August 4, 2016

Radio-Sky Spectrograph now supports the SDRPlay

Radio-Sky Spectrograph is a radio astronomy software program that integrates data over long periods of time and displays it as a waterfall. It is described by the author:

Radio-Sky Spectrograph displays a waterfall spectrum. It is not so different from other programs that produce these displays except that it saves the spectra at a manageable data rate and provides channel widths that are consistent with many natural radio signal bandwidths. For terrestrial , solar flare, Jupiter decametric, or emission/absorption observations you might want to use RSS.

Radio Sky Spectograph is compatible with the RTL-SDR via an intermediary program called RTL Bridge, and now it is also compatible with the SDRplay via another intermediary program written by Nathan Towne called SDRplay2RSS.

In previous posts we showed how some amateur radio astronomers were able to capture noise bursts from the sun and from Jupiter with an RTL-SDR. In the SDRplay software release post and documentation that comes with the software Nathan shows how he was able to capture solar emissions and Jupiter bursts with the SDRplay.

Solar emissions received with the SDRplay and Radio-Sky Spectograph.

Jupiter Noise Bursts with the SDRPlay and Radio-Sky Spectrograph.

June 3, 2015

New method for generating wideband spectograph’s with Radio-Sky and an RTL-SDR

Radio-Sky Spectrograph is a software application that is designed to produce waterfall displays similar to other software, but with a focus on observing radio astronomy phenomena.

Radio-Sky Spectrograph displays a waterfall spectrum. It is not so different from other programs that produce these displays except that it saves the spectra at a manageable data rate and provides channel widths that are consistent with many natural radio signal bandwidths. For terrestrial, solar flare, Jupiter decametric, or emission/absorption observations you might want to use RSS [Radio-Sky Spectrograph].

Last year, we posted about the release of RTL_Bridge, which is a program designed to interface an RTL-SDR dongle with Radio-Sky Spectrograph. One limitation with RTL_Bridge was that it was limited to the dongles maximum bandwidth of about 2.4 MHz. Now Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) has written a new application called RTL-WideSpectrum which allows for wideband spectral sweeps in Radio-Sky Spectrograph by using the RTL-SDR to quickly switch between frequencies and combine the outputs. It is similar to how rtl_power works.

With RTL-WideSpectrum and Radio-Sky Spectrograph, Raydel was able to capture this solar burst shown below which occurred between 28-48 MHz.

A solar burst between 28 - 48 MHz captured with an RTL-SDR dongle, RTL-WideSpectrum and Radio-Sky Spectrograph. — A solar burst between 28 – 48 MHz captured with an RTL-SDR dongle, RTL-WideSpectrum and Radio-Sky Spectrograph.