Tagged: rtl-sdr

Virtual Radar Server running on a Raspberry Pi with Mono

YouTube user 907h9879070g9790 has posted a video showing Virtual Radar Server running on a Raspberry Pi with the Raspian hardfloat image OS installed. He used Mono to allow the .NET based Virtual Radar Server to run on the Raspberry Pi. Instructions for using Virtual Radar Server with Mono can be found here.

Combined with an rtl-sdr and dump1090, ADS-B packets can be sent to Virtual Radar Server, and then the aircraft radar map can be viewed on a PC or internet enabled device via a network connection. This can allow a small self contained remote ADS-B monitoring system to be set up.

EDIT: Unfortunately the video owner has taken down the video.

Discone Vs. Homemade Collinear for ADS-B

YouTube user nerdsville shows a signal reception comparison of his discone antenna and his home made 1090 MHz tuned ADS-B collinear antenna in this video. The collinear antenna shows a dramatic improvement over the discone.

ADS-B is a broadcast system which can be used to track aircraft like a radar. More information about rtl-sdr and ADS-B here.

Demonstrating performance of home made 1090MHz ADS-B collinear

Digital Noise Reduction Plugin for SDRSharp

A new digital noise reduction plugin for SDRSharp has been released. It is packaged as part of the SDRSharp binaries. Head to the SDRSharp downloads page, and download and use the automated installer for rtl-sdr under the heading “Important note for RTL-SDR users”.

Then in SDRSharp, simply click “Enabled” in the Digital Noise Reduction plugin window and adjust the slider until you get good results. In testing I found significant improvements in noise reduction.

SDRSharp Noise Reduction Plugin

Cheap Satellite Receive Station with RTL-SDR

Blogger and Amateur Radio enthusiast N4JTC has posted a guide on setting up a satellite receiving station with the rtl-sdr. Originally the guide was intended for receiving the PhoneSat test satellites, but they have now gone offline after a week as planned. But, the guide is still useful for any current and future satellites.

The recent launch of the PhoneSats got my SDR and satellite juices flowing again. This time I decided to automate things because work seems to get in the way of my satellite listening fun. I found a combination that works great and incorporates FREE software and inexpensive hardware.

PhoneSatImg (http://www.n4jtc.com)

Home Made Coat Hanger Discone

Reddit user soooooil has posted a series of images showing his home made Discone antenna made out of wire coat hangers and designed for a minimum frequency of 130MHz. His thread discussing the Discone is here.

A Discone is a good general antenna for the rtl-sdr as they are extremely wideband, and can be expected to be useful over almost the entire frequency range that is tuneable by the the rtl-sdr.

Another page on a home made Discone also designed for a minimum of 130MHz is here with some brief instructions links to design calculators.

Homemade Wire Coat Hanger Discone

Meteor Reflection Observations with RTL-SDR

YouTube user ek6rsc has posted a video showing one week of meteor scatter observation at 59.25MHz using the rtl-sdr and the HROFFT software. More information about meteor scatter observations can be found at the page of The International Project For Radio Meteor Observation. The rtl-sdr is handy as a cheap monitoring tool for purposes such as this. From Wikipedia meteor scatter is described as follows.

 Meteor burst communications (MBC), also referred to as meteor scatter communications, is a radio propagation mode that exploits the ionized trails of meteors during atmospheric entry to establish brief communications paths between radio stations up to 2,250 kilometres (1,400 mi) apart.

The results of observations 1 week Meteor reflection 59.25Mhz

SDR-J Decoding DAB Radio in Software using RTL-SDR

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a digital method for broadcasting radio stations. The rtl dongles official driver has DAB decoding capabilities. But when the rtl dongle is used as a software radio, this capability from the original drivers can not used.

SDR-J is a SDR package for Windows and Linux which is capable of receiving FM radio and decoding DAB radio completely in software. YouTube user Superphish shows a video of SDR-J decoding and playing DAB music with a rtl-sdr dongle.

DAB Radio with RTL-SDR (RTL2832) and SDR-J

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