Decoding Pagers on the Raspberry Pi with RTL-SDR

Hackaday has brought to attention a tutorial written on the Raspberry Pi forums by Sonny_Jim showing how to decode pager transmissions on the Raspberry Pi. In the tutorial he also shows how to set up a web server to be able to view the decoded transmissions in a web browser.

He uses a RTL-SDR and Raspberry Pi and pipes the output of rtl_fm into the multimonNG software to decode the messages.

Portable RTL-SDR Running on Raspberry Pi

Over on Reddit user olgierd has posted a video on this thread showing his work on developing a portable software defined radio based on an RTL-SDR R820T, the rtl_fm software and a Raspberry Pi with LCD screen. The software is based on rtl_fm which has the capability to demodulate FM/AM/SSB signals. His video shows him tuning to various signals using a tuning knob.

Note that his setup is capable of playing the audio, but it is not shown in the video as he only had earbuds connected. In the future he hopes to make it more portable by adding a li-ion battery.

SDR Touch Updated to Version 1.5

Version 1.5 of the popular Android based RTL-SDR software, SDRTouch has been released.

This new version adds presets, which is useful if you intend to use SDR Touch as an in car Android based radio.

The DMCA claims made on the software earlier also seem to have been resolved, meaning that SDR Touch can be obtained from the Google Play market once again.