GNU Radio for Windows + Decoding ATSC HDTV on GNU Radio for Windows

Recently an updated set of binaries and build scripts were posted for GNU Radio for Windows. GNU Radio is a graphical digital signal processing language that is compatible with many software defined radios such as the RTL-SDR. Normally it is used on Linux as the Windows builds have been known to be very buggy and difficult  to install. However the latest update appears to make it easier to install. The changes were announced on the GNU Radio mailing list by Geof Nieboer, and he writes:

An updated set of windows binaries and build scripts have been posted. Quick summary:

1- Added gqrx to package
2- Patched 2 x issues which would cause the generic version to crash on non-AVX systems (one in volk, one in FFTW)
3- Added gr-newmod to package

Plus a number of improvements to make the scripts more robust.

Binaries at http://www.gcndevelopment.com/gnuradio/downloads.htm
Scripts at https://github.com/gnieboer/GNURadio_Windows_Build_Scripts

To run GNU Radio for Windows you will need a 64-bit version of Windows 7/8/10. It appears that the installation is as easy as running the installer and waiting for it to download and install the 1.7 GB worth of files.

Also, over on his blog author designing on a juicy cup posted about how he’d been able to get the GNU Radio Windows binaries to run a ATSC HDTV decoder from a file recorded using an SDRplay RSP (ATSC is too wideband for an RTL-SDR to decode). ATSC is the digital TV standard used in North America, some parts of Central America and South Korea. He writes that one advantage to using GNU Radio on Windows is the ability to use a RAM drive for faster file processing.

GNU Radio ATSC Decoder Running on Windows.
GNU Radio ATSC Decoder Running on Windows.
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tom
Ben321

I know this is an old post, so you maybe think I’m necroposting, but the fact is that for those who are attempting to follow the instructions, the age of this post is exactly the problem. It’s so old, that the link for downloading the installer for GNU Radio for Windows at http://www.gcndevelopment.com/gnuradio/downloads.htm is broken. Does anybody here have an update? I just received an ATSC signal with HackRF, and saved it to a file, and want to decode it. I want to follow these instructions for installing GNU Radio and the ATSC decoder for GNU Radio. But I can’t because the download link for GNU Radio for Windows is broken. I could do it the “proper” way and install Linux on a computer and then download and compile GNU Radio on that computer, but I prefer to use my main PC (a Windows PC) for as much stuff as possible. So if there’s an installer somewhere I can still download for GNU Radio for Windows, that would be great.

Ebraheem

hi every body.
can you tell me where to find installation guide for binary installation to this release?
thanks you for helping.

InternetGuy

although /tmp is also a ramdisk, the way you suggested allows the user to set the size

InternetGuy

> was meant to be a reply to Marty 😛

Nate

I wonder if this will make it possible to run OP-25 under Windows?

KD0CQ

A quick tip. If you have Pothos SDR installed GQRX will not load under this binary package. Was running into issues with UHD.dll. I imagine it was a path or multiple/different UHD.dll version issue, so I removed PothosSDR and GQRX started working.

73

ian

got grx running okay but in GRC when i try to compile or run a flow file i get this

Generating: ‘C:\\Program Files\\GNURadio-3.7\\share\\adsb\\examples\\top_block.py’
Generate Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: ‘C:\\Program Files\\GNURadio-3.7\\share\\adsb\\examples\\top_block.py’
>>> Failure

ideas?

Allan

I had the same problem so I changed the properties of the *.py files to allow full access by the group Users.

Alyx

its up and running … but no osmocom source blocks are showing up …

Marty

My guess (have not installed it) is that you may need to read the docs: http://www.gcndevelopment.com/gnuradio/documentation.htm

Marty

“one advantage … snip … on Windows is the ability to use a RAM drive for faster file processing” that is not an advantage of Windows, it takes less than 10 seconds to setup a RAM drive on Linux:
$ mkdir /var/tmp/ramdisk
$ free -m
$ sudo mount -t tmpfs -o size=1G tmpfs /var/tmp/ramdisk

Marty

And the same amount of time to get rid of it:
sudo umount /var/tmp/ramdisk

InternetGuy

thank you, i was wondering if someone else noticed that!