Tagged: l-band

Receiving Unintentional Voice Transmissions from GPS Satellites

Over on dereksgc's YouTube channel we've discovered a few more recent interesting videos from his satellite decoding series that people may be interested in. One from two weeks ago shows how it's possible to receive voice transmissions on navigation satellites such as GPS.

Many navigational and meteorological satellites carry a search and rescue (SAR) repeater which is intended to receive UHF emergency locator beacons and rebroadcast them in the L-band or higher. However the repeaters appear to be picking up all sorts of other signals from the ground, including voice transmissions. Dereksgc notes that the theory is that there are some land based communications systems in some countries that are sharing frequencies that emergency locator beacons use, or that malicious pirates may be actively using these SAR repeaters for their own communications.

Dereksgc shows examples of retransmitted signals on the Beidou, GLONASS and Elektro-L satellite downlinks at 1.5442 GHz and at 2.226 MHz for the GPS satellites. He also shows what sort of satellite dish and feed setup you need. In the video he uses a HackRF as the SDR, but you could also use an RTL-SDR for the satellites that transmit at 1.5442 GHz.

Receiving voice transmissions from GPS satellites || Satellite reception pt.10

RTL-SDR Blog L-Band Patch, Bullseye, YouLoop Sale

This Black Friday we are offering a discount on our L-Band Patch, Bullseye and YouLoop antennas in our store and marketplace listings! The sale will run until the end of November.

Our L-Band patch is an active design for receiving L-band satellites such as Inmarsat, Iridium, GPS and other satellites that transmit between 1525 - 1660 MHz (please note that you cannot use it for weak signals that require a dish like HRPT or GOES).

The Bullseye LNB is a TCXO stabilized LNB for the QO-100 geostationary amateur satellite and other Ku-band satellites.

The YouLoop is a super portable passive HF/VHF loop antenna designed for super low NF/MDS receivers like the Airspy HF+ Discovery.

  • L-Band Patch Antenna: US $59.95 $49.95
  • Bullseye LNB: US $29.95 $24.95
  • YouLoop: US $39.95 $31.96

Pricing includes free shipping to most countries. Please note that pricing does not include VAT and/or taxes which may be added for your country.

Lon.TV Demonstrates Decoding Various Digital Signals with RTL-SDR

Tech YouTuber Lon.TV has recently uploaded a video demonstrating how to identify and decode various digital transmissions with an RTL-SDR dongle. In the video he explains how to use VB Cable to pipe audio from SDR# into various decoders, and then goes on to show DMR, APRS, POCSAG, L-Band AERO, FT8, and JS8/JS8CALL all being decoded via an RTL-SDR Blog V3 dongle.

Software Defined Radio Part 2 - Decoding Digital Transmissions with an RTL-SDR USB Radio

SignalsEverywhere tests our RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch Antenna

Sarah from the SignalsEverywhere YouTube channel is back this week with a video review and demonstration of our RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band patch antenna, which is designed for receiving Inmarsat and Iridium satellites between 1525 - 1660 MHz with an RTL-SDR or other bias tee capable SDR.

In the video Sarah demonstrates the patch antenna in action running in SDR++, discusses some of the features and compares it against another patch antenna. She goes on to briefly show JAERO receiving and decoding an 8400bps AERO voice channel.

If you're interested, this antenna has also been reviewed by Frugal Radio, Tech Minds, and Mike from SDRplay

The patch is currently in stock in our store for $49.95 shipped worldwide, or on Amazon USA for US customers. We note that previous problems (as explained in our earlier post) with cracks in the plastic in the latest batch with grey enclosures have been resolved now, and units shipping now are without defect.

What can you do with this antenna?

RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch Antenna for Inmarsat, Iridium, GPS Back in Stock

Just a quick note to say that the second batch of our Active L-Band Patch Antenna for receiving Inmarsat, Iridium and other L-Band satellites is now in stock, available to be shipped from our warehouse in China from early next week. Amazon will be stocked within the next 1-2 months as the freighter will take time to arrive.

Please see our store for ordering details.

Apologies as we've had to temporarily suspend sales of this product as a manufacturing defect has been discovered in this batch. The defect is that on a number of units the plastic around the screws is cracking, and this was caused by a factory worker over torqueing a pneumatic screwdriver.

