ADS-B Virtual Radar RTL-SDR Tutorial in the ARRL QST Magazine

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) a.k.a The American National Association for Amateur Radio has put online a freely available ADS-B tutorial featured in their monthly QST magazine, written by Robert Nichols, W9RAN. The tutorial focuses on using an R820T RTL-SDR dongle to receive ADS-B signals, and then using computer software to decode the signals and create a virtual aircraft radar.

ADS-B is a protocol used by most modern aircraft to broadcast their position and altitude which is determined via GPS. ADS-B is intended to supplement and eventually replace traditional radar.

In this ADS-B tutorial, they show how to create a weatherproofed 1090 MHz collinear antenna from RG-6/U coax and PVC pipe and how to use the ADSB# and virtual radar server software to decode and visualize aircraft positions, like a radar.

If interested, we also have an ADS-B virtual radar tutorial that can be found here.

ADS-B Virtual Air Radar Tutorial by the ARRL
ADS-B Virtual Air Radar Tutorial by the ARRL

Receiving the Chinese Yutu Moon Rover with the RTL-SDR

Amateur radio hobbyist EB3FRN was able to use his RTL-SDR to receive the telemetry signal from the recently landed Chinese Yutu moon rover. The Yutu rover transmits at 8462.08000 MHz, which is outside of any RTL-SDRs frequency range, so he used a downconverter with a local oscillator at 8 GHz to convert the signal to 462 MHz.

For the software he used Baudline and rtl_fm as the receiver. He has posted a short audio clip of the received signal on his blog as well.

Chinese Yutu Moon Rover Received with RTL-SDR and Baudline
Chinese Yutu Moon Rover Received with RTL-SDR and Baudline

Review of Various Lesser Known RTL-SDR Dongles

While the standard R820T dongles are the cheapest, most popular and best overall performing, there are other lesser known dongles variants out there which contain RTL2832 chips. Gough Lui has reviewed two lesser known dongles with Belling Lee (PAL) connectors on his blog.

One dongle uses the FC0013 tuner, and the other uses the R820T chip. Gough opens the dongles up and inspects their electronics and gives his opinions on the design.

One of the alternative R280T models with PAL antenna connectors
One of the alternative R280T models with a PAL antenna connector

Modified RTL-SDR with Temperature Controlled Oscillator (TCXO)

Nobu Saito, a Japanese RTL-SDR hardware developer has come out with a modified RTL-SDR which has a +-2PPM 28.8MHz Temperature Controller Oscillator (TCXO) instead of the standard 28.8 MHz stock oscillator. (Note this link is machine translated to English from Japanese).

Normally 28.8 MHz TCXO’s are difficult to find, but Nobu was able to find a source in Japan, and he is now selling on his Amazon Store (with international shipping) modified dongles.

The oscillator on the RTL-SDR is prone to thermal drift, which means that as the dongle heats up from use, the frequency you are tuned to may change over time. A TCXO compensates for differences in temperature, and thus keeps the frequency stable as the temperature changes. This is extremely useful for applications such as receiving GPS, Beacons, APT, HFDL, and for radio astronomy.

Nobu sells the modified dongle with TCXO on this page. We expect to receive a sample of his product soon and will write a review when we receive it.

Edit: Now available at the 1090 MHz webstore.

TCXO Modified RTL-SDR
TCXO Modified RTL-SDR

Linux LiveDVD that Supports RTL-SDR and HackRF

Andy (KB1OIQ) has put together an Ubuntu Linux LiveDVD which has preinstalled RTL-SDR support, as well as a large number of amateur radio programs. The LiveDVD also supports both 32 and 64 bit machines.

A LiveDVD allows you to boot Linux directly from a DVD, rather than needing to install Linux onto your hard drive.

You can download the iso files directly from these links below

http://hivelocity.dl.sourceforge.net/project/kb1oiq-andysham/ubuntu-remix-14-32bit.iso

http://hivelocity.dl.sourceforge.net/project/kb1oiq-andysham/ubuntu-remix-14-64bit.iso

Pytacle – A GSM Decoding/Decrypting Tool Now Supports RTL-SDR

Pytacle, a Linux tool used for automating GSM sniffing has been updated to alpha2, and now supports the RTL-SDR dongle with this update.

According to the website pytacle is

a tool inspired by tentacle. It automates the task of sniffing GSM frames of the air, extracting the key exchange, feeding kraken with the key material and finally decode/decrypt the voice data. All You need is a USRP (or similar – [RTL-SDR]) to capture the GSM band and a kraken instance with the berlin tables (only about 2TB ;) )

SDRSharp Video Tutorial

If you’re new to the world of low cost software defined radio, and have just been through our Quickstart guide, this YouTube tutorial video by Clayton Smith on using the SDR# program may be useful to you.

In the video Clayton explains how to use SDR# and some of its many features, how to calibrate the RTL-SDR offset in the software,  and he also shows how to receive a few interesting signals in his area.

Getting started with SDR# and an RTL SDR tuner

Nooelec RTL-SDR Giveaway on AmateurRadio.com

AmateurRadio.com has teamed up with Nooelec.com to give away RTL-SDR packages to 10 hams. To be eligible to enter the competition, you must be a registered amateur radio operator, and you must comment on the competition page. The prizes are

Two (2)
Complete HF sets including:
NESDR Mini receiver
Ham It Up upconverter
SMA to MCX cable
SMA to BNC adapter
SMA to PL259 adapter
SMA to F adapter

Two (2)
Complete Touch SDR sets including:
NESDR Nano receiver
SDR Touch license (for Android tablets)
USB OTG micro & mini cables

Three (3)
NESDR Mini receivers

Three (3)
NESDR Nano receivers

The competition runs until the 11th of December.

Nooelec AmateurRadio.com Giveaway Prize
Nooelec AmateurRadio.com Giveaway Prize