SeeDeR: New SDR GUI Software Supporting RTL-SDR

SeeDeR is a new software defined radio GUI program that supports the RTL-SDR. It also supports the Funcube Dongle and BladeRF. Currently it is in an early beta release.

SeeDeR contains features specifically developed for decoding radio data transmissions from satellites – in particular the crowdfunded SkyCube satellite – such as a built-in AX.25 decoder, and a satellite pass predictor.

SeeDeR requires a PC with Windows 7+, 1+ GB RAM, 2+ GHz dual-core CPU, 20 MB HD space. The executable is 32-bit.

We need to note that SeeDeR has been a cause of some friction with the author (Youssef) of SDR# and may be part of the reason why SDR# was temporarily removed. Youssef is claiming that SeeDer has illegally used licenced code from SDR#, however the author of SeeDer refutes that claim.

SeeDeR Software Defined Radio GUI
SeeDeR Software Defined Radio GUI
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Listening to Brazilian Fleetsatcom Pirates with an RTL-SDR

Previously we posted about how it was possible to listen in on Mexican (or Brazilian?) military satellite radio pirates’ SSTV communications using an RTL-SDR. Now over on YouTube user legion elmelenas has uploaded a video showing some more Brazilian pirates using these military Fleetsatcom satellites for voice and data communications. To receive these signals he used a turnstile antenna.

SATCOM BRAZILIAN PIRATES RTL-SDR SDRSHARP USA FLEETSATCOM SATELLITE

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Controlling a Remote Controlled Car with an RTL-SDR Attached to a Raspberry Pi

Over on YouTube user SilverXiaify has uploaded a video of a project he completed for a class in his electrical engineering school. His project involves controlling a remote controlled car using a ham radio. The remote control car carries on board an RTL-SDR for signal reception and an Raspberry Pi for data processing and control. The communications protocol they used is a naive version of AFSK700.

EE123 Final Project Demo

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RTLSDR Scanner Now Supports GPS for Signal Strength Mapping

The RTLSDR scanner software has been updated and now supports connection to an external GPS receiver. With a GPS receiver attached to a laptop, the RTL-SDR can be used to make signal strength maps by driving around in a car and monitoring the radio spectrum with RTLSDR Scanner running. The signal strength map can then be viewed in Google Earth, a GIS program or any image viewer.

RTLSDR Scanner GPS Signal Strength Heatmap
RTLSDR Scanner GPS Signal Strength Heatmap
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RTL-SDR Based Itty Bitty Radio Telescope

On his website, David has posted a page showing his results with an “Itty Bitty Radio Telescope” connected to an RTL-SDR dongle. The Itty Bitty Radio Telescope is a small radio telescope that can be used for simple and educational radio astronomy experiments. The telescope consists of an 18 inch directv satellite dish with low noise block (LNB), a satellite finder and an RTL-SDR dongle connected to a laptop.

The LNB converts input frequencies of 12.2 GHz to 12.7 GHz down to 950 MHz to 1.45 GHz which is a range that the RTL-SDR can receive. In his YouTube video posted below David points his Itty Bitty Radio Telescope at the sun and shows the associated increase in the noise floor on SDR# due to solar radio emissions. More information and possible experiments with the Itty Bitty Radio Telescope can be found in this PDF.

Itty Bitty Radio Telescope

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RTL-SDR with Forced Air Cooling

Over on his blog, Nobu has uploaded a post showing his experiments with a forced air cooled RTL-SDR dongle (note the blog is in Japanese so use Google Translate). A tiny fan from RS components is attached to the case of the dongle and draws power from the dongles own power regulator. Nobu also replaced the crystal oscillator with a flat packaged oscillator for a better fit.

The translation is a little difficult, but it appears the fan was able to successfully stabilize the temperature. This may be an alternative to the temperature controlled oscillator (TCXO) RTL-SDR modification.

EDIT: It seems that the fan is not to improve temperature stability, but rather to improve sensitivity. Nobu has referenced this experiment which shows that improved heat dissipation improves the dongles sensitivity.

Fan Forced Cooled RTL-SDR
Forced Air Cooled RTL-SDR
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GNSS-SDRLIB: Real Time GPS Positioning with RTL-SDR

Over on YouTube user taroz1461 has posted a video showing an RTL-SDR getting a real time GPS location fix using his GNSS-SDRLIB software package. Taroz1461 used an RTL-SDR modified with a temperature controlled oscillator (TCXO) to improve the frequency stability of the dongle.

In the video description he writes that GNSS-SDRLIB will soon have RTL-SDR support in the next update.

GNSS-SDRLIB: Real-time positioning with RTL-SDR (DVB-T Dongle)

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SDR# Website and Downloads Removed

Update: The author has updated the website with an explanation of why he took it down. He has also restored download functionality so now sdr-install.bat will work again.

The SDR# website, download links and repositories have been taken down and probably won’t be back for a number of days or weeks. This means the sdr-install.bat file will not work as well. If you already have SDR# installed it will continue to work as normal.

We aren’t exactly sure why this has happened, but it seems the author of SDR# did not like the many forks of the software that have been recently popping up. The forks may have been violating the licence that SDR# is under.

If you are new to RTL-SDR, our Quickstart guide has guides to using HDSDR and SDR-CONSOLE to try while SDR# is unavailable. HDSDR and SDR-CONSOLE are two good alternatives to SDR# but are slightly more difficult to set up and use.

See the Reddit discussion on this here.

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