Tagged: rtl-sdr

Receiving Mexican Pirate SSTV on Military Satellite Frequencies with the RTL-SDR

Happysat, a reader of RTL-SDR.com wrote in to let us know his experience with receiving Milsat pirate SSTV images using his R820T RTL-SDR and his homebrew QFH antenna. During his research he found that Brazillian Mexican Pirates hijack military satellite transponders to send SSTV pictures of their families on 255.560 MHz 22.4° West UFO F7 (USA 127).

Happysat writes that he found an active signal on that frequency most of the time. To receive the SSTV signal happysat used the free RX-SSTV software.

SSTV is an acronym for slow scan television and is a mode usually used on HF (0-30 MHz) frequencies by ham radio enthusiasts for sending out digital calling cards.

More information about pirate SSTV can be found here.

Edit: From our Facebook page comments, it seems these signals are actually from Mexican pirates. More info here http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/ec/ec.htm.

Milsat Pirate SSTV
Milsat Pirate SSTV in SDR#
SSTV Image
Received SSTV Image 1
SSTV Image
Received SSTV Image 2

Modesdeco: Now Supports Simultaneous Reception of Mode S and Mode A/C

Modesdeco is a Windows/Linux/OSX/RPi compatible command line ADS-B Mode S decoder built for the RTL-SDR. It natively supports the BaseStation format and so can be used with the BaseStation software without the need for com port converters.

Modesdeco has recently been updated to allow for the simultaneous reception of Mode S and Mode A/C. Mode S provides location data for ADS-B while Mode A provides an identification code and Mode C provides the aircraft’s pressure altitude.

Effect of a Filter on RTL-SDR ADS-B Reception

Over on YouTube user Adam Alicajic has posted a video showing the effect of a filter tuned for 1090 MHz used on ADS-B reception. Adam switches the filter in an out showing the difference in the number of received ADS-B frames. With the filter enabled he is able to receive around 1200 messages per second and without only around 800 messages per second.

A filter (aka preselector) can help to reduce out of band interference from strong signals.

DVB-T dongle receiving the ADS-B using the filter

Receiving VDL2 with MultiPSK and an RTL-SDR

Over on YouTube user Frank K2NCC has posted a video showing the reception of VDL2 (VHF Data Link mode 2). He uses MultiPSK to receive and decode VDL2 signals and VDL2-Display to nicely display the received messages.

VDL2 is a transmission mode used on aircraft for sending short messages, position data (similar to ADS-B) and also for allowing traffic controllers to communicate to pilots via text and data. Earlier we has a post about a VDL2 reception tutorial.

New Automated RTL-SDR Installer

Over on our Forums, user scannergoderich has posted about his new script which is an automated installer for the RTL-SDR drivers and commonly used software.

The installer has automated OS detection and will choose the correct version of Zadig (XP or modern) for your PC. The script can also install SDR#, ADSB# and ADSBScope and create desktop shortcuts.

I would like to introduce a new installer i made.
After many hours of tinkering. i came up with the following:
Automated OS Detection (i need yet to confirm if win xp drivers work yes or no?)
If no, someone please use zadig to extract Drivers for xp on thier xp machine and send to me and i will include it.
If it works also let me know :P 

*Automated installer for drivers
This installer will:
Detect OS Version and install driver automatically no more manual select using zadig
Install unlimited dongles all in one click (no longer manually installing one by one using zadig)
No longer accidental (wrong device selection)
No longer will windows in some cases try to overwrite the driver with its default driver for “TV mode”

If desired you can opt to install the following with Basic settings pre-configured (handy for beginners):
*Basic install with common settings of SDRSHARP (shortcut to desktop)
*Install of ADSBSHARP and ADSBSCOPE pre-configured (shortcut to desktop)
*Help file to get started(shortcut to desktop)
*Uninstaller

The installer can be downloaded from here. Extract the files to a folder and then run the Setup batch file by double clicking on it. You may need to allow it to run if your get a warning from Windows.

RTL-SDR Automated Installer
RTL-SDR Automated Installer

RTL-SDR HF Preselector Project

Over on YouTube user Theo Faber has uploaded a video showing his adjustable multiband HF preselector project for his RTL-SDR dongle. The preselector covers the entire HF band. Theo designed and built his own homemade upconverter for this project as well.

Preselectors on the RTL-SDR can vastly improve reception quality. Without preselection, noise and strong images of other nearby stations can cause strong interference.

My project ‘pre selector’ for wideband radios and in particular the popular tv-sticks than can be used for SDR reception. The sticks are very cheap and the software free available on the internet. SDR Sharp in this case, is operating stable under XP and W7. Sticks are sensitive, however the input level can only vary +- 20dB. The sticks are easely overloaded and will produce cross and intermediation. So you need in front of the stick / converter band pass or tunable filters. Hopefully this inspired you to build your own set of filters, to fully benefit from the perfect performing of this affordable SDR.
for more info contact me on: t.faber87__AT__upcmail.nl
kind regards and 73’s

SDR RTL dongle and pre selector with HF converter

Hak5: Identify and Locate Ships Via AIS Transmissions

Hak5, a popular YouTube technology show has recently been dedicating a bunch of episodes to RTL-SDR projects. Recently we posted about their efforts with ADS-B, and some GNU Radio tutorials. Their most recent video discusses AIS (Automatic Identification System) which is a system similar to ADS-B which ships use to transmit their location to create a modern GPS based radar system.

The Hak5 video discusses how AIS works and also shows how to use an RTL-SDR to receive it. In their tutorial they use SDR#, VBCable and ShipPlotter to receive and view AIS data on map. Note that we also have an AIS tutorial here.

Identify And Locate Ships Via AIS Transmissions!, Hak5 1610

K2NCC’s Guide to AIS Reporting for the RTL-SDR

AIS enthusiast K2NCC has posted in our forum a link to a PDF document he has created showing how to use SDR#, AISMon and AIS Dispatcher to report AIS data to marinetraffic.com and aishub.net. Marinetraffic.com and Aishub.net are websites which aggregate AIS data from various contributors around the world.

AIS is an acronym for Automatic Identification System and is a type of modern GPS based radar system similar to ADS-B used by mariners to help avoid collisions at sea.

Map from Aishub.net
Map from Aishub.net