Over on his YouTube channel Kris Occhipinti has uploaded some videos where he shows how he is able to send text data over FM radio frequencies by using an MP3 audio file that encodes the text data, an FM transmitter connected to an Android phone or MP3 player to transmit the file and an RTL-SDR on the receiving side to receive the FM signal from the FM transmitter. The software used to encode the text into an MP3 is Minimodem, and on the receiving side Minimodem is also used which can easily decode the received audio. Minimodem is a command line program which can generate FSK modem tones from data.
These two videos are part of a series that Kris has been working on that includes many videos about using Minimodem to transfer data like text, files and images between computers via radio.
12 Minimodem an FM Transmitter and a USB SDR Dongle
The Airspy HF+ is a much anticipated and recently released software defined radio that specializes in HF and VHF reception. However, one little known and not often advertised feature is that it can actually be used for L-band reception between 1.2 and 1.67 GHz as well. This means that it could be used for signals such as AERO, STD-C, Iridium, the 23cm amateur radio band and more.
Over on YouTube Adam 9A4QV has uploaded a video that tests the HF+ with Alphasat AERO signals at about 1.545 GHz. He notes that the sensitivity is quite good as it is able to receive the satellite signals directly with only the antenna connected and no external LNA used. Of course adding in an external low noise figure LNA and filter would improve the signal even further. Adam notes that reception on the 23cm amateur band (1240 MHz to 1300 MHz) is also quite good with sensitivity reaching about -130 dBm.
HolyPager Art Installation. HackRF One, Antenna and Raspberry Pi seen under the shelf.
For a long time now it has been known that pager data is sent in the clear and in plain text over a strong and easily received RF signal. The signal can easily be intercepted with a standard scanner radio or more recently with an SDR such as the RTL-SDR. Software such as PDW can then be used to decode the signal into plain text. We have a tutorial on this available here.
In these more modern days of cell phones and secure text messaging very few people still use pagers. But one heavy user of pagers is the medical community who still prefer them as they are already widely implemented in hospitals and are very reliable. The lower frequencies and high transmission powers used by pager systems allows for better reception especially in areas prone to poor cellphone reception such as in big buildings like hospitals with many walls underground areas. They are also very reliable as they receive messages instantly, whereas text messages can be delayed in times of high network traffic which is obviously a problem when a doctor is needed urgently. Finally, another advantage is that most pagers only receive, so there are no local transmissions that could interfere with sensitive medical machines. A major downside however is that pager use means that a lot of very private patient data can be easily intercepted by anyone anywhere in the same city as the hospital.
Back in October artist and programmer Brannon Dorsey displayed an art installation at the Radical Networks conference in Brooklyn which he calls Holypager. The idea is to bring attention to the breach of privacy. The installation simply prints out the pager messages as they are sent in real time, accumulating patient data that any visitor can pick up and read. He doesn't mention it on his page, but in one of the photos we see a HackRF One, antenna and Raspberry Pi hiding underneath the installation which is how the pager messages are received. A simple RTL-SDR could also be used as the receiver. Brannon writes:
Holypager is an art installation that intercepts all POCSAG pager messages in the city it resides and forwards them to one (holy) pager. The installation anonymizes all messages and forwards them randomly to one of three pagers on display. Each message is also printed on a contiguous role of receipt paper amassing a large pile of captured pages for gallery goers to peruse.
Pagers use an outdated protocol that requires all messages to be broadcast unencrypted to each pager in the area. It is the role of the individual pager to filter and display only the messages intended for its specific address. The pagers below have been reprogrammed to ignore this filter and receive every message in the city in real time. Today, these devices are primarily used in hospitals to communicate highly sensitive information between doctors and hospital staff.
Given the severity of the HIPPA Privacy Act, one would assume that appropriate measures would be taken to prevent this information from being publicly accessible to the general public. This project serves as a reminder that as the complexity and proliferation of digital systems increase the cultural and technological literacy needed to understand the safe and appropriate use of these systems often do not.
Over the past few years we've posted quite a bit about Outernet who offered a free downlink of satellite data such as news, Wikipedia articles and weather updates that was able to be received with a small L-band patch antenna, LNA and an RTL-SDR dongle.
Firstly the downlink data rate is much higher at 30kbps, with the plan to eventually go up to 100kpbs. That's 300MB - 1 GB a day which is a lot more compared to the previous L-band implementation that gave less than 20MB a day.
Secondly the hardware seems to be simplified as well. All that is needed is their new Dreamcatcher V3 receiver board and a small Ku-band LNB (11.7-12.75 GHz). They claim that no dish is required as the LNB pointed at the satellite by itself will work just fine. The first iteration of Outernet also used Ku-band satellites, but required a large dish antenna to receive it which was a major hurdle to user adoption. They now appear to have discovered a new way to broadcast in the Ku-band without the need for a dish.
Thirdly, moving to Ku-band means significant cost savings for Outernet allowing them to survive and continue with their free data service. From what we understand the L-Band satellite downlink service is extremely costly to run, whereas a Ku-band service is much cheaper. There are also cost savings for the user as Ku-band LNBs are very common hardware that can be found cheaply for $10 - $20 US.
