New RTL-SDR Android App: SDRWeather

A new RTL-SDR Android app called SDRWeather has appeared on the Google Play Market. The new app allows you to listen to weather radio and decode EAS (Emergency Alert System) alerts. The app will only work in the US and Canada. More information about the app and its open source code can be found at http://sdrweather.thecongers.org.

This software along with a supported USB software defined radio turns your Android device to a portable weather radio.

Current Features:
* Listen to weather radio in the US/Canada.
* Decode EAS Alerts US/Canada
* Selectable Pre-defined Frequencies
* Alert Notifications
* Widget to display alerts
* Option to unmute audio when alert recieved
* FIPS and CLC Location Code Databases
* Event Code Database
* No internet connection required

Possible future features
* Switch to using rtl_tcp_andro
* Option to only show alerts if you are currently in the affected region
* Affected region map

Screenshot of the Android RTL-SDR App SDRWeather
Screenshot of the Android RTL-SDR App SDRWeather

Two new SDR# Plugins

Last month two new SDR# plugins where released on rtl-sdr.ru. The first is TimeShift SDR. This plugin creates a buffer which allows you to listen to any signal at any point in time on the waterfall within the buffer time. It is very useful for catching signals that you might have otherwise missed by being too slow to click on them. Update: Turns out Timeshift SDR isn’t exactly new. But it has recently been updated to work on the latest SDR# releases.

Timeshift SDR# Plugin
Timeshift SDR# Plugin

The second plugin is a Digital Audio Processor which adds in a squelch slider bar, an audio inverter, an audio band-pass filter and a de-emphasis filter.

digital_audio_processor_sdrsharp_plugin
Digital Audio Processor Plugin

GPS Tracking with a modified TCXO RTL-SDR

Michele from Michele’s GNSS blog has posted his results with using a modified R820T RTL-SDR with Temperature Controlled Oscillator (TCXO) for GPS reception and decoding. The RTL-SDR is capable of tracking GPS even without TCXO but improved performance can be expected with a more stable oscillator. He notes that the R820T with it’s 3.57 MHz IF is ideally suited for GPS reception when combined with an active GPS antenna. Using this setup he was able to track GPS satellites and the Galileo E1B/C GNSS satellites as well.

Michele modified his R820T RTL-SDR with a 28.8 MHz TCXO he obtained from a friend. It is however possible to purchase modified TCXO R820T dongles directly from the 1090mhz webstore.

Modified TCXO R820T RTL-SDR used for GPS reception.
Modified TCXO R820T RTL-SDR used for GPS reception.

Receiving the Chinese Space Station Tiangong-1 with the RTL-SDR

Blogger gat3way has created a post on his blog showing how he was able to receive the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 with the RTL-SDR and a simple cantenna antenna.

The Tiangong-1 station transmits a signal at 2232.15 MHz. To get this signal into a range receivable by the RTL-SDR gat3way used a LNB (Low Noise Block) to downconvert the frequency into one that the RTL-SDR can receive. Using this setup he was able to get a decent signal copy.

Cantenna setup for receiving the Tiangong-1 Chinese Space Station
Cantenna setup for receiving the Tiangong-1 Chinese Space Station

Receiving and Decoding Data from an Esophageal Monitor Inside the Body

Blogger Dolske has recently posted about how he was able to receive and decode signals coming from inside his body. The signals originated from a Bravo Ph Esophageal monitor which is a small wireless sensor that is attached inside your body by a doctor. It is used to monitor pH levels within the body to help diagnose esophageal problems such as acid reflux. The monitor remains in the body for a number of days continually sending data to an external monitoring device which records and logs the pH data.

Bravo pH Esophageal Monitor
Bravo pH Esophageal Monitor

Using his RTL-SDR, Dolse was able to capture the wireless monitors signal using information he found about the monitor online. He found that the monitor used amplitude-shift keying and transmitted at 433.92 MHz. After capturing some signals with the RTL-SDR, he looked at the captured waveform in Audacity and was able to decode a few packets by hand. Finally, he went even further and wrote a Firefox browser based decoder which decodes and displays the pH data on screen.

Web Interface for Showing Decoded pH data from the Esophageal monitor.
Web Interface for Showing Decoded pH data from the Esophageal monitor.

Receiving SO-50 Saudisat 1C with the RTL-SDR

Over on YouTube user Orlando Lima shows reception of the SO-50 Saudisat 1C satellite. Saudisat is an amateur radio satellite with an FM radio repeater. Orlando listened to the downlink frequency at 436.795 MHz using an RTL-SDR, Yagi antenna and Orbitron software to track the downlink frequency in SDR#.

Native RTL-SDR Support Coming to Linux

Linux will soon contain native support for software defined radio devices like the RTL2832U RTL-SDR. These new drivers written by Video4Linux developer Antii Palosaari should be included in the next Linux kernel version 3.15. Antii Palosaari was one of the first people to discover the SDR capabilities of the RTL2832U. In the image below Antii shows SDR# running in Linux with Mono with the Video4Linux gain control screen brought up.

Video4Linux Gain Controls and SDR#
Video4Linux Gain Controls and SDR#

Aircraft Messages with HFDL, MultiPSK and the RTL-SDR

Over on YouTube user k2nccvids has posted two videos showing how he was able to decode High Frequency Data Link (HFDL) packets using the RTL-SDR, Ham-it-up upconverterMultiPSK and HFDL Display. HFDL is a service similar to ACARS but sent over HF frequencies. It is used to sent short messages to and from aircraft and ground stations.

In the first video k2nccvids uses MultiPSK with the RTL-SDR directly and also uses the add on software HFDL Display to more clearly view received HFDL packets. In the second video he uses SDR-CONSOLEv2 to monitor three HFDL frequencies simultaneously, with MultiPSK and HFDL Display still being used for decoding and display.