YouTube GNU Radio Tutorials for Windows 10

Thank you to YouTuber M Khanfar for submitting news about his various Windows GNU Radio tutorials that he has been uploading to YouTube. So far he's uploaded tutorials on creating an FM Receiver, Air Band Receiver, AM/NFM Receiver, NFM Receiver with Squelch and Recorder and Spectrum Analyzer with GNU Radio on Windows 10. The tutorials are straight to the point and designed to be followed along with the video. The full list of videos can be found on his YouTube channel, and we have embedded one below.

Build NFM Reciver with Squelch and Recorder Activity GNU RADIO Win10

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A Hydrogen Line Radio Telescope made from a Homemade Helical Antenna and RTL-SDR

Thank you to Geoff for submitting his experience with creating a hydrogen line radio telescope out of an easy to build helical antenna, Raspberry Pi, LNA and an RTL-SDR. The Hydrogen Line is an observable increase in RF power at 1420.4058 MHz created by Hydrogen atoms. It is most easily detected by pointing a directional antenna towards the Milky Way as there are many more hydrogen atoms in our own galaxy. This effect can be used to measure the shape and other properties of our own galaxy.

Earlier in the year we uploaded a tutorial showing how to observe the Hydrogen line with a 2.4 GHz WiFi antenna. In Geoff's setup he used a home made Helical antenna instead. This antenna is basically a long tube with a spiral wire element wrapped around the tube. He also shows how he needed to impedance match the antenna with a triangular piece of copper tape. The result is a directional antenna with about 13 dBi gain. To complete his setup he used a NooElec SAWBird H1+ LNA/Filter, an RTL-SDR Blog V3 dongle and a Raspberry Pi.

The results show a clear increase in RF power at the Hydrogen line frequency when the antenna points at the Milky Way, indicating that the setup works as expected. It's good to see a Helical working for this, as it is fairly light weight and could easily be mounted on a motorized mount to scan the entire sky.

A Hydrogen Line Radio Telescope made with a Helical Antenna.
A Hydrogen Line Radio Telescope made with a Helical Antenna.
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Russian YouTuber Compares the RTL-SDR Blog V3 against the ColibriNano on HF

Over on YouTube a Russian language channel called "HAM Radio Channel" has uploaded a video that compares our RTL-SDR Blog V3 against a ColibriNano. While the video is narrated in Russian, it is easy to understand the side by side comparisons with the V3 running on HDSDR on the left of the screen, and the ColibriNano running on its custom software on the right.

The Russian made ColibriNano is a 14-bit direct sampling SDR with 0.1-55 MHz tuning range (undersampling up to 500 MHz), and up to 3 MHz bandwidth. It costs about US$280 - US$300 depending on the region. The RTL-SDR Blog V3 is our US$24.95 receiver with built in direct sampling mod which allows users to bypass the tuner in software resulting in a low-end HF receiver.

While the RTL-SDR Blog V3 cannot compare spec-wise to the ColibriNano, the review shows that the 12x cheaper SDR can still hold up fairly well against the higher end product. Of course as we always say, the differences between most SDRs only become apparent in challenging signal conditions, and we're sure that the ColibriNano would win out in conditions with very strong and weak signals being received together without appropriate pre-filtering. But if the conditions and/or pre-filtering is right, we belive that the RTL-SDR Blog V3 is still the best bang for your buck overall.

Что лучше? RTL-SDR или ColibriNANO? Сравнение SDR приемников

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The YouLoop Passive Loop Antenna Reviewed on HF Reception

Thank you to Robin from the "Frugal Radio" channel on YouTube for submitting his latest video which is a review of the Airspy YouLoop antenna that we currently have for sale on our store for $34.95 including shipping.

The YouLoop is a low cost passive loop antenna for HF and VHF. It is based on the Möbius loop design which results in a high degree of noise cancelling. However the main drawback is that it is a non-resonant design, which means that it needs to be used with ultra low MDS receivers like the Airspy HF+ Discovery. However, a high performance HF pre-amp will be available in the future which will allow it to work well with other radios too.

In his video Robin tests the YouLoop on the HF bands with an Airspy HF+ Discovery and he demonstrates excellent noise free reception from his location. In terms of his setup he notes:

I am running Spyserver on a 10 year old Windows 7 laptop in the loft. The same laptop is also running 3 x SDRSharp instances (following 2 digital trunking systems). It runs 4 x  simultaneous Zello instances each providing a high quality audio feed to my Network Radio / phone.
 
In terms of noise-creating equipment nearby, there is
  • a second laptop used for other duties
  • a Pi 3B used for ADS-B reception, feeds & a second instance of spyserver 
  • a Pi 3A with MMDVM module performing as a hotspot
  • a Motorola HT charger
  • 5 x base station scanners
This means there are 10 x switched mode power supplies constantly running, as well as 4 x 24/7 WiFi devices.
All this equipment is within 10ft of the YouLoop antenna, was one of my primary reason for choosing a passive loop. 
 