About the new services that they can offer and the cost savings that they can achieve Syed the CEO of Outernet writes:
The fatter pipe [300MB - 1GB] makes a lot of things possible, one of which is a true radio broadcast. How about a national radio broadcast that isn't SiriusXM? Our new receiver will include a speaker; audio through the speaker while files download in the background. But more data is not the most important thing that comes out of all this. The real win is that leasing standard, commodity Ku bandwidth is far, far more cost effective than the few kilohertz we have on L-band. Long-term sustainability of a free broadcast is no longer the financial burden that it once was--especially considering how much more interesting the service becomes.
There is no concrete hardware release date just yet, but on the forums Syed estimates mid-Jan. You can sign up to the Outernet mailing list on their buy-now page to be emailed when the new hardware is released. In the forums Syed also writes that the target price for the hardware is $99 US, with the intention to provide lower cost options in the future. Of course it might still be possible to DIY your own unit just like it was with the previous Outernet iterations.
We're really looking forward to this and think that this is what will finally make Outernet a very popular and useful service!
Frequent reviewer of SDR products Mile Kokotov has just uploaded on his YouTube channel a new video where he compares the Airspy HF+ against the SDRplay RSP1A on FM broadcast reception.
At first Mile compares the two against strong broadcast stations, and then later compares them on weak DX stations surrounded in amongst other strong stations. With the strong stations a difference between the two radios is impossible to detect. But with the weaker stations that are surrounded by strong signals the Airspy HF+ has the edge with it's higher dynamic range and sensitivity.
Mile writes:
In this video I am comparing two popular SDR-Receivers (Airspy HF+ and SDRplay RSP1A) on FM Broadcast Band.
I have made few recordings with every receiver with the same antenna trying to set the best SNR = signal-to-noise ratio.
My intention was to ensure the same conditions for both SDR`s in order to make as fair as possible comparison.
No DSP enhancing on the SDR`s was used.
Antenna was Vertical Dipole.
When receiving signals are strong enough, You should not expect the difference between most receivers to be very obvious!
If you compare one average transceiver (which cost about $ 1000 USD) and top class transceiver which cost ten times more, the difference in receiving average signals will be very small too. Almost negligible! But when you have difficult conditions, the very weak signal between many strong signals, than the better receiver will receive the weak signal readable enough, but cheaper receiver will not. Today it is not a problem to design and produce the sensitive receiver, but it is far more difficult to design and produce high dynamic receiver for reasonable price! The Airspy HF+ and RSP1A are very very good SDR-receivers. They have different customers target and have strong and weak sides. For examle Airspy HF+ has better dynamics in frequency range where it is designed for, but RSP1A, on the other hand, has broadband coverage...
Airspy HF+ vs SDRplay RSP1A Comparison on FM Broadcast Band
Thanks to Dr. Celalettin Uçar from Turkey for submitting a video of the work done by a PhD student who as part of his research created an RTL-SDR based ground penetrating radar simulation and metal detector. He writes:
This apparatus (YAĞRIN) was created with rtlsdr in a phd work. We achieved detecting a metal gasoline tube from the depth of aproximately 1 meters. Furthermore, we created the time domain signal and ploted the reflaction from the metal with using the matlab (simulink) model.
A video on YouTube is linked which we display at the end of the post. They write that the system consists of a 12V DC supply, step down voltage regulator, ADF 4350 programmable signal generator, 25W power amplifier (470 MHz, 45 dBm signal power), Philips omnidirectional antennas (RX,TX), a 64 dB low noise amplifer and an RTL-SDR and computer to display the output. The software he uses is SDR# which appears to simply listen for a tone and detect any changes that occur when something metal moves near it. The PC also runs a MATLAB Simulink model which we believe helps detect metal signatures by plotting the reflection.
In the past we posted about a similar but simpler metal detector implementation by Ancient Discoveries.
RTL-SDR BASED GPR (Simulation) & METAL DETECTOR (YAĞRIN) - Dr. Celalettin UÇAR
Over on YouTube user Laboenligne.ca has uploaded a review of the ColibriNANO. If you didn't already know the ColibriNANO is a low cost but high performance direct sampling receiver designed for the HF bands. Currently it costs $269.95 US from nsiradio. It now competes almost directly with the recently released Airspy HF+ which is a lower cost $199 unit with similar performance specifications.
Laboenligne.ca's review initially goes over the specs of the ColibriNANO and usage of the free ExpertSDR2 software that is used with the ColibriNANO. He also shows how the ColibriNANO can be connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 and used remotely over the internet. This is similar to the Airspy's SpyServer, but the difference is that ColibriNANO's server interface works in a browser via HTML5, so it can be used on any platform including mobile devices. Of course the ExpertSDR2 software can also be used to connect to the server as well. In his review Laboenligne.ca notes that he is very impressed with the remote web interface and has set up a public server demonstration of his ColibriNANO available at vpn.laboenligne.ca. He notes that if there is no reception to try again later, as he may be using the antenna on another radio.
The ColibriNANO SDR receiver review (English version)
Many homes in the US and elsewhere no longer require meter reader personnel to come onto the property to read a physical meter at the back of the house. Instead the meter transmits wireless data in the 900 MHz ISM band about electricity usage, and all the meter reader has to do is turn up outside the house and take a reading from the street.
These electricity usage signals are unencrypted and can easily be decoded and displayed with an RTL-SDR and a ready to use program called rtl_amr. The signals even travel quite far, and there have been reports of receiving neighbours signals up to 600m away. K-roy took his RTL-SDR and rtl_amr and wrote on top of it a program that creates a JSON output of the data for easy processing, a PHP, SQLite3 and JQuery based database system for storing the data, and an HTML5 based page for graphing and displaying the data.
