The Toosheh Project: An Outernet-like Service for Iran and the Middle East

If you've been following our blog over the years, you'll know that we've mentioned the "Outernet" (now known as "Othernet") service a few times. Othernet is a satellite service that wants to provide one way data such as news, weather, audio, books and Wikipedia articles to those in areas with poor, censored or no internet connection. Previous iterations made use of home satellite TV equipment, then L-band (with RTL-SDR receivers) and now the Ku-band with LoRa receivers. Currently it's only available in North America and Europe.

However, thanks to a reader we were recently informed about an interesting and long running Othernet-like service for the Middle East called "Toosheh" (aka Knapsack) which makes use of satellite TV dishes and receivers that are very common in the Middle East. While not specifically related to SDRs, this is an interesting RF related project and situation that we wanted to post about.

Our reader is from Iran where the government recently shutdown the entire country's internet for 7-days due to anti-government protests. The reader wanted to share information about the Toosheh project which has been operating for several years now, and is one of the ways Iranians can get around heavy internet censorship and blockages.

After two rough weeks of no internet access at all, finally, we're gaining access again and getting back online slowly. As you may know (if you are following the news) a complete internet shutdown conducted by the I.R. of Iran due to some intense protests across the whole country against the government because of a 200% sudden and unannounced gas price increment. The internet is censored in my country anyhow but this time it was a big one. We only had access to a few domestic websites and NOT even Google services! That was tough!

I know it may be irrelevant to the subject of your blog but it's good for your audience to understand and know the people who have worked hard way before the OUTERNET project to develop a satellite offline broadcast with almost no special devices to receive and use and bring free and uncensored information to the people in Iran.

The major role of the Toosheh project occurred in the Iran 2012 presidential election protests which there were no major broadband internet services all over the country and it a lot to bring daily updates of news and TV programs.
The Toosheh is a one-way receive only from the satellite but the tricky part is that Toosheh is not just like a simple satellite data link but it appears as a TV channel in all satellite TV receivers which are very common in Iran, so the blockage of it is hard for the government. However, some trials were arranged by the government back in that time to collect the satellite dishes or jam the signals or mass destruction (!) of the satellite receivers which they currently no longer common in most parts of the country. (at least without unnecessary violence. check out this link: بجستان نیوز » معدوم سازی تجهیزات ماهواره‌ای در بجستان+عکس (Admin note: Article is in Perisian, use Google Translate to translate Persian to English)

The procedure to use this service is freaking simple. Set your dish to Yahsat and search for the channels on 11766 Mhz. Select the Toosheh channel, plug a flash drive to your receiver and record the blank screen in.TS format using the PVR capability. After several hours of recording unplug your flash drive and connect it to your phone, tablet or laptop. Then open the Toosheh app and you are good to go. Now you have access to dozens of free podcasts, music, books, movies, news, webpages, TV shows and much more that will be updated every single day and if you need something specifically just send them an email. Exactly as same as the OUTERNET but without any special equipment and only with ordinary receivers that are available in almost every home nowadays.

Also if you see their website at toosheh.org and search some other press blogs about Toosheh you can gain more info about the topic.
Toosheh Website Image
Toosheh Website Image

We also note that this appears to be the English language version of Toosheh project which provides some more information about coverage and the technology used: https://knapsackforhope.org. Coverage is only available in the middle east.

Toosheh Coverage
Toosheh Coverage
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Solving a Frequency Hopping CTF Challenge with Aliasing

At this years BSides Ottawa security conference, Clayton Smith was tasked with setting up a wireless "Capture the Flag" (CTF) competition. CTF competitions generally consist of a mystery signal that participants need to figure out how to decode with an SDR such as an RTL-SDR. 

One CTF that Clayton set up was a frequency hopping challenge with several levels of difficulty. The signal consisted of a narrow band FM signal that constantly hopped between multiple fixed frequencies. The idea was to use whatever means possible to piece together that signal again so that the speech audio could be copied.

The first level had the audio signal hopping very slowly, so the speech could be pieced together manually by listening by ear to each channel it transmitted on. Subsequent levels had the signal hopping much faster, so they required some DSP work to piece everything back together.

In his post Clayton writes about three possible GNU Radio based DSP solutions to the problem. The first method he describes is an interesting method that abuses the effects of aliasing. Aliasing is a problem in SDRs when a signal can be folded on top of another, creating interference. However, this approach makes use of aliasing to purposely fold the hopping channels into one frequency, resulting in speech that can be copied.

