Category: Other

New Talk by Balint Seeber: Hacking the Wireless World with SDR

Balint Seeber is a researcher at Ettus, designers of the USRP line of software defined radios. Every so often he gives an interesting conference talk about his latest projects. This time he’s given a talk at Ruxmon Sydney in April of this year and it has just been uploaded to YouTube.

In the talk Balint overviews the projects that he’s working on or completed. His topics include:

  • His work with creating his own battery powered GSM base station including a live demo where members from the audience connect to and call him via the base station.
  • His work with FPV drones and creating an SDR based FPV digital video system.
  • Hacking restaurant pagers.
  • Attempting to communicate with and revive the ISEE-3 spacecraft using the large radio dish at Arecibo.
  • Gathering actual RADAR data from listening to a real airport active RADAR system and plotting the returns on a map.
  • Investigating RFID tags and attempting to unlock his car via an SDR.
Ruxmon Sydney (April 2015): Hacking the Wireless World with SDR

Monitoring Drone FPV Frequency Usage with a USRP Software Defined Radio

Over on YouTube balint256 (Balint), a researcher at Ettus (creators of the USRP line of software defined radios) has uploaded a video showing how he is using his USRP to help with frequency management at FPV time trial racing events. FPV a.k.a First Person View is a term used to describe the act of flying a remote controlled aircraft such as a quadcopter with an onboard camera that transmits live video down to the pilot. FPV racing is a new sport where pilots race FPV controlled drones around a track.

One important technical challenge at these events is frequency management. FPV drones use many frequencies at around 2.4 GHz for control and 5.8/2.4/1.3 GHz for video. With many drones in the air it is important that frequencies are managed appropriately so as to not jam each others signals.

To try and solve this problem Balint has been using GNU Radio coupled with a USRP X310 software defined radio to get very wide band RF spectrum waterfall views of the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands. In the waterfalls he is able to see when control signals and video signals are transmitted and at what frequency, and is able to tell if any are overlapping and jamming each other.

SDR Wideband Spectrum Monitoring for Drone FPV Frequency Management

In addition to this, Balint has also been working on his custom software defined radio based digital video downlink. Back in March we posted about his earlier work on this concept. In the video Balint demonstrates his drone with an on board USRP E310 which is used to send a custom 4.2 Mbps video downlink.

SDR digital video downlink (custom drone FPV) with E310 + webcam

A Review of the TitanSDR Pro

Over on the swling.com blog, Thomas has uploaded a review of the TitanSDR Pro that was published in the May 2015 version of The Spectrum Monitor online magazine. Although the TitanSDR pro software defined radio is an expensive (1,380 EUR for the basic / 1,970 EUR for the PRO), it may be of interest to those looking to go further into the short wave listening hobby. The TitanSDR is a high performance 9 kHz to 32 MHz receiver with 16 built in preselectors and a bandwidth up to 2.1875 MHz. It’s main markets appear to be government intelligence and military, but it also finds good use in general short wave listening.

Thomas reviews the TitanSDR positively, liking its easy to use software and its superb sensitivity, but noting that it’s high price may be a bit off putting.

Also, in the current June version of The Spectrum Monitor magazine Thomas also reviews the SDRPlay, a $149 USD HF capable radio, also giving it a favourable review.

The TitanSDR Pro
The TitanSDR Pro

Manual Installation of SDR#

Manual Installation of the RTL-SDR drivers with SDR# for the RTL-SDR

NOTE PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: You only need to do a manual driver installation if the automatic installation described in the quick start guide has failed! This page is purely instructions for a manual install which 99.9% of the time is not necessary!

1) Download the RTL-SDR Drivers, and extract the rtlsdr.dll file from the x86 folder into the SDR# folder:

http://github.com/rtlsdrblog/rtl-sdr-blog/releases/latest/download/Release.zip

2) Download zadig from their website and place it into the SDR# folder:
https://zadig.akeo.ie

ARTEMIS: Free Signal Identification Software

Marco, a reader of RTL-SDR.com and user of our sister site sigidwiki.com has been developing some Windows software to display the sigidwiki.com database in an easier to access format. The software is called Artemis and can be downloaded from http://markslab.tk/project-artemis/.

Artemis allows for various example signals to be quickly viewed with the corresponding example waterfall image, frequency, bandwidth and other information. There is also a filtering function that allows you to search by frequency and type of signal.

Marco writes that he would love to hear any user requests for new features such as more filters, improvements, or anything else as well as any bug reports. We also note that data such as frequencies and bandwidths provided in the sigidwiki.com database may not yet be 100% correct since the wiki is relatively new and is yet to mature.

Screenshot of Artemis
Screenshot of Artemis

New Notch Filter Plugin for SDR#

SDR# plugins programmer Vasili Beliakov has recently published a new notch filter plugin for SDR#. A notch filter will allow you to remove interfering signals that appear on top of a signal of interest. An example is shown in the image below first posted on Twitter by Youssef, the main developer of SDR#. In this image there is an interfering signal within the AM signal of interest. The notch filter removes the interferer without the need to remove the entire sideband.

The plugin also has VFO tracking which allows you to save preset notch filters for particular frequencies.

The plugin can be downloaded from https://t.co/dkEaWaQSmT. New Link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43061070/ifnotch.zip

Notch Filter Plugin Example
Notch Filter Plugin Example

Updates to the Power Line Noise Detector “Driveby” System

A few days ago we posted about Tim Havens “driveby” project, which is a RTL-SDR based system he developed to help create heatmaps of power line noise in his neighborhood. Upon doing further research, Tim discovered that the main source of power line interference was appearing at a frequency of 44.252 MHz. Then by using his driveby system to create a heatmap of his area at this frequency and also by using a hand held radio he was able to pinpoint a massive source of power line noise.

The noise appears to be coming from a faulty and unsafe power pole near a local school. He writes that the power poles primary ground line has been severed and that a wire from the AC line is simply dangling in the air, ready to be grabbed by school children.

Heatmap showing sources of powerline interference
Heatmap showing sources of powerline interference
The faulty power pole
The faulty power pole with dangling AC line
Severed grounding line
Severed grounding line

PortableSDR now on Kickstarter

Back in November, 2014 we posted about the PortableSDR, a 0 – 35 MHz portable software defined radio transceiver that was the third place winner in the Hackaday Prize competition. The PortableSDR project is gaining traction and now has a Kickstarter campaign. They write:

The Portable Software Defined Radio, or PSDR, is an Open Source, Fully stand-alone HF/Shortwave Software Defined Transceiver. It includes a Vector Network Analyzer and Antenna Analyzer as well as GPS. It’s built for rugged portable use. It is designed to be a flexible platform for development, a learning aid, and and a useful instrument for electronics enthusiasts.

Features:

  • Coverage from 0 to 35MHz
  • Waterfall display that lets you see radio signals
  • Receives AM, USB (Upper Side Band), LSB (Lower Side Band), and Morse code (CW)
  • Modulates USB and LSB signals
  • Variable bandpass filter

The campaign hopes to raise $60,000 USD to aid in the development of the hardware and software and with the manufacturing process. The kickstarter is offering kits at various stages of completion from $250 to $475 and a fully assembled kit at $499. They note that the current PSDR2 that you will receive from the Kickstarter is still a development version, not the final product. The PSDR2 is missing some key features that will be in the final version like filters and output amplifiers.

The PSDR v.1
The PSDR v.1
PortableSDR - 2014 Hackaday Prize Judge Recap