Category: News

Possible fixes for new versions of SDR# crashing with RTL-SDRs

SDR# (SDRSharp) is our recommend software for RTL-SDRs due to it's high popularity in the community, relatively simple to learn and use interface, and host of features and third party plugins available.

Recently we're starting to see a lot of Facebook and forum posts about a new bug introduced in SDR# 1911 - 1913 so we thought we'd make a global post. This new bug has introduced a problem which causes a crash when attempting to change frequencies with RTL-SDR dongles (of any make or brand). It appears to be an issue stemming from libusb, but the exact issue is still unknown. The SDR# author is aware of the issue, but as RTL-SDR dongles are supported in SDR# for free with no guarantee, it may be several weeks until he has the time to investigate the issue fully. In the meantime we want to note some some partial fixes that we have found.

The first fix is to use our "rtl-sdr-blog" drivers instead of the default osmocom drivers. Our Quickstart guide now shows how to download these drivers and install them into SDR#, so if you want to try this solution, please see the guide. We're not exactly sure why this driver helps, but it may be due to our version being compiled against a newer version of libusb. However, this fix is only partial. While it no longer crashes on every frequency change, it will still crash approximately 5% of the time on a frequency change, which can add up when surfing through the spectrum rapidly, or when using frequency scanners.

We have also found a second fix that almost completely eliminates the crash, but it appears that it only works on some PCs. This fix is to use our rtl-sdr-blog drivers, and at the same time use Zadig to install the "libusb-win32" version of libusb, instead of the WinUSB version. However, the libusb-win32 is old, and it only appears to work on some PCs. On others it causes SDR# to crash as soon as the RTL-SDR is loaded.

Alternatively you can simply use a legacy version of SDR# by clicking the "Latest dotnet x.x build" links on the SDR# downloads page.

The final alternative would be to use another program like SDR++, which is very similar to SDR#, but without a large amount of plugins available yet. We have also added a SDR++ installation guide to our quickstart guide.

Airspy 2023 Summer Sale: 15% Off All Airspy Products

Airspy is currently holding their annual summer sale which gives 15% off their line of products until June 25. The sale brings the price of the popular Airspy receiver products down to the following in US dollars (note that actual pricing may vary across local resellers):

  • Airspy R2: $169.00 $143.65
  • Airspy Mini: $99.00 $84.15 
  • Airspy HF+ Discovery: $169.00 $143.65
  • Airspy SpyVerter R2: $49.00 $41.65
  • YouLoop Antenna: $39.95 $33.95

The sale is active at all participating resellers, which includes our own store where we have the YouLoop on sale for US$33.95 including free shipping to most countries in the world. Please note that due to new EU VAT collection laws, EU customers must purchase the discounted YouLoop from our eBay or Aliexpress stores. 

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. 

 

CrowdFunding for the uSDR has started: A $299 M.2 TX/RX 300-3700 MHz, 30.72 MSPS SDR

Back in May we posted about pre-release news of the uSDR, a duplex TX & RX capable software defined radio, with a frequency range of 300-3700 MHz, and up to 30.72 MSPS of sampling rate. It also has an interesting defining feature in that it can be controlled via a web browser and that it connect via an M.2 slot (with a USB adapter available too).

The uSDR recently started it's crowd funding phase on CrowdSupply a few hours ago. It is priced at $299 for the uSDR board, with various adapters and antennas also available for purchase.

The CrowdSupply page has been updated and includes full details about the SDR, noting it's use of the LMS6002 SDR chip from Lime Microsystems and a Xilinx Artix 7 XC7A35T FPGA.

