Russian Bomber HF Activity, Amateur Radio / SDR Hobbyist Warning Again

With Russian missiles now falling in the Ukraine it seems that the worst has occurred and a full scale invasion has started. We wish for the safety of all Ukrainian citizens and to that end we wanted again to reiterate our safety warning to all SDR owners and amateur radio operators in the Ukraine that we put out three weeks ago. Please remember that last year a Crimean resident was arrested and is currently imprisoned by Russian forces for using RTL-SDR and scanner radios to listen to the airband. Crimea was a previous territory of the Ukraine annexed by Russian forces in 2014.

Along with Ukraine's declared state of emergency, one of the conditions is that all transmitting radio amateur activities must cease. We would also strongly recommend ceasing any public facing receiving activities, including ADSB and WebSDR feeds etc.

We are also hearing reports that 8131 kHz is supposedly being used by Russian Strategic Bombers for voice communications and it has been very active within the last few hours. The WebSDR linked in the tweet is already at capacity, but you may be able to hear from KiwiSDRs stationed around Europe.

Tweet46
Share
Reddit168
Vote1
Email
215 Shares

DAB+ Decoder Welle.io Version 2.4 Released and YouTube Demonstration Video

Version 2.4 of the RTL-SDR compatible DAB/DAB+ decoder called welle.io has recently been released for download on GitHub. The main changes include various bug fixes, the addition of Windows 11 support, and the return of the Android APK (but only with rtl_tcp support).

The author has also released a new YouTube video tour, demonstrating the software in action, and explaining all the features.

Showing welle.io a SDR to listen DAB/DAB+.

Tweet10
Share
Reddit
Vote
Email
10 Shares

Using the New KrakenSDR Software with DF-Aggregator and a KerberosSDR

KrakenSDR is our 5-channel coherent RTL-SDR product that we have successfully crowdfunded for over on CrowdSupply. KrakenSDR is the successor to our previous 4-channel product called the KerberosSDR and will begin shipping to initial supporters within the next few months. Along with the new hardware developments, KrakenSDR comes with a new opensource codebase that is also compatible with the KerberosSDR. 

With a coherent SDR like KrakenSDR or KerberosSDR, interesting applications such as radio direction finding and passive radar become possible.

Unlike the newer KrakenSDR, the KerberosSDR is unable to automatically calibrate without manual intervention on the hardware. However, it is possible to upgrade the KerberosSDR with some third party hardware switches provided by Corey Koval of Lakeshore Labs. With these switches and the new software the KerberosSDR can be made to automatically calibrate like the KrakenSDR.

Corey also has created DF-Aggregator, which is open source software that allows users to plot bearing data from one or more KerberosSDR, KrakenSDR or other radio direction finding devices on a map.

Recently, Corey has demonstrated some changes to our codebase that allow the new KrakenSDR software to directly upload to DF-Aggregator. Over on his YouTube channel, Aaron who runs the DragonOS channel has uploaded a video that shows exactly how to set this up. In the future we plan on integrating support for DF-Aggregator directly into our core code.

DragonOS Focal KrakenSDR Software Setup and Connection w/ DF-Aggregator (KerberosSDR, Pi4)

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Vote
Email

New HAM FM and ADS-B Radar Android Apps

Thank you to James Mainwaring for submitting news about the release of his two new RTL-SDR compatible Android Apps "Ham FM Radio (RTL-SDR)" and "ADS-B Radar (RTL-SDR)". 

The Ham FM Radio app allows the user to quickly tune and listen in to the 144-148, 150-174 and 420-450 MHz ham radio communications via presets. For the second ADS-B app, James notes that it's an early release for feedback. It allows the user to receive ADS-B data and plot it on a radar like display.

We note that we've previously posted about James' other apps for FM Radio and airband listening.

The Ham RF and ADS-B Radar Apps by James Mainwaring
Tweet27
Share
Reddit2
Vote
Email
29 Shares

SDRplay Updates on Hardware Shortages

As we all know many electronic components are currently in shortage, and this global shortage is affecting some SDR manufacturers like SDRplay. Recently on their blog SDRplay have provided some updates on their hardware shortage situation. They write:

As we have mentioned before,  due to the worldwide shortage of electronic components, we are suffering from production delays at both our manufacturing subcontractor operations here in the UK.  This means that many of our resellers have completely run out of RSP1A and RSPdx devices.

