We've posted about various fake clones of various brands of SDRs a few times on this blog, and recently this week SDRplay reiterated their warning noting that the fake SDRplay clones may not work with official SDRplay software.
There are sellers of fake RSPs on the internet. They are selling counterfeit devices some of which appear cosmetically the same as the genuine SDRplay® devices. There is a high likelihood that these devices will not work – according to unsuspecting buyers* who have contacted us.
These counterfeit devices attempt to make use of:
Stolen IP
Stolen software product (SDRplay proprietary API and driver software)
In addition, the counterfeiters have no access to our rigorous production test solution and so these devices are probably untested.
* Here’s what one AliExpress customer posted:
The rest of the post goes on to highlight how you can be sure that you are not purchasing a fake clone.
The ##rtlsdr IRC Freenode chat channel will be moving to irc.libera.chat. However ##rtlsdr admins note that the Freenode channel will remain open for now. This move is in wake of the recent takeover drama surrounding Freenode, and the resignation of the majority of Freenode staff.
The ##rtlsdr IRC channel is where many RTL-SDR, software defined radio and RF enthusiasts hang out. You can join and idle with any IRC client, or a web client is available at https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat/##rtlsdr.
A discussion about the move has also been opened on Reddit /r/rtlsdr.
Many other related project channels such as #gnuradio are also moving over to Libera.
Over on his YouTube channel saveitforparts has uploaded a video showing how he has built an automated weather satellite image collector for the NOAA APT and Meteor M2 LRPT satellites. The video shows a time lapse of him building a QFH antenna, and how he's mounted a Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR inside a waterproof enclosure attached to the antenna mast. He goes on to show how he's automating the system with the Raspberry-NOAA V2 software.
Automated Home Weather Station (Satellite Image Collector)
Thank you to Ihar Yatsevich for writing in and sharing his open source project called "rpitx-coax-pcb" which is an expansion board for the Raspberry Pi that converts the GPIO pin used by RPiTX into a coaxial SMA connector for easily connecting the output to an antenna. He notes that there are two revisions. One includes a filter in the in the GP1212 / GP731 case and the other does not. Filters in this type of enclosure can be found from Minicircuits. Finally he notes that he has not yet fully tested the design, but believes that there will be no problems.
The GitHub contains the EasyEDA design files, schematics and gerbers which you can use to print and build the PCB yourself.
If you are unfamiliar with it, RPiTX is a program for Raspberry Pi single board computers that allows you to transmit almost any type of signal on frequencies between 5 kHz up to 1500 MHz with nothing more than a wire connected to a GPIO pin. However, it is highly recommended that appropriate filtering be used if you are transmitting with an amplifier or longer range antenna as the RPiTX contains harmonics that can cause interference with other devices.
RPiTX Coaxial PCB Expansion Board for the Raspberry Pi
A few weeks ago we posted about "LikWidChz"'s work on using GNU Radio to channelize multiple NRSC-5 HD-Radio transmissions for simultaneous decoding with GNU Radio and an RTL-SDR. He has now also submitted a way to channelize pager traffic. He writes:
Quite a while ago I wanted to decode pager traffic, specifically Flex. When I started doing some basic poking around I figured out that there were multiple pager transmissions going on at once. Thinking about GnuRadio and its ability to chop up signal.. I was curious if anyone tried to decode them all at once.. I didn't get a whole lot of answers on the subject and It didn't seem like people used GnuRadio to pass MultiMonNG data.. I had my work cut out for me.
In my area all of the flex transmissions were between 928Mhz and 932Mhz and quite strong... You don't need much of an antenna to RX these transmissions. A simple wire of appropriate length will do nicely.
My plan was to design a graph and tune into the center of the range I was interested in and somehow channelize it. The remaining steps are required to format the data to allow MultiMonNG to process that audio stream. This is done a couple times depending on how many you want to decode in parallel. Have fun!
This this zip file we have uploaded his GRC file, and his full PDF description of the flowgraph. Again we note that to get in touch with the author you can log on #gnuradio and ##rtlsdr on freenode IRC and fine him under the nickname "LikWidChz".
Over on his YouTube channel CWNE88 has posted how he has been using and RTL-SDR with the rtl_433 software to explore the data coming in from various 433 MHz ISM band devices in his neighborhood. In the video he explains how he has set up rtl_433 on his Raspberry Pi, and what sort of data he is receiving. Some examples of devices he's received include various weather stations, doorbells, remotes and car tyre pressure monitors.
He also mentions how these signals are unencrypted, noting that in a future video he will show on GNU Radio how a false signal could be synthesized.
Thank you to Evuraan for writing in and sharing his new browser based HD Radio / NRSC-5 interface for the nrsc5 decoder which he has called yellowShoes.
NOTE: We have been informed by some users that yellowShoes may contain a Trojan virus. This is likely to be a false positive which is a very common problem with antivirus software falsely detecting viruses on newly released niche software via heuristics. We have removed the above link out of an abundance of caution, however if you wish to continue the yellowShoes Github is here. If you want the software, but are concerned you can check the code compile it yourself.
NOTE UPDATE: The author of the software has contacted us regarding the virus concerns and written "I wanted to write in clarify that it is indeed a false positive, please see https://groups.google.com/g/golang-nuts/c/Au1FbtTZzbk and also https://golang.org/doc/faq#virus - this false positive occurs when you cross compile go binaries - This is a common occurrence, especially on Windows machines. Commercial virus scanning programs are often confused by the structure of Go binaries, which they don't see as often as those compiled from other languages."
HD Radio is a digital broadcast protocol replacement for analogue broadcast FM. It is only used in North America and is easily recognized as the two rectangular blocks on either side of a broadcast FM station signal on a spectrum analyzer/waterfall display. Together with an RTL-SDR and theori's command line nrsc5 decoder, the HD Radio signal can be decoded and listened to. Evuraan writes:
I wrote yellowShoes - an nrsc5 player which you can control from your browser. (Should work on Windows, Linux etc. Player F/E also works on Android Phones.)
Its sole dependency is that the nrsc5 binary must be available in the path.
Over on YouTube Adam Łoboda has uploaded a video showing the full steps that he's taken to reverse engineer and clone a wireless garage door key using an RTL-SDR and Arduino.
He starts by using the Universal Radio Hacker software to record a copy of the wireless signal generated by the garage key. Using the software he can then analyze the signal, and determine the preamble data, payload data and pulse width which he can then input into some Arduino code. The Arduino can then generate an identical signal, and transmit it via a cheap FS1000A 433 MHz RF module. Finally, at the end of the video Adam shows the cloned Arduino based garage key working as expected.
hacking & clonning my garage key with URH ( Universal radio Hacker ) and ARDUINO DIGISPARK + FS1000A
