Thank you to p0larpatch for writing in and sharing with us his project called "Bluewatch," which uses a Raspberry Pi to detect when new Bluetooth devices appear in your neighborhood. While Bluewatch doesn't use an SDR and only uses a standalone Raspberry Pi, it may still interest our readers. p0larpatch explains the project below:
Get alerts when new Bluetooth devices appear in your local neighbourhood.
The real strength shows up once you actually start using it: categorize the devices you already know, your own phones, your TV, the smart plugs, the neighbour's robot lawnmower, whatever's expected around you, and BlueWatch filters all of that familiar traffic out of the way.
What's left standing out is the interesting part: the moment an unrecognized device enters the radio range of whatever's running BlueWatch, it surfaces immediately instead of being buried under dozens of devices you've already triaged.
The dashboard stops being a wall of MAC addresses and turns into an actual presence radar for your surroundings. You notice the one device that doesn't belong, not the fifty that do.
Thank you to Efe (TA1EEI) for writing in and sharing an HTML web tool he created that uses a PC monitor to transmit Morse code. The tool works by modulating the monitor's pixel clocks to intentionally generate EMI leakage in the form of a Morse code signal. It transmits at 148.5 MHz.
Efe's work appears to be a much simpler version of TrojPix, a University research project that we posted about back in July. TrojPix is a more advanced system that introduces imperceptible pixel modulations into the screen, making high-bandwidth wireless data transfer possible via monitor EMI leakage.
The GitHub project page for Efe's VHF Monitor RF Transmitter explains exactly how the project works, including the video pixel clock and how it can be modulated and transmitted wirelessly. Efe has also provided a link to a Reddit post where there is a video, and discussion.
MicroPhase has just announced the pre-launch of its AntSDR T510 AI software-defined radio platform. This high-end device combines the AMD Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC ZU47DR with an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano. The AMD ZU47DR RFSoC alone is already a beast, covering 1 MHz to 6 GHz, with 14-bit ADCs and 8 RX and 8 TX channels. This is a direct-sampling SDR, meaning no tuners are used, and the ADC simply samples at an extreme 5 GSPS. After the DDCs, each channel has a maximum bandwidth of up to 2 GHz, but smaller channelization can easily be achieved within the large FPGA embedded in the RFSoC.
Obviously, processing a large amount of data requires powerful computing, so the AMD ZU47DR RFSoC is combined with an NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX for real-time AI signal processing and intelligent spectrum analysis.
MicroPhase also notes that the AntSDR T510 AI will be open source, allowing developers to easily work with the hardware. It will ship with an Ubuntu 22.04 system preconfigured with CUDA, include GNURadio and SoapySDR compatibility, and include GPU-accelerated demos for real-time Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and modulation classification using RF data captured by the platform.
This is a high-end SDR comparable to Ettus products that cost US$30k+ like the USRP X410, but Chinese manufacturers like MicroPhase may be able to bring the pricing down. The ANTSDR-T510 non-AI version without the Jetson is already available on Chinese marketplace sites for about US$5000, so with the additional $500 Jetson Orin Nano added, this version should only be a little more expensive.
Back in September 2025, we posted about the "ESP32 Bus Pirate" firmware, which transforms an ESP32-S3 into a multi-protocol debugging and hacking tool. We later covered an update in March 2026 that added waterfall displays, cellular modem support, and an external radio expander.
Although the ESP32 does not have true SDR capabilities, it can leverage its numerous built-in radio hardware components to achieve a range of interesting SDR-like features. Recently, "Geo," the creator of the ESP32 Bus Pirate, wrote in to share some recent firmware updates with us.
Geo notes that the project is now called "ESP32 Bit Pirate" and now includes LoRa/SX1262 support and Meshtastic analysis features.
ESP32 Bit Pirate can now transmit and receive LoRa packets, monitor RSSI, scan frequency activity, display a simple waterfall view and perform Channel Activity Detection. Radio parameters including frequency, bandwidth, spreading factor, coding rate, transmit power, preamble and sync word can be configured directly from the interface.
Packets can also be recorded to the ESP32 filesystem and replayed later together with their original radio configuration.
A dedicated Meshtastic analysis shell has also been added, allowing users to send, receive and inspect Meshtastic packets. The goal is not to replace a Meshtastic node, but to provide a debugging and experimentation interface for understanding and interacting with LoRa/Meshtastic traffic.
The latest update has also added new LoRa hardware support for the Heltec Vision Master T190 and Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4, a browser-based debugging ecosystem, a Python scripting lab, and a BPIO2 USB adapter mode.
The project is entirely open source, and the code can be found on their GitHub page.
Thank you to Esteban Benito (EA8DGL) for writing in and sharing news of a bare-metal open source firmware for the GD32F450-based DeepSDR 101. The firmware is a collaborative effort developed by Esteban Benito (EA8DGL), Alexandr (UA6YKK), and Blas (EA7GIB). The DeepSDR 101 is a popular low-cost hand-held SDR, covering 100 kHz to 149 MHz, with a bandwidth of 192 kHZ, and a 4.3-inch screen. Various clones of the DeepSDR 101 also appear on marketplaces.
Esteban notes that the motivation for writing custom firmware was that the DeepSDR 101 and its clones have had only one firmware update since it came out. While the stock firmware currently works well, it lacks certain features such as selectable filter bandwidths and some demodulation modes, and it needs an updated interface.
