Over on his blog, Twitch has uploaded a post showing how he mounted two RTL-SDR dongles into a single metal case in order to reduce noise. Twitch used a $2 aluminium metal case that he obtained from a local surplus shop and cut it down to size and added holes for switches and BNC plugs. He then mounted two RTL-SDR dongles in the case and used two MCX -> BNC pigtails to get a case mounted coax connector.
He also removed the USB plugs on the RTL-SDR’s and wired them into a USB B plug mounted to the case, making sure to wind the USB power cables through several turns of ferrite core in order to reduce USB noise. Finally he also added a power switch to the USB connections, to be able to easily power off the units when not in use.
Recently the commonly used Frequency Manager Suite Plugin for SDR# has been updated. The plugin suite works well with the RTL-SDR and includes features such as a frequency scanner and manager, a scanner metrics recorder, a scheduler, an activity logger and a frequency entry plugin. The changelog is shown below:
Frequency Manager + Scanner
New feature: you may now optionally display the descriptions of frequencies in your database on the spectrum window. You control the colors and transparency of the descriptions and their marker lines.
New feature: the Browse window now allows you to type a frequency directly into the grid, and the grid will dynamically filter your database to matching frequencies. You may type a partial frequency and all frequencies that start with the same digits will be displayed. The more digits you type, the more specific the filtering.
New feature: A checkbox in Preferences lets you control whether the Last Update field is changed when performing bulk edits. When unchecked this permits you to retain the original date and time the frequency was recorded in the database.
New feature: You may now change the font size in the Scanner Decisions window and plugin. The new size will be remembered and used the next time you start SDR#.
New article: User David Bunyan has provided a how-to article in the Appendix on how to use the scanner effectively for WFM DXing. See also the WFM DXing Databases download in the Download Here section to get pre-built databases for different regions around the world, also graciously provided by David Bunyan.
Scanner Metrics
Bug fix: fixed error in the queue manager that prevented recording activity when the date-time format on the computer was not United States.
Bug fix: fixed error that prevented SM from putting its database in the same folder as FM, if the FM database location was changed after SM was loaded.
Data Tools
New feature: default values for imports. Will automatically assign values when they are missing from the source import data.
Bug fix: Fixed culture-specific issue with Frequency values when an Eibi database is downloaded.
Bug fix: Fixed bug that caused Data Tools to change the current database in Frequency Manager + Scanner.
Bug fix: Importing an SDR# Frequency Manager data file now results in a prompt to add or replace existing data in the target FMSuite database.
The Pluginator
New feature: The Pluginator now knows many of the most popular plugins. So now you may simply select one from a list and it will be installed to Plugins.xml, as opposed to requiring you to type the configuration data for the chosen plugin.
AIS Share is an app for Android that allows you to turn an Android device into an AIS receiver by using an RTL-SDR. AIS stands for Automatic Identification System and is used by ships to broadcast their GPS locations, to help avoid collisions and aid with rescues. An RTL-SDR with the right software can be used to receive and decode these signals, and plot ship positions on a map.
AIS Share is a dual channel decoder that outputs decoded NMEA messages via UDP, so that plotting software like OpenCPN can be used to display the ships on a map. AIS Share had been around before in another form known as rtl_ais_android which we posted before, but this version of AIS Share is a newly updated and improved version that now includes a very nice GUI. The app costs about $2 and is available on the Google Play store, but there is a demo available that will work up until 1000 messages are received. You will need an RTL-SDR and a USB OTG cable to run the app.
In the future the author writes that he’d like to update the app to support things like the ability to change more dongle settings like bandwidth/sample rate and add the possibility of using the internal phone/tablet GPS. He is also open to any community suggestions.
AIS Share Receiver on the sailboat in a waterproof case.The back of the Android Tablet, showing the RTL-SDR and the antenna connection.The AIS Share main screen GUI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApGk8P82THs (Unfortunately the video has been removed)
The ESP8266 is a $7 WiFi module that can be used to give any microcontroller access to a WiFi network. It is designed for creating Internet of Things (IoT) devices and has various features such as it’s ability to host it’s own web applications. The ESP8266 also has a I2S output with DMA support. By hooking up this I2S output pin to a short wire, YouTuber CNLohr has demonstrated that he is able to use the ESP to broadcast full color NTSC TV. This works in a similar way to how PiTX works, by using the pin to modulate a radio signal. CNLohrs code note only broadcasts color NTSC, but also provides a full web interface for controlling it.
In the first video CNLohr shows off his initial work at getting the NTSC output working and in the second video he shows color working. Later in the second video he also uses an RTL-SDR to check on the NTSC spectrum that is being output.
When testing the frequency synthesizer Harris found that it could be fairly well calibrated to sit on a desired local oscillator frequency. Originally he had been testing the generator with it directly connected to the RTL-SDR, however later he added some attenuation to prevent the RTL-SDR from overloading. Despite this even with the attenuation he found that the frequency generator seemed to be fairly noisy and poor in terms of the strength of the harmonics produced. He notes that to use in a real application it will probably require good filtering.
In the video shown below Harris demonstrates the frequency generator output and harmonics using the RTL-SDR.
Last week we posted about how Matthew Miller deomnstrated that he was able to get the Windows digital speech decoder (DSD+) software running under OSX with WineSkin. DSD+ allows you to decode digital voice signals such as P25 and Motorola DMR. A few users asked how to actually use WineSkin to create a wrapper, so now Matthew has uploaded a new tutorial video showing how to use WineSkin to get DSD+ running on OSX.
In the video he shows how to download and install WineSkin, and how to create a wrapper that allows DSD+ to run on OSX. The process is relatively simple and only involves using GUI based tools.
Adam writes that the filter will be most useful for those living in urban areas that are close to radio and TV towers. The filter is built on his standard filter PCB which also has the ability to add a simple bias tee circuit for powering externally positioned LNA’s such as his LNA4ALL which are necessary for good reception at L-band with an RTL-SDR.
He is currently selling it fully assembled for 20 euros, plus 5 euros for worldwide shipping.
A while back we posted about Samy Kamkars popular “RollJam” device, which was a $32 home made device that was able to defeat rolling code based wireless security systems such as those used on modern cars.
Wireless security researcher Andrew Macpherson became interested in RollJam and has now written up a post showing how to create a similar device using the YardStickOne and RFcat wireless tools. In his post Andrew shows how he automates the replay attack side of things using a Python script and two RFcat devices. He also fully explains how rolling codes work and how to attack them using the CodeGrabbing/RollJam technique. Andrew explains the RollJam technique as follows:
Target parks their car, gets out the carAttacker launches a jammer that prevents the car from receiving the code from the remote
Target presses the remote, car does NOT lock and the attacker obtains the first keypress
Target presses the remote a second time and the attacker obtains the second keypress
Attacker then sends the first key press to lock the car, car locks as per normal
Target assumes all is well and carries on about their day
Attacker then sends the second keypress to the car, unlocking it
Profit.
Target returns to the vehicle and remote works as per normal
In the video below Andrew uses an SDR to help demonstrate the RollJam attack.
6. jam and replay rolling code rolljam codegrabbing
