Tagged: orbitron

April 29, 2022

SDR# and other Hobbyist Ham Radio Software Spotted in Netflix TV Show Yakamoz S-245

Thanks to all who submitted, we recently received some interesting tip offs about the Netflix TV Show Yakamoz S-245 featuring a scene with various hobbyist SDR and ham radio programs clearly visible. Yakamoz S-245 is a show about a submarine research mission, and the scene appears to depict military intelligence specialists using the programs.

In the scene we've spotted SDR#, MMSSTV, FUNcube dashboard, SATPC-32, and Orbitron. For those interested, the scene is in episode one time 11:20 - 12:00.

Hilarious scene from Netflix TV series Yakamoz S-245. Seems that the main software used at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey is @airspy_com #SDRSharp, #MMSSTV and probably the @AmsatUK Dashboard. 🤣
Can you detect any other #hamradio software?@SWRadiogram @SWLingDotCom pic.twitter.com/z7IMfk6v8V
— Merkouris SV2HWM (@SV2HWM) April 23, 2022

November 12, 2014

Decoding the Russian Parus (Cosmos) Navigation Satellites with the RTL-SDR

Once again Happysat, who previously wrote in to RTL-SDR.com to let us know how to receive dead satellites with the RTL-SDR has again written in to let us know about his latest achievements.

Happysat has recently been using a RTL-SDR to decode the discontinued Russian Parus (Cosmos) Navigation Satellites. These are low earth orbit satellites operated by the Russian Space Forces that are used for military communication and navigation. Since 1974 there have been 99 Parus satellites launched, but there are only three currently active.

With an RTL-SDR, SDR# and decoder software, Happysat was able to decode data from the satellite which includes the current Moscow time and various location and telemetry data.

Russian Parus (Cosmos) Satellite Decoded Data

Happysat writes:

The Russian Military Parus satellites are/where used for low-earth orbiting navigation information and store-dump radio communications relay service for Red Navy surface vessels and submarines.

Each satellite is in a near-circular orbit of about 1000 km (620 miles).The orbits are polar (pass over the poles of the earth) and stay stationary in space so that as the earth rotates, the satellite covers different parts of the planet.

There are three currently operational, Cosmos 2407, 2414, and the last one launched in this series (April 2012) Cosmos 2463 with a lifespan of 4 years.

They are discontinued now as the GLONASS Navigation systems did take over the service which are providing a better accurate GPS position.

Why the Parus-Satellites are currently still broadcasting data is unknown. Most probably due the older vessels and submarines are still using Shkhuna Radio systems.

The satellites transmit two radio carriers, one on VHF which is FM modulated with the navigational data around 10 watts, and one on UHF which is unmodulated (tracking Beacon).

Already in 1980 the British Kettering Group was able to decode the encryption. The first 18 Bit of data contain the Moscow time, the other Bits contain the positions and orbits from the other active Parus-Satellites. Very similar data like our GPS output and the Orbcomm satellites (on 137 Mhz) with OrbcommPlotter (explained also on rtl-sdr).

With RTL-SDR and SDRSharp its possible also to decode the Russian Military Parus satellites.

Alan Cordwell did write a Java decoder that will decode the navigation data from the VHF transmission in non-real time. cosmos_export.rar [Mirror] It is experimental software and very basic.

Unfortunately his website is offline but still on web-archive (link to web archive)

You will need to record the audio from the satellite and save it as a 44100, 8-bit, mono .wav file. Which means SDRSharp included wave recording is not suitable to do this you need a external program like Audacity or any favourite which can handle the requirements above.

Then you will need to apply narrow bandpass filtering to it at 3, 5 and 7 kHz. Without this filtering step only a small portion of the data will be available, i’m still struggling with this step 😉

He did use Cool Edit Pro to do this, there are no doubt other apps available like Audacity. Included is a sample filtered audio file for you to try it with, it’s in the rar archive as well.