Esteban writes:
The idea was to take genuinely inexpensive hardware - a GD32F450 microcontroller, an 800x480 touchscreen, a TLV320AIC3204 audio codec used as the I/Q front-end, and an MS5351 (Si5351-compatible) local oscillator - and turn it into a receiver with features you'd normally only find on much pricier radios:
- A real-time spectrum/waterfall panadapter with adjustable zoom (1x-8x), smoothing, and trace styles - AM, USB, LSB, NFM and WFM demodulation, with adjustable channel bandwidth and squelch - One-tap band presets (shortwave, airband, 2m, HF ham bands, FM broadcast, CB, and more), each pre-loaded with the right mode and tuning step - A touchscreen settings menu with configurable AGC profiles, PGA gain, backlight, and more - Encoder-based tuning down to 100Hz steps across 4.8-180MHz
Everything is bare-metal C - no RTOS, direct register access for clocks/DMA/I2S - and the whole firmware, from the I2S/audio bring-up to the DSP chain to the UI,
With this being fully open, it also opens the door to things like CW, RTTY, SSTV, HF FAX or FT8 decoding down the line - none of that requires new hardware, just firmware that's actually open enough to build on.
So really, the goal isn't to replace or criticize the original firmware - it's to give the community a base to build on, so one of the most affordable and easy-to-use SDR radios out there can keep getting better over time instead of staying frozen after a single update.
DeepSDR 101 Open Source Custom Firmware
AI-Disclaimer: We point out that Esteban discloses that this firmware is primarily being written with AI.
Over on Hackaday, we've seen that Anders Nielsen gave a talk at Hackaday Europe 2026 about his effort to build a software-defined radio with 20 MHz of bandwidth on a bill of materials of under US$50. We've posted about his work before, first with the PhaseLoom quadrature sampling front end, and later with PhaseLatch, which combined a 20 MSPS ADC with a 50-year-old MOS 6502 CPU. In this latest work, the 6502 is still part of the stack, but for the wideband work the samples bypass it entirely.
The RF side is a discrete Tayloe detector built around a TLV3253 analog switch, sampling the signal four times per local oscillator cycle to give downconversion and quadrature in one step. A Si5351 provides two clocks offset by 90 degrees from the same PLL, an ADA4891 op amp buffers into a HT9201 dual 20 MHz 10-bit ADC, and an FX2LP clone streams the parallel data over USB 2.0, avoiding the cost and tool chain of an FPGA. USB bandwidth forces a choice between 20 MHz at 8 bits or 10 MHz at 10 bits, and he notes that PCB design was critical in getting a flat frequency response.
Anders ran a live demo streaming 19.375 MHz into GQRX and showing the whole FM band at once, with tuning handled by firmware running on the FX2LP's own 8051 core. Still to come are bias and offset calibration to suppress the mirror images, better filtering and layout, and a front-end mixer to get past the roughly 100 MHz ceiling of the Si5351. He is also looking for help with the SoapySDR driver, so take a look at his GitHub if you have the skills.
Hackaday Europe 2026: Anders Nielsen - High Performance SDR on the Cheap
Below, we're also embedding the video from his YouTube channel, which covers the same project.
Thank you to Peter for writing in and sharing news about his Android app called V2X2MAP, which makes Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) radio traffic visible on a live map via an attached ESP32 board. The app is not free but costs only a small US$2.49 fee.
V2X is a cooperative wireless system in which vehicles and roadside infrastructure continuously broadcast small messages in the 5.9 GHz band. Equipped cars broadcast their position, speed, heading, and brake status about 10 times per second, while traffic signals broadcast their phase and timing, lane geometry, and event-driven hazard warnings. It can be thought of as something like ADS-B or AIS for cars, though at a much shorter range (typically a couple of hundred meters), with the added feature that roadside infrastructure also transmits.
V2X is designed to enhance vehicle safety, allowing vehicles to know about obstacles, traffic phases, and road geometry in advance. Currently, two incompatible standards are used: the older DSRC (Wi-Fi-based) and the newer C-V2X (cellular-based). Most markets are moving towards C-V2X because it provides short and long-range communications.
The V2X2MAP Android app works together with a $20 Waveshare ESP32-C5 board, which has an onboard 5.9 GHz WiFi 6 radio. The ESP32 receives the older Wi-Fi DSRC signals, particularly the ITS-G5 standard, which appears to be used only in Europe. Once running, V2X2MAP and the ESP32 decode the surrounding V2X broadcasts and plot live vehicles, hazard warnings, and traffic-light countdowns on a map of your immediate area.
Over on his blog, Zoltán Papp and team have created an interesting write-up investigating whether Semtech's LR2021, one of the latest LoRa transceiver chips, which draws only 10.4 mA at 3.3V, can be used as a single-chip ADS-B receiver at 1090 MHz. The LR2021 natively supports OOK modulation, and the datasheet even hints at ADS-B reception. Building on prior work, the team captured live ADS-B signals with an SDR and replayed them into the LR2021 eval board for repeatable bench testing.
The initial 3 MHz Rx bandwidth configuration had only a 50% packet success rate with no reception above -50 dBm, because the AGC could not settle within the short 8 us preamble. Extending the sync pattern into the Mode S 'df' field enabled reception across the full dynamic range, but at the trade-off of broadcast message reception only. Manchester decoding and CRC also had to be moved to the host, since, for an unknown reason, Manchester decoding with inverse polarity would not work on the chip.
Measured sensitivity came in about 5 dB shy of the theoretical -89 dBm, with most of the gap blamed on the eval board's front end being matched for 868 MHz rather than 1090 MHz. The team notes that with a modified front end, the theoretical sensitivity should be possible.
With the rise in Raspberry Pi costs due to the consumer memory chip crisis, cheaper ADS-B receiver hardware is welcome. Some existing microcontroller-based ADS-B decoders that we've seen recently include ADSBee and PicoADSB.
Signal Hound SDR Hardware used to Capture and Replay ADS-B For Testing
