SDR++ Android App Public Pre-Release Now Available

SDR++ is an open source program compatible with most software defined radios including the RTL-SDR that has been going through rapid development making it now one of the top software choices.

Yesterday a public 'pre-release' Android version of SDR++ was made available for download. The release is announced as a 'pre-release' due to various bugs still existing. However, we note that we have been testing a private release for the past few weeks, and we can say that it is working great most of the time. The Android App replicates most of the desktop experience perfectly, and it operates very smoothly on most modern devices.

The author Alexandre Rouma writes:

I'm happy to release the first public pre-release of SDR++ for android. It's still quite early and has a few bugs and quirks that you might run into:

  • SDR MUST be plugged in before starting SDR++ and you MUST press refresh in the SDR source you're using before pressing play if you first plugged in the SDR or unplugged/replugged, otherwise expect a crash. The USB handling still needs some work.
  • There are still a few UI glitches
  • There is no easy way to select a path for recording or file for playback
  • The audio sink on Android may have higher latency
  • All menus sometimes close when app goes in the background.
  • Resizing the menu and/or waterfall is kinda fiddly, be precise when trying to grab the resize bar!!!
  • At some size menu sizes, the app crashes. If this happens, start in landscape
  • On Samsung devices, the keyboard doesn't always work for some obscure reason...

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

  • Android 9.0
  • OpenGL 2.1

Since phones usually have a high screen resolution, set the DPI scaling in the Display menu or you'll have a hard time using the app.

Current Device/Protocol Support:

  • Airspy
  • Airspy HF+
  • HackRF
  • PlutoSDR (network only)
  • RFspace
  • RTL-SDR
  • RTL-TCP
  • SDR++ Server
  • SpyServer

In any case, I'd love to get some feedback on it, so feel free to try it out and let me know!

Download Here: https://www.sdrpp.org/

PS: If you like this work, feel free to support me on Patreon, since putting it on the App Store won't be cheap and I want to make sure it's completely free with no ads!

SDR++ Android App Screenshot. Credit: goscickiw https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/SDRPlusPlus/discussions/703
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New York Times Story on Intercepted Russian Forces Radio Communications

The New York Times have recently run an incredible video story about how Russian radio communications are being intercepted and recorded by ham radio operators and open source radio monitoring hobbyists in Ukraine. Some of the communications reveal the extent of the logistical issues experienced by the invading forces, and perhaps have even recorded evidence for war crimes.

It appears that much of the invading Russian forces use simple unencrypted analogue voice over HF channels that can be intercepted and recorded by anyone with an HF software defined radio, or anyone willing to monitor nearby web-based SDRs like KiwiSDRs and WebSDRs. In the video screenshots of recordings played back in SDR# and various WebSDRs are displayed.

The story focuses mostly on the audio recordings that highlight communications between Russian forces discussing attack plans, including plans to bombard residential areas with artillery. These recordings are cross-referenced with reports and videos of actual tank sightings and destruction in the areas discussed on the radio.

A later recording highlights communications from a distressed Russian vehicle under attack, requests for air support being unfulfilled, and urgent requests for supplies like fuel, food and water. 

Russia Struggled to Capture a Ukrainian Town. Intercepted Radio Messages Show Why.

Some of the monitoring projects involved are highlighted in the story and they include, Project Owl, Ukrainian Radio Watchers, ShadowBreak and NSRIC (Number Stations Research and Information Center). We are also aware of at least one other organization attempting to record communications within Ukraine as well that may be making use of RTL-SDRs, HackRFs and other SDRs.

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Detecting Interstellar High-Velocity Clouds with a Radio Telescope and an RTL-SDR

Over on Facebook Job Geheniau has recently described his success in detecting interstellar high-velocity clouds with his telescope consisting of a 1.8 meter dish, amplifiers, band pass filters, and an RTL-SDR.

High-velocity clouds or HVC's are areas of interstellar gas that are moving at very high velocities relative to that of the galactic rotation.

Job has been ticking off some amazing amateur radio astronomy milestone results recently with his radio telescope and RTL-SDR. So far he has managed to image the Cygnus star forming region, complete a Hydrogen line survey of the northern sky, measure the galactic rotational curve, and create a radio image of the milky way.

His latest post about detecting high velocity clouds reads:

 

CIII High Velocity Cloud detected with 1.8 meter JRT.

The receiver was a RTLSDR connected to some amplifiers, band pass filter and a 1.8 meter dish.

HIGH VELOCITY CLOUD CIII with JRT (Job’s Radio Telescope)

Wikipedia:
“High-velocity clouds (HVCs) are large collections of gas found throughout the galactic halo of the Milky Way. These clouds of gas can be massive in size, some on the order of millions of times the mass of the Sun and cover large portions of the sky. They have been observed in the Milky Way's halo and within other nearby galaxies.

HVCs are important to the understanding of galactic evolution because they account for a large amount of baryonic matter in the galactic halo. In addition, as these clouds fall into the disk of the galaxy, they add material that can form stars in addition to the dilute star forming material already present in the disk. This new material aids in maintaining the star formation rate (SFR) of the galaxy.

The origins of the HVCs are still in question. No one theory explains all of the HVCs in the galaxy. However, it is known that some HVCs are probably spawned by interactions between the Milky Way and satellite galaxies, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively) which produce a well-known complex of HVCs called the Magellanic Stream. Because of the various possible mechanisms that could potentially produce HVCs, there are still many questions surrounding HVCs for researchers to study.”

My detection:

For JRT the High Velocity Clouds are pretty hard to detect.

The Anti Center Complex is the easiest which I detected earlier last year.

This week I tried C III. It’s at Galactic Coordinates 120 50 and has a Vlsr of -140 km/s. You can find it on the chart:

In the simulation it looks like this:

Pay attention the low Brightness Temperature (0.3 Kelvin) compared for instance with Deneb (80 Kelvin)! Pretty hard to detect with my dish.