They also show screenshots of their web software which is looking pretty slick. It appears that you can instantiate various apps from the web interface. The apps include a 2G cellular network, FM receiver, IQ generator, IQ playback, frequency spectrum monitor, device sharing, signal analyzer, signal inspector and spectrogram.

uSDR. A Tiny M.2 single component SDR controlled from a Web browser

uSDR. Cellular network in a browser

 

Progress Updates on the GSG Universal Radio Test Instrument (URIT)

In May we posted about how Great Scott Gadgets (GSG), the team behind the HackRF SDR and several other popular products, are in the early stages of developing a new type of SDR product called the "Universal Radio Test Instrument" or URTI for short.

Thank you to a few blog readers for pointing out that earlier this month the URTI GitHub lab-notes were updated with a progress report, and some further information about the architecture. The URTI will be split into a mainboard PCB, and a user interface PCB. The former will contain the USB interface, FPGA computing, and radio, and the latter will run a display and tactile controls. 

For the radio components, the team appear to be using similar components to what is used in the HackRF. They have selected the MAX5865 as their analog to digital converter (ADC) chip which is a faster sampling version of the MAX5864 which is used in the HackRF. They've also chosen either the MAX2831 or MAX2830 as their quadrature transmitter, and the MAX2120 as their quadrature receiver. They are also using the RFFC5072 chip as their mixer. These are again similar or the same as parts used in the HackRF.

In the update they also make notes on their SMA connector selection, PCB trace width selection, and their selection of Unun, RF switch, clock generator and RF limiter parts. They also note progress on their software which will provide a DSP library for the FPGA, and their tests of a display via a hand held game console.

In the next stage of development the team will be designing and assembling the mainboard to try and quickly make a platform available for software developers to get started on.

Testing the MAX2830 Chips with a GreatFET
URTI Overall Architecture
URTI Mainboard Architecture

GNU Radio Conference 2023 to be held September 5 – 9: Call for Participation and Registration is Open

Thank you to Marcus Müller for letting us know that a call for participation and registration for GRCon'23 (GNU Radio Conference 2023) is currently open. GNU Radio conference talks are generally about cutting edge radio research topics and applications that involve the use of GNU Radio, a popular DSP framework for SDRs. If you are interested, previous years talks can be found on the GNU Radio YouTube channel.

The deadline for participation to present is still open, having been extended to June 23. If you wish to submit an abstract you can do so here. Registration for in person attendance is also open. Alternatively, the talks can be viewed via livestream online for free or via a small donation.

GRCon'23 is happening in early September this year – so our submission deadlines are a bit tighter than usual.

Submission for talks, papers, workshops, and other contributions are accepted through the GRCon'23 website:

https://events.gnuradio.org/event/21/abstracts/

This call for participation closes on 5 June 2022! [Now extended to June 23]

A tiny bit about the GNU Radio conference:

GRCon is GNU Radio's annual conference, being held in changing cities in the U.S., and also live-streamed and chat-interacted online. Watching the main track online and interacting with the audience and speakers via chat are free. Registration for the in-person event started in March.

GRCon'23 happens 5 – 9 September in Tempe, Arizona at ASU.

What GRCon offers is a main track of presentations with topics on GNU Radio, applications of SDR / high-rate signal processing, computational radio science, scientific and industry developments, policy and technological breakthroughs.

Next to that, there's tutorials on specific topics, a poster session, Special Interest Groups and the developer's summit, which is the get-together for the project developers.

Oh, and of course, there's social events, happening at local highlight locations.

If you have *any* question (and I mean that – we're trying to make GRCon as accommodating as possible) about GRCon, be it about attendance, online participation, content submission or other problems related to the conference, we want you to reach out: Here on the mailing list, on the chat (https://chat.gnuradio.org), or in a private email to the GRCon organizers ([email protected]).

 

uSDR: A TX/RX 300-3700 MHz, 30.72 MSPS Capable SDR with M.2 Interface and Web Browser Control

Over on CrowdSupply a new SDR called "uSDR" created by Wavelet SDR has been announced (not to be confused with the uSDR software). uSDR is a tiny SDR that interfaces via an M.2 slot on a PC/laptop motherboard. Typically M.2 slots are what you would use to connect a solid-state drives (SSD), but can also be used for adding expansion cards. However, a simple M.2 to USB adapter could be used to convert it into dongle form.