However we are pleased to say that this week, we have  been able to build some additional units.  This means that by the end of next week (February 25th), our resellers should have more stocks of RSP1A and RSPdx.   More RSPduos are promised for mid to late March.

It is highly likely that even after the latest production runs are delivered, some of our resellers will run out again in the weeks ahead.  Meanwhile we are working to do all we can to secure more critical components for our manufacturers. This includes tweaks to the designs so that they can accommodate alternative more readily available parts.

Many thanks to customers who have been left waiting to buy, and to our resellers for your patience as we navigate though this situation.

A list of our authorised resellers can be found here: https://www.sdrplay.com/distributors/

SDRplay Manufacturing
Tweet18
Share
Reddit
Vote
Email
18 Shares

Global Area Coverage (GAC) Images Decoded from NOAA Satellites

Thank you to @ZSztanga and @aang254 for submitting news about their recent success at decoding the L-Band Global Area Coverage (GAC) signal from polar orbiting NOAA satellites. GAC images are low resolution, and described by NOAA as follows:

Global Area Coverage (GAC) data set is reduced resolution image data that is processed onboard the satellite taking only one line out of every three and averaging every four of five adjacent samples along the scan line.

While it's low resolution, the interesting thing about this data is that you get an image of the entire orbit, not just the data from your current location as you'd receive with the standard 137 MHz APT or L-Band HRPT signal. The catch is that the signal is usually only transmitted over the USA, and you'll need a motorized or hand tracked L-Band satellite dish setup to receive it.

We note that GAC data is not to be confused with the Direct Sounding Broadcast (DSB) signal decoding software we posted about in 2020. 

@ZSztanga has provided some more information about what images are available and who can receive it, and @aang254's tweet below provides some images and additional information:

With @aang254 we decoded GAC from NOAA satellites. It's basically a dump of reduced resolution data from the whole orbit. It includes all the instruments and is transmitted on L-band along with HRPT (mostly over USA, rarely above Europe and only NOAA-19 dumps outside the US). All the decoders are in SatDump.

There is also a schedule available (https://noaasis.noaa.gov/cemscs/polrschd.txt) that includes all the dumps in the upcoming week. It might be a bit hard to interpret, but basically there is a date and the ground station name (SVL stands for Svalbard and it is the only one receivable in Europe). Entries with "GAC" or "PBK" are referring to the GAC transmission.

We've also seen a tweet by @OK9UWU that shows a much longer image of a full orbit.

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Vote
Email

Samy Kamkar Talks Hardware Security on Hackster Café

Samy Kamkar is famous in the wireless and hardware information security scene for his research on various security exploits including methods to defeat rolling code security, and using a children's toy to open wireless garage doors. In a recent Hackster.io Hackster Café interview Samy talks about various security related topics including software defined radios.

Samy Kamkar first became notorious for software and hardware security exploits – including SkyJack, a custom drone that could take control of other UAVs, and OpenSesame, a hacked child's toy that can open remote-controlled garage doors. He now brings this deep experience to Openpath, the touchless access control company he co-founded in 2016. From security celebrity to founder, we sit down for a chat with Samy on this episode of Hackster Café (new episodes every Tuesday at 10am Pacific).

Samy Kamkar on Hardware Security // Hackster Café

Tweet11
Share
Reddit1
Vote
Email
12 Shares

rsadsb: Terminal Based Aircraft Radar on the Raspberry Pi

Thank you to Wayne Campbell for submitting news about the release of the latest 0.5.0 iteration of his RTL-SDR compatible 'rsadsb' software package that plots ADS-B aircraft positions on a terminal based display. Wayne has also created a blog post describing how to set up a Raspberry Pi based portable ADS-B setup with his software.

The package consists of two separate programs 'dump1090_rs' and 'radar' (aka adsb_deku). The dump1090_rs program is a rust implementation of the dump1090 ADS-B decoder and 'radar'  is the terminal based map. A quickstart guide for setting up both programs is also available.

The software can run on a Raspberry Pi and works well displayed on a portable touchscreen. It appears that the terminal display is very responsive with zoom controls for the radar display, a coverage map, and a tidy list of all detected aircraft.

If you're interested in terminal based displays, we've posted about a similar terminal based ADS-B plotter called 'coole-radar' in the past, as well as a terminal based spectrum analyzer display called retrogram.

rsadsb: Terminal ADS-B Radar Display
Tweet79
Share
Reddit1
Vote
Email
80 Shares