Low Cost SDR

• Dongles are Repurposed Digital European TV converters – DVB-TV

• Mass Produced = Low Cost ~ $20

• Thanks to 2 Clever Engineers– Antti Palosaari & Eric Fry –

• Receive all Modes from 28 MHz – 1100MHz – Quite a Scanner!

DongleVery low cost re-purposed DVBT chip set. Preforms

A/D conversion sending I-Q samples (a bunch of

numbers) via USB cable. NOT Upper Side

Band !

USB DriverThis is where most problems

occur. It does not fall squarely in the hardware or software realm. Need to run

Zadig software. Use Crtl-Panel to check and see if

your device has been recognized.

Computer Functions as a

demodulator. Takes I-Q samples and returns audio and/or a graphics display. 3

of the most popular programs are:

SDR#, SDR Console, HDSDR

USB Cable Buss

Three Essential Ingredients

Mice are Plug–N-Play SDR Not So Much

Listen all ham bands 10-meters through 1296 MHz – All modes.Listening to unencrypted Police/Ambulance/Fire/EMS conversations.Listening to aircraft traffic control conversations.Tracking aircraft positions like a radar with ADSB decoding.Decoding aircraft ACARS short messages.Scanning trunking radio conversations.Decoding unencrypted digital voice transmissions.Tracking maritime boat positions like a radar with AIS decoding.Decoding POCSAG/FLEX pager traffic.Scanning for cordless phones and baby monitors.Tracking and receiving meteorological agency launched

weather balloon data.Tracking your own self launched high altitude balloon for payload recovery.Receiving wireless temperature sensors and wireless power meter sensors.Listening to VHF amateur radio.Decoding ham radio APRS packets.Watching analogue broadcast TV.Sniffing GSM signals.Using rtl-sdr on your Android device as a portable radio scanner.Receiving GPS signals and decoding them.Using rtl-sdr as a spectrum analyzer.Receiving NOAA weather satellite images.Listening to satellites and the ISS.antenna SWR.

Areas of Interest

Radio astronomy.Monitoring meteor scatter.Listening to FM radio, and decoding RDS information.Listening to DAB broadcast radio.Use rtl-sdr as a panadapter for your traditional hardware radio.Decoding taxi mobile data terminal signals.Use rtl-sdr as a high quality entropy source for random number generation.Use rtl-sdr as a noise figure indicator.Reverse engineering unknown protocols.Triangulating the source of a signal.Searching for RF noise sources.Characterizing RF filters and measuring

ADSB – Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast – i.e. Radar Transponder 1090 MHz

1 Mbps – PPM

This is what the dongle receives

rtl1090 software tunes dongle and demodulates data

Plane Plotter plots on map and decodes data providing position, speed, altitude, flight # , course and other info

Plane Plotter Data View

ADSB Scope - A Free Plane Plotting Program

How to Set Up ADSBScope

Download ADSBScope zip file

AIS – Marine Traffic

Off Air Recording of AIS – Long Island Sound

Dongle AIS MonDemodulator

Virtual Audio IN / OUT

Open CPN 4.00

COMPUTER

SDR Program

Linking 4 Programs

9.6 Kbs GMSK FM modulation 12.5 or 25 KHz BW using HDLC Packet Protocols

SDR Console – allows remote access

SDR# -- SDR Sharp

HDSDR

It’s New .. A Dongle On Steroids

12 bit vs 8 bits for a Dongle – HF thru 2 GHz Interfaces With Popular SDR Programs

$ 145 from HRO

About the same as the cost of a dongle plus an HF up converter, but, you get 12 bits instead of 8 and built-in front end filtering. Way better performance for the price point.

SDRPlay

Specs

Is SDR Better ?

WFAN 660 Khz Adjacent Channel TestA comparison to a TS-430

DRM – Radio Romania100% Digital, 24 KHz BW, USB, 6030 KHz

Digital HF?

SRDPlay & Weak Signal Propagation Reporter – WSPR40-meter Over night SDRPlay & Laptop

Questions ?

73 Rich, K1OF

The Last Word on Dongles:rtl-sdr.com