Since making the video, cable clips have been added provide support to the antenna which means it is now in the correct shape of a loop.  That means I am unable to rotate the antenna to make use of the nulls when receiving. However I am very pleased with the performance based on the location, noisy environment, and frugal pricing :-)
$35 Airspy YouLoop Passive Antenna Review : tested on HF using Airspy HF+ Discovery SDR

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Building a Raspberry Pi Based AIS Receiver with an RTL-SDR, Preamp and Collinear Antenna

Thank you to SARCNET (School Amateur Radio Club Network) for submitting news about their tutorial on building a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR based AIS receiver. In their tutorial they show what equipment is required and provide access to a ready to use SD Card image for the Pi that has the AIS software pre-installed and ready go. They also show how to upload data to various online AIS data aggregators like AISHub and MarineTraffic.

AIS stands for Automatic Identification System and is used by ships to broadcast their GPS locations in order to help avoid collisions and aide 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.

The School Amateur Radio Club Network publishes a simple project aimed at promoting the deployment of maritime Automatic Information System (AIS) receiving stations around the world using cheap RTL-SDR dongles and Raspberry Pi computers. The purpose of the project is to improve the existing terrestrial AIS receiving network by encouraging enthusiasts to setup their own AIS receiving stations and to disseminate their local vessel traffic data freely to AIS Servers. This data can then be used by many organisations involved in monitoring and improving the safety and security of shipping.

The SARCNET project, which works on all models of Raspberry Pi, makes building the AIS receiving station simple by providing pictorial construction details with a pre-packaged Raspberry Pi image to download. The free project uses open-source software and a bootable Raspberry Pi image which has been updated to use the latest Raspbian Lite operating system.

One of the attractions of building your own AIS receiving station is that some AIS servers reward you when you freely upload your local vessel tracking data. They publish your station information, showing your station position on a map and your receiving statistics like messages per hour and coverage in nautical miles. Some give you free, premium access to their AIS data, which can be viewed on their mobile apps. Even so, by operating one of these AIS receiving stations, you will have the satisfaction of making the world a safer place.

AIS Received with a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR Dongle.
AIS Received with a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR Dongle.
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PineTab Linux Tablet will have an Optional RTL-SDR Expansion Module

The PineTab is an upcoming $100 open source Ubuntu Linux Tablet being created by PINE who are known for their low cost Pine64 single board computers, Pinebook Laptop and Linux based PinePhone. The PineTab is not yet for sale, and they have just announced their intention to begin taking pre-orders in late May, and that the first production run will be a limited quantity pilot production intended only for early adopters.

What's interesting about the PineTab is that they are advertising that they are working on expansion options, with one expansion module being an RTL-SDR. It seems that the expansion module will allow cards to be inserted internally, keeping everything tidy on the outside. Apart from the RTL-SDR, they will also offer LoRa, LTE (with GPS) and sata SSD add on cards.

The standard specs of the PineTab are shown below:

  • Allwinner A64 Quad Core SOC with Mali 400 MP2 GPU
  • 2GB LPDDR3 RAM
  • 10″ MiPi 720p Capacitive LCD
  • Bootable Micro SD Slot
  • 64GB of eMMC
  • microHDMI port for external HD output
  • USB 2.0 A host
  • Micro USB 2.0 OTG
  • 2Mpx front-facing camera
  • 5Mpx rear camera
  • Optional M.2 slot
  • Speakers and Microphone
  • Volume rocker and ‘home’ button
  • Magnetically attached keyboard (optional)
  • 6000mAh battery 
  • 3.5″ Barrel Power (5V 3A) Port
  • Multiple expansion boards for LTE, LoRa and SATA SSD
 

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Understanding PLLs and their Importance when Receiving/Transmitting on QO-100

Over on YouTube Andreas Speiss has uploaded a video that explains what the geostationary QO-100 satellite is, and explains about the parts needed to receive and transmit to it. In particular Andreas goes into depth explaining the low noise block (LNB), and the PLL inside it. A PLL or phase locked loop is a common design used in RF electronics as it allows us to increase the frequency of crystal oscillators.

This PLL explanation ties into the fact that most commercial LNBs available do not have a stable enough crystal oscillator to properly receive or transmit the narrowband amateur radio signals used on QO-100. A PLL can increase the frequency of a crystal, but it will also increase the frequency drift and jitter/phase noise of the crystal. He notes that in later videos he'll show how to modify the LNB to improve these factors. We note that a commercially available stable LNB is the Bullseye LNB which we have posted about previously.

#331 QO-100 Satellite Receiving Technology. And Explanation of a PLL

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Radenso Theia: An SDR Based Police Radar Detector

Radenso is a company that sells radar detectors. These are used to help motorists avoid speeding fines from Police using radar speed detectors in their cruisers. Their latest upcoming product is called the "Radenso Theia" and is a software defined radio based solution.

In one of their latest YouTube videos they explain how SDR is used in the Theia, noting that the SDR ADC chip they are using is an AD9248. The use of an SDR allows them to more easily apply advanced digital signal processing algorithms to the radar detection task. In particular they note that they can now apply deep learning artificial intelligence filtering which helps to classify different radar gun FFT signatures and avoid false positives from other radar sources such as automatic doors.

While the Theia is designed to be a radar detector, they note that the device could also be used by hardware hackers as a standalone software defined radio. They have thought about this use case and have added a separate uFL connector that can be enabled by soldering a zero ohm connector, and this allows users to connect any antenna to it.

What is a software defined radio and why does it matter for Radenso Theia?

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