Tagged: rtl2832

April 29, 2014

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.

April 29, 2014

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.

April 28, 2014

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

Watch this video on YouTube

April 28, 2014

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.

Watch this video on YouTube

April 26, 2014

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

*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.

April 24, 2014

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

Watch this video on YouTube

April 23, 2014

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.

April 23, 2014

Receiving Kicksat Telemetry with the RTL-SDR

Recently a bunch of amateur radio nano-satellites known as ‘Kicksats‘ were launched on the latest SpaceX rocket. So far the Kicksat carrier has been successfully deployed, which is essentially the box containing the nano-satellites. On May 4, the nano-satellites known as ‘sprites’ are due to be deployed from the carrier.

Both the carrier and Kicksat sprites have telemetry signals which are receivable with the RTL-SDR. As the sprites transmit using only 10mW of power, a high gain Yagi antenna and an LNA are required to receive their signals.

Over on his blog, Dolske has been trying to receive and record the Kicksat carrier using his RTL-SDR. He was able to capture a telemetry packet at 437.505 MHz using SDR#. He then tried to use QTMM AFSK1200 to decode the packet, but has been unsuccessful so far probably due to the weak signal he received.