The beta version of the popular ADS-B decoding software RTL1090 has been updated to version 3. Version 3 comes with a simple radar visualization scope built into the software, which allows you to see aircraft directly in the RTL1090 software.
News via this Radarspotting forum post
On YouTube Eric William has posted a video showing him unboxing two new antennas that he intends to use with his RTL-SDR. He unboxes a new QFH antenna for use with receiving NOAA weather satellite images, and a new Discone antenna for general wideband receiving. If you are interested in buying commercial antennas for use with your RTL-SDR, this video may be useful at giving you some idea of what’s available.
Eric also recently posted a video showing an overview of his RTL-SDR setup which is also an interesting watch.
The High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) project is an open source SDR project that aims to create a modular SDR for ham radio use. The idea is that users only need to include the specific HPSDR hardware that they need for their particular application.
Recently, Richard Koch has written a Linux based tool called RTL_HPSDR which allows RTL-SDR based dongles to be used with HPSDR software, such as cuSDR64 which is capable of displaying and controlling up to seven receiver slices simultaneously and PowerSDR which can display and control up to four.
Using his tool Richard was able to get seven R820T RTL-SDR dongles running simultaneously on an EKB311 Quad core ARM Cortex A9 based mini-pc using a USB 2.0 hub with a modified power supply to provide 5V@2A.
The Communications System Toolbox in MATLAB 2013b now supports the RTL-SDR dongle. MATLAB is a scientific computing software product which scientists and engineers use for complex technical computations and simulations.
The RTL-SDR radio support package enables you to design wireless receivers using real world signals. Using Communications System Toolbox™ in conjunction with an RTL-SDR USB radio, you can design and prototype systems that process real-time wireless signals in MATLAB® and Simulink®.
Wireless engineers, students, and hobbyists can learn to receive and decode real-world radio signals using this low cost RTL-SDR hardware connected to your computer.
Key Features:
- RTL-SDR radio as an I/O peripheral to receive streaming RF signals
- Configurable center frequency and sample rate
- NooElec™ NESDR Mini USB Stick (R820T) and NooElec NESDR Nano USB Stick (R820T) SDR devices with frequency range 30MHz – 1.8GHz
- Compatible with other RTL-SDR USB radios (eg., Terratec T-Stick E4000)
- Several application examples for getting started:
- FM Mono / Stereo with RTL-SDR
- FRS Receiver with RTL-SDR
- Spectral Analysis with RTL-SDR radio
- Frequency offset calibration with RTL-SDR
Over on our Facebook page Micheal Kent has posted about his raspberry pi based RTL-SDR receiver which runs rtl_udp. There’s not much more information on this project, but the video he posted shows what appears to be a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR dongle mounted inside an icecream box. There are two knobs mounted on the outside that control the brightness of an LCD screen which shows the tuned frequency, and another knob which controls the frequency itself.
YouTube user Eric William has put together a video showing off his RTL-SDR “Go Bag” kit. The kit contains all the items he needs to use an RTL-SDR wherever he goes. In the video and video description he talks about all the adapters he uses, and also all the miscellaneous items such as upconverters and portable antennas that he carries in the kit.
YouTube user HamradioSat has put up a video tutorial showing how to connect SDR# and Orbitron together. By interfacing the two, Orbitron can then be used to automatically tune to the doppler corrected frequency of a satellite passing overhead in SDR#. Orbitron is a free satellite tracking software program.
This can be useful for simplifying the tracking of NOAA weather satellites and downloading their live images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Ut-HvnRb8&feature=youtube_gdata
Finding the correct direction to point a satellite for TV reception can be difficult without the right equipment. YouTube user MegaOscarVideos shows us in the video below how he uses an RTL-SDR to accurately aim his satellite for TV reception.
He uses a TV satellite dish with an LNB connected to a bias-T circuit as the receiver, which is then connected to the RTL-SDR. As the satellite is moved he looks for the direction at which the signal level in SDR# increases the most.