The rest of his post explains two other methods that could be used as well. The second method involves treating the entire band consisting of the hopping signals as a single FM signal, then filtering it with a DC block. The third approach uses FFT to detect which channel is active with the highest power, then shifting that channel by it's offset.

Spectrum of the frequency hopping CTF challenge.
Spectrum of the frequency hopping CTF challenge.

Clayton also set up another CTF with gr-paint. The idea was to read text on a "painted" waterfall with ever decreasing text spacing that would eventually be too small to read on standard SDR programs like GQRX. Instead, the solution was to open the IQ data in a tool like Inspectrum or Baudline which has much higher FFT resolution. 

Gr-Painted spectrum with decreasing text.
Gr-Painted spectrum with decreasing text spacing.
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Using a HackRF to Investigate Why WiFi on the Raspberry Pi 4 Doesn’t work when Running HDMI at 1440p

The Raspberry Pi 4 launched with it's fair share of problems, but a new problem seems to have been recently discovered and documented. It turns out that the Pi 4's WiFi stops working when running at a screen resolution of specifically 1440p.

Suspecting interference generated by the HDMI clock, Mike Walters (@assortedhackery) used a HackRF and a near field probe antenna to investigate. By placing the near field probe on the Raspberry Pi 4's PCB and running a screen at 1440p resolution he discovered a large power spike showing up at 2.415 GHz. This interferes directly with 2.4 GHz WiFi Channel 1.

An article by ExtremeTech article notes:

There’s a giant spike that could easily interfere with Channel 1 of a Wi-Fi adapter. So why is this happening? Because a 2560×1440@60Hz has a pixel clock of 241.5MHz and has a TMDS (transition-minimized differential signaling) clock of 2.415GHz, according to Hector Martin (@Marcan42). And what frequency does the RBP4 use for Wi-Fi? 2.4GHz. Which means… outputting on HDMI over 1440p can cause interference in a Wi-Fi channel.

The ExtremeTech article also notes that this problem is not unique to the Raspberry Pi 4 only. It turns out that USB 3.0 hardware is to blame, and this problem has occurred before with USB3.0 hard driver and on some MacBooks.

While the interference appears to be localized to the near field around the Pi4 PCB, we suspect that you could use TempestSDR to remotely eavesdrop on the Pi 4's video output if the interfering signal was boosted.

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Astrophiz Podcast Interviews Steve Olney: Capturing the 2019 Vela Pulsar Glitch with an RTL-SDR

Back in May 2019 we posted about Steve Olney's HawkRAO amateur radio astronomy station which was the only station in the world to capture the 2019 Vela Pulsar "glitch" which he did so using his RTL-SDR as the radio. The astronomy focused podcast "Astrophiz" recently interviewed Steve in episode 95 where he talks about his amateur radio background, his home made radio telescope, his RTL-SDR and software processing setup, and the Vela glitch.

A pulsar is a rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. If this beam points towards the earth, it can then be observed with a large dish or directional antenna and a radio, like the RTL-SDR. The Vela pulsar is the strongest one in our sky, making it one of the easiest for amateur radio astronomers to receive.

Pulsars are known to have very accurate rotational periods which can be measured by the radio pulse period. However, every now and then some pulsars can "glitch", resulting in the rotational period suddenly decreasing. Glitches can't be predicted, but Vela is one of the most commonly observed glitching pulsars.

The HawkRAO amateur radio telescope run by Steve Olney is based in NSW, Australia and consists of a 2 x 2 array of 42-element cross Yagi antennas. The antennas feed into three LNAs and then an RTL-SDR radio receiver. 

Astrophiz 95: Steve Olney: From Ham Radio to Radio Astronomy - "The 2019 Vela Glitch" 

Feature Interview: This amazing interview features Steve Olney who has established the Hawkesbury Radio Astronomy Observatory in his backyard. Steve has constructed a Yagi antenna array, coupled it with a receiver and observed a pulsar 900 LY away and generated data that has enabled him to be the only person on the planet to observe Vela’s 2019 glitch in radio waves as it happened.

If you're interested in learning more about Vela, Astrophiz podcast episode 93 with Dr. Jim Palfreyman discusses more about the previous 2016 Vela glitch and why it's important from a scientific point of view.