Unpack the archive to a convenient location a folder called cosmos-export will result. Execute the file cosdec.jar to run the application. Open a file with file/open and in the file chooser dialog select the wav file. To decode it go to Actions/Process File.

To write all output to a log file: check the Dump to log option in File menu (log file will be created with same name as audio file but with .log extension appended). Datascope does as it suggests; it launches a little frame that shows (using graphics) the waveform of the data recovered from the audio. The frequency axis is upside down! you’ll see the 3, 5 and 7kHz bits with 7 at the bottom.

There is another program (Sorcerer) which can decode in real-time only, the current actual atom Moscow time from the satellites.

[sorcer download]

Start sorcerer and go to the menu add decoder on the left FSK and choose COSMOS NAVDATA. Move the first bar slider in the spectrum to 3 kHz so the second and third are on 5 and 7 KHz as seen in the screenshot.

Its possible to run this application and record audio at the same time which is later on needed for the cosmos_export Java program.

The frequencies are as follows:

Cosmos 2407 and 2414
VHF Frequency NavData 149.970 MHz, Tracking Beacon 399.920MHz

Cosmos 2463
VHF Frequency NavData 149.940 MHz Tracking Beacon 399.840MHz

Orbital parameters and predictions:

You need to run Orbitron in SDRSharp to take care of the Doppler!

TLE’s for the current satellites, (these are current as of 10th November 2014)

COSMOS 2407
1 28380U 04028A 14313.17698750 .00000073 00000-0 59418-4 0 2927
2 28380 82.9601 332.2565 0038129 220.5020 139.3308 13.75978622517201

COSMOS 2414
1 28521U 05002A 14314.08629907 .00000094 00000-0 65641-4 0 6502
2 28521 82.9510 6.9860 0040501 164.6577 195.5838 13.87513505496523

COSMOS 2463
1 36519U 10017A 14313.57202739 -.00000009 00000-0 -27079-4 0 4041
2 36519 82.9553 122.2841 0036820 7.8477 352.3245 13.71357663227175

New ones can be downloaded at celestrak: musson.txt

Good luck and if anyone has good knowledge on how to apply narrow bandpass filtering at 3, 5 and 7 kHz, please write in the comments!

Note that Orbitron can be downloaded from http://www.stoff.pl/, and the SDR# plugin to interface with it can be downloaded from SatelliteTracker2.zip or here. A tutorial on using Orbitron with SDR# for Doppler correction can be found on our NOAA Weather satellite reception tutorial.

SDR# with Orbitron for Doppler Correction and Sorcerer for Decoding Cosmos

January 8, 2014

Video Tutorial: Setting Up Satellite Tracking with SDRSharp and Orbitron

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

May 18, 2013

List of SDRSharp Plugins

There are a number of SDRSharp plugins that extend its functionality. Here is a collection of all the plugins and download links that I could find.

With modern SDR# installing a plugin is usually a simple matter of copying the plugin files to a subfolder within the SDR# Plugins folder. SDR# should automatically recognize the plugins.

Some plugins might require editing the Plugins.xml file with a text editor such as notepad. These plugins will contain a readme.txt or magicline.txt file that shows what line to add to the Plugins.xml file. Just copy and paste the plugin .dll into the SDR# folder and add the magicline line to the plugins.xml file to install the driver.

We note that SDRSharp can now be downloaded with a community plugin package, which includes many of the plugins listed below. However, sometimes some plugins get broken with newer SDR# versions, so if you have issues with the SDR# community edition, it may be wise to download the vanilla edition and install plugins manually.

Frequency Manager + Scanner and Scanner Metrics and Frequency Entry Package

This is a plugin package which comes with three plugins. It comes with a more advanced frequency manager than the one shipped with SDRSharp.

It also has a scanner option which can quickly scan through a group of your saved frequencies, looking for an active signal.

It also has a scanner metrics plugin, which records frequency activity to a database. Later this database can be analyzed to find out which frequencies are the most active, saving you time searching manually for active frequencies.