The antenna itself will work fine, and it probably won't even affect weather tightness, but it is certainly a defect. If your unit already shipped out and your unit has these cracks, please let us know at [email protected] and we will get the factory to ship you a replacement enclosure. For unshipped units we will be issuing a refund within the next few days.

Update: The units have been repaired and are available for shipping again.

Pricing remains the same at US$49.95 including free worldwide shipping to most countries. A reminder to EU customers: please order from our Aliexpress or eBay stores as due to the new IOSS laws we need to now use those marketplaces to collect and remit VAT upon your purchase, instead of upon import at the border.

This second batch comes in a gray color as feedback from the previous batch indicated that a lighter color is preferred to avoid excess heating from the sun.

If you are hearing about this patch antenna for the first time, please see our original release post for more information. In short this is an amplified patch antenna designed to be used with bias tee capable SDRs that can provide 3.3V - 5V power, such as our RTL-SDR Blog V3 dongle, Airspy, SDRplay or HackRF.

The antenna allows for reception of L-band satellites that transmit between 1525 - 1660 MHz, such as Inmarsat, Iridium and GPS. Please note it is *not* for receiving weaker signals like HRPT and GOES which require a dish antenna.

The patch comes with useful mounting accessories including a window suction cup, bendable tripod and 3M RG174 coax cable. The patch and active circuitry is enclosed in a weather proof enclosure.

What can you do with this antenna?

Frugal Radio: A Review of the NooElec Inmarsat Patch Antenna Bundle

In his latest video Rob from Frugal Radio has reviewed the NooElec Inmarsat Patch Antenna Bundle. The US$79.95 bundle includes a PCB patch antenna, Inmarsat SAWBird LNA, SMA DC Block, SMA Barrel adapter and SMA pigtail. In the video Rob tests the bundle out on various AERO signals using the JAERO software, before moving on to compare the bundle with our own RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch antenna. The comparison results show that our $49.95 L-band antenna is better by about 5-6dB in SNR.

Our RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch antenna set is available on our store. However, please note that this antenna is currently in short supply due to the global electronics supply chain shortage. We expect to be sold out within a few days but we are aiming to be able to restock within 1-2 months from now.

Review : NooElec L Band Inmarsat Patch Antenna Bundle

Frugal Radio: Review of our RTL-SDR Blog L-Band Patch Antenna

Over on YouTube Rob from Frugal Radio has uploaded a video reviewing our new L-Band Patch antenna which we released for sale late last month. The patch is currently on a release sale for US$44.95 including free standard airmail shipping to most countries. We will be ending the sale this Wednesday at which point the price will go to US$49.95, still with free standard airmail shipping to most countries. The patch can be purchased from our web store at www.rtl-sdr.com/store.

In the video Rob demonstrates the patch receiving Inmarsat signals strongly, and decodes a few AERO signals using JAERO. He shows that the patch works on any RTL-SDR with bias tee capability as well as an Airspy Mini. Lastly he compares the unit against the SDR-Kits patch.

We note that we are also supplying a kit for a giveaway to Frugal Radio subscribers that we will announce in an upcoming video coming out a few days time.

RTL-SDR updated L-band patch antenna review - perfect for your SDR radio!

UPDATE: Giveaway information now available in the latest video below.

RTL-SDR L-Band Patch Antenna Giveaway

DragonOS: Decoding Iridium Satellites with the Iridium Toolkit and an RTL-SDR

DragonOS is a ready to use Linux OS image that includes various SDR programs preinstalled and ready to use. The creator Aaron also runs a YouTube channel that has multiple tutorial videos demonstrating software built into DragonOS.

In his latest video Aaron explores Iridium reception with an RTL-SDR Blog V3, RTL-SDR Blog Active L-Band Patch Antenna and Iridium Toolkit/gr-iridium. Iridium is a satellite constellation that provides services such as global paging, satellite phones, tracking and fleet management services, as well as services for emergency, aircraft, maritime and covert operations too.

In the video he shows how to edit the config file to turn the bias tee on, how to record Iridium data, how to install the AMBE voice decoder, and finally how to decode the Iridum data with Iridium toolkit and play voice recordings.

DragonOS LTS Decoding Iridium satellites with the Iridium toolkit (gr-iridium, RTL-SDR)