The uSDR is advertised of being a duplex TX & RX capable SDR, with a frequency range of 300-3700 MHz, and up to 30.72 Msps of sampling rate. It also has a 0.5 PPM TCXO. To keep it's tiny form factor, it uses small MHF4 antenna connectors.

The device appears to be based on the AMD Xilinx ARTIX-7 FPGA and the LimeMicro LMS6002 transceiver IC.

One interesting differentiating feature of the uSDR is that it is designed to be operated via it's web interface which can be accessed through Chrome. They make use of WebUSB technology, which allows Chrome to directly connect to USB devices. This should help eliminate installation and compatibility issues, and allow the SDR to easily be used over a network. Apart from the web interface it is also compatible with SoapySDR and GNU Radio. Sergey, one of the creators of uSDR wrote:

During development we focused on ease of use, thus it supports WebUSB interface. Meaning you can view Spectrogram, record or playback IQ data, do some signal analysis and even share your device over the internet to get others access to it. And all this doesn’t require any software or specific drivers and works in Linux/Windows/Mac OS/Android and more. One can even extend these applications and run their own.

The device is single channel covering a range ~230MHz-3.7GHz for TX / RX and we’re making it affordable. Last but not least you still can use this device with SoapySDR as a regular SDR.

The project is currently in it's early stages, with Crowd Funding expected to begin soon. Pricing is still unknown, however Sergey did mention that it will be affordable. Subscribe for announcements via their CrowdSupply page.

uSDR: A tiny, single-sided M.2 SDR board that you can operate easily using your web browser
uSDR web platform. FM Receiver showcase

Great Scott Gadgets to Develop a Universal Radio Test Instrument (URTI)

Great Scott Gadgets (GSG), creators of the HackRF, YARD Stick One and Great FET (among other products) have announced that they are developing a device called a "Universal Radio Test Instrument (URTI)". They note that:

URTI will offer radio amateurs, researchers, educators, and professionals an affordable, compact RF test tool that could be used in place of multiple expensive pieces of traditional radio test equipment.

Our goal for URTI is to design a single hardware platform capable of serving as many popular types of one-port or two-port RF test instruments. We plan to build a directional coupler into a wideband, full-duplex SDR platform to enable URTI to function as a:

  • spectrum analyzer
  • vector network analyzer
  • vector signal generator
  • vector signal analyzer
  • antenna analyzer
  • power meter
  • frequency counter
  • full-duplex SDR transceiver

The design and hardware of the URTI appear to still be in the very early stages, with nothing other than early component lab tests released yet. However, given the track record of GSG products, we expect that they will release a high quality and completely open source product in time. We look forward to tracking the progress of the URTI.

More information about the device is available at https://greatscottgadgets.com/2023/05-04-development-of-a-universal-radio-test-instrument

Maverick-603 Project Suspended Indefinitely

Back in December 2022 we posted about the Maverick-603 which was at that stage Crowd Funding on Crowd Supply.

It was to be a US$149 FT8 receiver based on an open source RF chip design, capable of acquiring signals between 7 MHz and 70 MHz (technically 1 MHz to 100 MHz). Shipments were expected to begin in April 2023.

Unfortunately the Maverick team just released today that the project will be suspended indefinitely due to logistical issues. Backers of the project will receive a full refund.

The Maverick-603 project has been indefinitely suspended due to unforeseen logistical obstacles. No funds have yet been spent and all backers will receive full refunds. If you backed this project, your refund will be issued within the next week to the credit card you originally used. If your credit card is no longer valid, please contact Crowd Supply support before midnight UTC on Friday, April 28, 2023 to arrange your refund. If the Maverick-603 project is revived, we will post another update. Thank you for your support and patience.

The Maverick-603 FT8 Receiver
The Maverick-603 FT8 Receiver