Over on YouTube user Ben Silverwood has uploaded a video showing the results of his RTL-SDR passive radar. The passive radar works using two RTL-SDR dongles receiving a DAB radio tower’s radio waves that are reflected off the aircraft. On the video you are able to see the aircraft radar blip on the animated Matlab plots.
Previously we posted about another similar passive radar project in this post.
The DX Patrol 100 kHz to 2 GHz SDR receiver appears to be a custom built RTL-SDR with upconverter built in. It is made by CT1FFU who is also known to be a good manufacturer of upconverters for the RTL-SDR. The DX Patrol SDR can be bought for 79 Euros at CT1FFU’s website. It’s features are as follows:
We aren’t sure how this compares to a standard RTL-SDR with conventional upconverter, or direct sampling mode and we also aren’t sure about the truthfulness to their very high dynamic range claims as the RTL-SDR is known to have dynamic range that isn’t what could be called very high (8 bits ~ 50 dB).
Over on YouTube user OfficialSWLchannel has uploaded a video review. OfficialSWLchannel gives a generally positive review of the hardware.
The widely used Frequency Manager + Scanner Plugin for SDR# has recently been updated to version 1.6. It can be downloaded from sdrsharpplugins.com. Note that this version requires SDR# version 1248 or newer, so run install.bat if you haven’t done so in a while. The new features are as follows:
Frequency Manager
- The Frequency Description is now displayed in the upper-right corner of the spectrum analyzer, along with the indicator for multiple database entries for that frequency.
- As a result of moving the above information to the spectrum analyzer, the Frequency Manager panel is now 35% smaller.
- The Clipboard Monitor now optionally watches the clipboard for frequencies you might have copied from the internet; and if that can be converted to a MHz value it tunes the radio to that frequency.
- Function Keys F1-F10 can now be used to tune to a preset frequency.
Scanner
- A new Minimum Signal Strength Line is displayed on the spectrum display. This, along with real-time display of the current signal’s strength when the scanner is running, let you see at a glance how that signal compares to your scanner settings. In addition you can use customize the line with one of 6 line patterns.
- Current Signal Strength in dB is displayed in the upper right corner of the spectrum analyzer, just after the Frequency Description.
- Timeout and Watchdog timers’ indicators are now displayed in the upper right corner of the spectrum analyzer.
Back in March we showed a beta version of Tyler Watts ScanEyes trunked call log recorder software. Now Tyler has released a more complete version of his ScanEyes software. A live version of the software can be found at sdrscan.com. ScanEyes works by using a software defined radio such as the RTL-SDR combined with trunking following software Unitrunker and optional P25 decoder DSD/DSD+ to archive all calls made on a trunked radio system. A user can then later go into the web interface and view and listen to archived calls.
The SoftRock Lite II is a (now fairly old) soundcard based software defined radio kitset that is capable of receiving on the HF bands. Over on YouTube user w2aew has uploaded a video showing the entire kitset build process for the SoftRock Lite II SDR radio. He also goes over the circuit blocks explaining their function and how they work.
This is an excellent video if you are interested in learning more about the components and circuits used in some SDRs.
A new RTL-SDR Radio Receiver app for Chrome has been released. The source code can be viewed at GitHub. The app is currently capable of receiving broadcast FM stations and scanning between them. To run this app you will need to have the Chrome web browser installed or be running a Chromebook laptop.
Note that at the moment there seems to be a bug in Windows Chrome that prevents this from working.
Radio Receiver is 100% written in JavaScript, but is nevertheless fast enough that it can run on a 2012 Samsung ChromeBook laptop at full quality.
Features:
* Stereo FM.
* Scan for stations.
* Unlimited slots for presets.
* Supports the International and Japanese FM bands.
We at RTL-SDR.com have just released an Ebook for Kindle titled “The Hobbyists Guide to RTL-SDR: Really Cheap Software Defined Radio”. For the first few days we are selling it at a reduced price of $4.99USD (half price). If you are an Amazon Prime member you should also be able to lend it from the Kindle library for free. If you’re unsatisfied with the book remember that you can always refund it within 7 days of purchase.
The book covers many of the tips and tutorials found in this blog in a more in depth manner as well as containing many more new tutorials and RTL-SDR related information. Check out the table of contents in the sample for an idea of what the book contains. The content is mainly intended for people new to the RTL-SDR.
Remember that you don’t need a Kindle device to read Kindle books! There are readers available for Windows, Mac, Web Browsers, Android and iOS as well.
If you enjoy our book please remember to leave a review on the Amazon page.
Previously we posted about the Hak5 teams attempt to create an ADS-B quadcopter receiver which carried a coax collinear antenna, ran the ADS-B decoder dump1090 on board and then transmitted the decoded ADS-B data back to a laptop on the ground via WiFi. Their results were poor due to various factors.
In the latest video they read comments from fans which explain why they had such poor results, then apply some of those recommendations to a second experiment. Previously they had trouble keeping the WiFi connection alive due to poor reception, so now they use a WiFi Yagi to boost the signal strength. They also reduced the number of elements on their coax collinear antenna and moved away from the broadcast RF transmitter that they were near in their last video.
There isn’t a big increase in the number of planes picked up in the second experiment but it was much more successful compared to the first.