With JRT I did a 4 hour exposure (also 4 hours of Darks in the neighborhood) at 1420.405 MHz.

The new Feed I built is very good and has a perfect ‘pitch’ at gain 25 dB.

The final result for High Velocity Cloud CIII with my 1.8 meter dish:

 
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SignalsEverywhere: Setting up and using SDR++ Server

On this weeks SignalsEverywhere episode, Sarah demonstrates and shows us how to use the SDR++ Server, which was released as a beta earlier this year. SDR++ Server is similar to software like rtl_tcp, and Spyserver as it allows us to connect to a remote networked SDR like an RTL-SDR. Compared to rtl_tcp and Spyserver however, SDR++ Server has a huge advantage in that it is compatible with almost any SDR, and enables the full range of control options for RTL-SDRs.

In the video Sarah shows us how to activate the SDR++ server module and how to connect to a remote RTL-SDR running the SDR++ server on a Raspberry Pi. She goes on to show how to connect to other SDRs running on the Raspberry Pi as well, such as the SDRplay RSP Duo, LimeSDR, Airspy R2 and Airspy HF+ Discovery. Finally she goes on to show how to set up the server on Windows and a Raspberry Pi.

SDR++ Server | Remote RTL-SDR SDRPlay LimeSDR AirSpy and More! | Raspberry Pi and Windows Setup Tut

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Mapping GPS/GNSS Interference Through ADS-B Data

Websites like adsbexchange.com log ADS-B aircraft tracking data from contributors located all over the world and aggregate it all onto a single map. Typically an RTL-SDR is the receiver of choice for contributors receiving ADS-B signals. One piece of data that is recorded with each packet is GPS/GNSS accuracy.

Over on Twitter John Wiseman @lemonodor has been using the aggregated ADS-B data provided by adsbexchange to highlight regions where ADS-B GPS inaccuracies are significant. This may allow us to use crowd sourced data to detect regions of GPS interference or jamming. In one of his latest findings he noted extreme GPS inaccuracy that noticed around the Baltic regions (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Kaliningrad).

As John and others reported in subsequent Tweets, this GPS interference was noticed by others too, with some flights needing to be cancelled or needing to return during their journey, and a NOTAM warning being issued to pilots regarding the interference. Reuters also reported on the GPS disturbance a few days later.

NOTAM: GPS INTERFERENCE DETECTED IN THE EASTERN PARTS OF HELSINKI FIR. AFFECTED AREA SECTOR N, SFC-FL200

It is well known that Russia routinely utilizes GPS spoofing or jamming around Kremlin landmarks, sensitive areas and during military operations. However, others noted that NATO exercises in the Baltic could also be the cause.

To further add to this story, the satellite intelligence operator Hawkeye 360 also recently detected significant GPS interference within or around Ukraine.

Hawkeye360 Detects GPS Interference near or within Ukraine.
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Receiving NOAA Global Area Cover (GAC) Images with LeanHRPT

A few weeks ago we posted about how @ZSztanga and @aang254 were able to record and decode Global Area Cover (GAC) images from polar orbiting NOAA weather satellites. GAC images are low resolution, but they provide an image of the entire orbit. The GAC signal is only transmitted over the USA.

A week earlier than @ZSztanga and @aang254 above decoded GAC, another software called LeanHRPT by @Xerbo also implemented a GAC decoder. LeanHRPT is available on Windows, Linux and MacOS, and ready to download binaries are available on the releases page. You'll need the LeanHRPT demodulator too, in order to initially demodulate the signal.

@Xerbo also notes that @dereksgc has also released a useful Python script for predicting NOAA GAC transmissions. It shows when a particular NOAA satellite will begin and end their GAC transmission, as well as the frequency, polarization and elevation of the satellite. 

GAC Transmission Prediction Tool
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Troubleshooting TV Reception with Spektrum and an RTL-SDR

Thank you to "Double A" for submitting his latest YouTube tutorial video that shows how to use an RTL-SDR together with the Spektrum software to optimize TV reception by comparing TV antennas, repositioning antennas and detecting interference.

Double A's video first shows how to setup the RTL-SDR and how to install and use the Spektrum analyzer software. He then compares a popular highly rated phased array TV antenna against cheaper log periodic TV antenna, with the results showing that the phased array works a lot better at most TV frequencies even with accurate positioning. He goes on to show how he scans for FM, 5G and local electronics interference and the effect of an FM filter can help.

Improve Antenna TV Reception and Detect Interference using the RTL-SDR USB as a Spectrum Analyzer

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LimeSDR Mini 1.0 End of Life, and LimeSDR Mini 2.0 to be Released

The LimeSDR Mini is a sub $200 RX and TX capable SDR with 12-bit ADC, 10 MHz to 3.5 GHz tuning range and up to 40 MHz of live bandwidth. 

Due to supply chain difficulties sourcing the FPGA used on the LimeSDR Mini, an End of Life statement for the original LimeSDR Mini has now been released. However, the silver lining is that at the same time as this announcement Lime Microsystems have announced their plans to release the LimeSDR Mini 2.0.

Between the LimeSDR Mini 1.0 and the 2.0, there appear to be no major changes apart from the Intel Max 10 FPGA with 16k logic gates being replaced by the larger Lattice ECP5 FPGA with 44k logic gates. Lime Micro notes 

Not only is the ECP5 more readily available than the Intel MAX10 FPGA used in the previous design, but it has an extensive set of open source tools and a great community of developers.

The LimeSDR Mini 2.0 is in currently the 'coming soon' status on CrowdSupply and you can subscribe there to get updates on when it is released.

The LimeSDR Mini 2.0
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