Over on YouTube, user superkuh2 has posted a video showing off osmocoms gr-fosphor GNU Radio block which shows a real time spectrum visualization using the GPU. He combines gr-fosphor with multimode for visualizing the ISM and pager bands with his RTL-SDR.
Last month we showed a video of a spectrum analyzer project by Stephen Ong. He used a BeagleBone Black (mini embedded Linux capable computer similar to a Raspberry Pi), a touch capable LCD screen, and an RTL-SDR dongle to create a portable spectrum analyzer.
Now Stephen has released ‘ViewRF’, which is the software that powers his spectrum analyzer. It is released under the GPL licence. Also on his post are the download and install instructions.
On YouTube, Stephen Ong has posted a video (and written a short post on his blog) of a portable home made spectrum analyzer he made using the RTL-SDR, a Beaglebone Black and an LCD touchscreen. The Beaglebone Black is a small Linux capable PC that fits in a hand, similar to the Raspberry Pi but with slightly more processing power.
Earlier in the year we posted about another Beaglebone based spectrum analyzer, but this new one by Stephen seems to be much improved with touchscreen capabilities and an improved user interface.
The rtl-sdr dongle can be been used as a super cheap $20 real-time spectrum analyzer. This is great as commercial spectrum analyzers can run from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
First of all, SDRSharp and other SDR software packages are essentially spectrum analyzers themselves. They all have real time frequency spectrum and waterfall viewers. They are however, not exactly portable.
A portable spectrum analyzer is shown by amateur radio hobbyist and blogger OZ9AEC. He has combined an rtl-sdr dongle, a low cost portable Linux computer known as Beaglebone, and an LCD screen, and turned them into a portable spectrum analyzer. OZ9AEC shows a video demo of his project in this video.
A cheap spectrum analyzer can be useful in many situations. For example, Marek Wodzinski uses the rtl-sdr as a spectrum analyzer for optimizing his FPV radio transmissions. Many other people seem to be interested in a rtl-sdr for this purpose too.
A Google groups post discussing use of the rtl-sdr dongle as a spectrum analyzer is here.