Finally, this package also has a frequency entry plugin, which works like the old SDRSharp frequency entry used to work. Basically, it just allows you to choose a center frequency and IF frequency easily by typing it in instead of adjusting it with the mouse.

Download the installation packager here

Fast Scanner

Similar to the Frequency Manager and scanner plugin in that it automatically tunes to active signals above a certain power.

~~Download Link~~ (Original website now dead)

Download Link (via archive.org)

Download Link (RTL-SDR Blog Mirror)

DDE Plugin

Allows programs like WXTrack to work with SDRSharp through a DDE interface.

Instructions and Download Link Here

QPSK Demodulator

Used to demodulate QPSK signals from the Meteor M2 weather satellites. Used in conjunction with LRPT decoder. See tutorial here.

~~Download Here~~ (Original website now dead)

Download Here (archive.org Mirror)

Download Here (RTL-SDR Blog Mirror)

DDE Tracking and Scheduler Plugin

Another plugin that allows satellite tracking software like WxTrack and Orbitron to interface with SDR#. This one is meant to be used with the QPSK decoder plugin for automatic scheduled decoding of satellite passes. See tutorial here.

~~Download Here~~ (original website now dead)

Download Here (archive.org Mirror)

Download Here (RTL-SDR Blog Mirror)

Gpredict Connector

Allows the GPredict satellite tracking software to interface with SDR# and automatically control the frequency.

Frequency Manager + Scanner and Scanner Metrics and Frequency Entry Package

Fast Scanner

DDE Plugin

QPSK Demodulator

DDE Tracking and Scheduler Plugin

Gpredict Connector

SDRSharp Net Remote

CTCSS Detector and Squelch

DCS Detector and Squelch Plugin

TimeShift SDR

Digital Audio Processor

Audio Processor

IF Notch Plugin

Simple APCO 25

RDS Logger

DSD+ GUI Interface

TETRA Decoder

AUX VFO

Audio Waterfall Plugin

PAL/SECAM TV Plugin

Modified Baseband Recording Plugin

Modified Audio Recording Plugin

IF Recorder Plugin

Level Meter Plugin

CSVUserlistBrowser SDR# Plugin

MPX Output Plugin

Radio Sky Spectrograph Plugin

Aviation band 8.33 Calculator Plugin

Frequency Lock Plugin

Unitrunker Serial Based Trunking Plugin

Passive Radar Plugin

IF Average

Contour Shuttle Support

Visual Tuner Knob

Audio Streaming TCP Server

CalicoCAT Serial CAT Control Plugin

Heatmap Generator Plugin

Magic-Eye Plugin

Multimon-ng Launcher Plugin

RDS Groups to RSDSpy .spy Format File Plugin

Tetra demodulator utils plug-in

Signal diagnostics logger plugin

SDRSharp FFT peek hold plug-in

TETRA demod plug-in network info grid data logger

TETRA plug-in UDP raw data logger with Python

Front End Plugins

Modified R820T FrontEnd with Manual Control and Decimation

File Player

E4000 Gain Mod Enabler

Plugins that no longer work

Orbitron Plugin (Not working with 1400+)

Easy Scanner Plugin (Not working with 1400+)

Audio FFT Plugin (Not Working with 1400+)

ScopeView Plugin (Not working with 1400+)

Simple Audio EQ Balance Plugin (Not working with 1400+)

Signal Strength Logger (Not working with 1400+)

SDR# short-wave.info Plugin (Not working with 1400+)

GlobalTuners SDR# Plugin (Not working with 1400+)

Unitrunker Trunking Plugin (Not working with 1400+)

AutoTuner Plugin (Out of date)

ADSB# Plugin (Missing)

Modified ScopeView Plugin (Missing)

SDR# Dark Mode Plugin

FFT Grabber Plugin

Accessibility Plugin

ExtendedFFT Plugin

Toolbar Plugin

Other Plugin Lists

Examples