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Reverse Engineering and Controlling a Pan-Tilt Camera Servo with an RTL-SDR and Arduino

The ZIFON YT-500 is a pan-tilt tripod designed for mounting small cameras and smart phones. It also comes with an RF based 433 MHz wireless remote control that allows you to remotely control the positioning.

However, Konstantin Dorohov wanted to be able to control the camera positioning from his PC rather than through the remote control, so he set out to reverse engineer and clone the 433 MHz wireless control signal.

To do this he first used an RTL-SDR and SDR# to record the signals generated by each button press of the remote. He then opens the audio files in Audacity which allows him to inspect the signal's structure and determine some important information such as the preamble + payload timing and ON/OFF pattern. 

Knowing this information he was then able to use an Arduino with a 433 MHz transmitter connected to replicate the signal exactly. His post contains the sample code that he used.

Reverse Engineering the Pan/Tilt Servo with an RTL-SDR, and replicating the signal with an Arduino.
Reverse Engineering the Pan/Tilt Servo with an RTL-SDR, and replicating the signal with an Arduino.
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SignalsEverywhere Reviews our RTL-SDR Blog L-Band Active Patch Antenna Kit

Over on the SignalsEverywhere YouTube channel Corrosive from the SignalsEverywhere channel has uploaded a review of our RTL-SDR Blog L-Band Active Patch antenna. Our patch antenna can be used for applications such as Inmarsat, Iridium and GPS reception. 

In the video Corrosive shows what the kit comes with, and first demonstrates the antenna working indoors. He also shows how signal SNR can be improved for indoor reception simply by adding a larger ground plane to the back of the antenna and clamping it on with the mounting screw. Later he shows what reception is like outdoors, and shows it being used to decode from STD-C Inmarsat and Iridium signals.

If you're interested in this antenna we also previously posted about TechMinds review video.

The antenna is available for sale on our web store, or from Amazon.

RTL SDR Blog L-Band Inmarsat/Iridium Satellite Service Patch Antenna

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Tysonpower Reviews A Cheap 15€ DAB/DAB+ USB Receiver Dongle that Generates an MP3 Stream

Thank you to Tysonpower who wanted to share his review of a cheap 15€ DAB/DAB+ receiver USB dongle that he found on eBay.de (we also found the same device on eBay.com for US$23.99).  The device is not an SDR, but it receives BAND III DAB/DAB+ at 160-240 MHz and generates an MP3 stream which can be played back on any MP3 capable device such as a PC, single board computer or car head unit.

His review notes that the dongle works well. When you plug it in the device shows up as a storage device. You then simply press a button to automatically search for DAB+ channels, and then choose one of the mp3 stream files that will show up to play live DAB+ audio on your device. In his video he also gives a quick tear down, showing that it uses a FCI FC8080 demodulator and a MVSilicon 32-bit Micro with audio FFT accelerator.

While RTL-SDR dongles can also be used to receive DAB+ cheaply with software like SDR-J and welle.io, this may be a simpler method since it can be used on any device that can play MP3s.

Note that Tysonpowers video is narrated in German, with English subtitles. He also has a short blog post with images from the tear down.

[EN subs] DAB+ für nur 15€ Nachrüsten! - Digitalradio für alle MP3 fähigen Geräte mit USB

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Decoding Differential GPS (DGPS) with an RSPdx and MultiPSK

Over on YouTube the TechMinds channel has uploaded a new video about decoding Differential GPS (DGPS) using an SDRplay RSPdx SDR. DGPS is a terrestrially transmitted long wave signal that is used to help correct and improve GPS position data calculations which may have timing errors due to atmospheric propagation delays. It works by broadcasting correction data calculated by the difference in received GPS location and the known location of the DGPS transmission site. DGPS is typically transmitted on longwave between 285 kHz and 315 kHz, but in Argentina there are two stations at 2570 and 2950 kHz.

In the video TechMinds explains how DGPS works, and some location around the world from where it is transmitted from. Later in the video he shows a DGPS signal being received by a SDRplay RSPdx SDR, and then show a demo of how it can be decoded with MultiPSK.

We note that there also various other DGPS decoders available including decoders for Android and iOS. A list of decoders can be found on the DGPS sigidwiki page.

DGPS Differential GPS Decoding With RSPdx And MultiPSK

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