GQRX is a general purpose GUI based SDR program that is typically used most often on Linux and Mac computers, however it is still possible to install and use it on Windows. Over on YouTube M Khanfar has uploaded a tutorial video that shows a step by step guide on how to get GQRX running on Windows 10.
The process is a little long as it involves an install of Windows GNU Radio, Python, pip and various Python dependencies required by GQRX, as well as setting up the Windows PATH. If you prefer a text guide, the full tutorial is also typed out in the YouTube video description.
Over on YouTube SignalsEverywhere/Harold is back with a new video tutorial that shows users how to set up a SDR# SpyServer with an RTL-SDR dongle. SpyServer is a program included with SDR# that allows you to access your Airspy or RTL-SDR dongle remotely through the internet or local network connection. Thanks to it's compression techniques and that it does most processing on the server side, it requires significantly less network bandwidth compared to a raw IQ server like rtl_tcp.
In the video Harold first shows how to access the SpyServer network in SDR# which consists of many remote SpyServers that have been made accessible to the public for free. He then goes on to explain how you can set up your own SpyServer by simply editing a text config file. He notes that you may need to perform port forwarding on your router if you wish to make the server publicly accessible.
RTL SDR Spyserver Remote SDR Setup Tutorial (on Windows)
It's been a good time for ready to use SDR Linux OS images recently, as we've seen the release of two new images, DragonOS and gorizont-rtlsdr over this lock down period. And now the already popular and mature PiSDR image has also been updated.
PiSDR is a ready to use Raspbian based operating system for Raspberry Pi's which comes pre-loaded with many programs for software defined radios. It currently supports the RTL-SDR, LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, Airspy, and Airspy HF+ and has preinstalled software such as SDR Angel, Soapy Remote, GQRX, GNURadio, LimeUtil, and LimeVNA.
The latest update includes various bug fixes as well the following new features:
Three times smaller.
HackRF Support.
Verified Compilation on GitHub Actions.
New Software: Quisk, CygnusRFI, rpitx, rtl_433, acarsdec, gpredict, multimon-ng, and leansdr
Over on YouTube TechMinds has uploaded a video where he explores the QT-DAB software (formerly known as SDR-J), which is a program capable of decoding Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) signals. QT-DAB is compatible with several SDRs including the RTL-SDR, HackRF, Airspy and SDRplay units.
DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcast and is a digital broadcast radio signal that is available in many countries outside of the USA. The digital signal encodes several radio stations, and it is considered a modern alternative or future replacement for standard analog broadcast FM.
In the video TechMinds explains how to download, install and use the software on a Windows machine. He goes on to demonstrate some DAB decoding in action with various SDRs and then shows how to connect QT-DAB to a remote RTL-SDR via rtl_tcp.
DAB Radio Decoder For SDR (RTL_SDR - HACKRF - AIRSPY)
Paul (microp11) is the programmer behind the Scytale-C Inmarsat decoder which has become very popular with RTL-SDR owners. With Scytale-C, and RTL-SDR and an appropriate L-band antenna and amplifier it is possible to receive STD-C NCS data from Inmarsat satellites. This is a public broadcast which contains information like search and rescue (SAR) and coast guard messages as well as news, weather, pirate activity and other incident reports. If you're interested, we have a tutorial available here which uses different software.
Paul has recently created a 6-part video series explaining Scytale-C and all it's features. As well as showing how to setup a Scytale-C decoder with the SDR# plugin in order to receive the STD-C text data via the UI, Paul's series goes into more depth showing how to review and inspect the raw data packets, how to monitor multiple Inmarsat channels at once using SDR# Spyservers and how to use the map feature for plotting coordinate and region data.
gorizont linux 1.0 is a live, USB bootable or VM .iso image, and my first attempt at sharing a project like this. It's built specifically for rtl_sdr/ RTL2832U family dongles, no other devices will be supported in the future (although drivers can be installed if required). It's meant for the cheapest, most available hardware out there.
I think there's a useful niche for this distro, Skywave Linux is getting a bit long-in-the-tooth and un-updated, and the recently reviewed DragonOS, whilst good, is a little complicated for beginners to use. gorizont concentrates on purely terrestrial HF/VHF/UHF analogue and digital signal exploration and decoding, hence the name. It also provides instant DAB+ and FM radio reception for emergency information using RTL V3 stock antennae.
It's built for customisation and compilation of evolving software, hence it's rather portly size. A pretty full suite of dev libraries and repos come as included. Users can also create a bootable USB image or .iso of an updated system using Systemback if gorizont is run as a VM.
We didn't see a list of programs preinstalled, but from the Readme it appears to have at least GNU Radio, GQRX, multimon-ng, DSD+, welle.io, PyBOMBs, wine32, sox, as well as a preset Virtual Audio sync set up through pulseaudio for piping audio between programs. We expect that many more programs will also have been preinstalled.
Thank you to M Khanfar for submitting another video where he demonstrates and explains how to easily send audio from your Linux PC over to an Android phone. This can be used to monitor the audio output of SDR programs like OP25 and GQRX remotely. The main piece of software used in his setup is the SoundWire Server and SoundWire Android App. SoundWire is described below:
Turn your Android device into wireless headphones / wireless speaker. Stream any music or audio from your PC to your Android phone, tablet, or other PCs. SoundWire does audio mirroring (audio cast). You can use any music player on your PC or laptop like Spotify, YouTube, or iTunes and stream low-latency live sound over WiFi directly to your Android device. Also works over 3G/4G cell networks or WAN.
M Khanfar's full tutorial on how to setup SoundWire can be found in the description of the video.
Piping Op25-GQRX Audio Through LAN to Android Phone
Last month we posted about Aaron's "DragonOS" project, which is a ready to install Linux ISO aimed to make getting started with SDR software easy by providing several programs preinstalled, as well as providing multiple video tutorials. Recently he's updated the build, this time basing it on Lubuntu 18.04 allowing for Legacy and UEFI support, along with disk encryption. The OS supports RTL-SDRs as well as the HackRF and bladeRF and probably supports most other SDRs via the SoapySDR interface.
In terms of software he's also added OP25 and bladeRF support. Other programs pre-installed include rtl_433, Universal Radio Hacker, GNU Radio, Aircrack-ng, GQRX, Kalibrate, hackrf, wireshare, gr-gsm, rtl-sdr, HackRF, IMSI-catcher, Zenmap, inspectrum, qspectrumanalyzer, LTE-Cell-Scanner, CubicSDR, Limesuite, ShinySDR, SDRAngel, SDRTrunk, Kismet, BladeRF.
His DragonOS YouTube tutorial channel is also growing fast, with several tutorials showing you how to use DragonOS to perform tasks like listen to trunked mobile radios, use QSpectrumAnalyzer with a HackRF, receive NOAA APT weather satellite images, retrieve cellular network information via a rooted Samsung Galaxy S5, create a ShinySDR server with rtl_433 and how to capture and replay with a HackRF.
