You may recall that a few years ago we released a tutorial on how to set up and use [SDRTrunk]. Fast forward a few years and the software has seen numerous changes. This application was designed primarily for tracking trunking radio systems but also has the ability to decode things like MDC-1200, LoJack and more.
The software is compatible with many Software Defined Radios such as our RTL-SDR v3, HackRF and the Airspy. Some of the newer improvements include a bundled copy of java so that an installation of java is not required on the host computer, as well as decoding improvements for P25 among other digital voice modes. You can find a full list of improvements along with the latest release on [GitHub]
The biggest feature many have been waiting for is the ability to import talk groups for their radio system into the application from radio reference. While this has not yet been implemented, user [Twilliamson3] has created a [web application] that will convert table data from radio reference into a format that is supported by SDRTrunk.
Why use this app? It makes it easy to slog through lots of recording files, looking for interesting signals. Load a file, and a waterfall for the entire file is created. You can scroll around, and if you see anything that looks interesting, you can drag select it, and then demodulate it. You can even save the demodulated audio as a WAVE file, that you can listen to later, send to someone else, or play into your digital decoding software, if it is an RTTY, SSTV, etc. transmission.
Support for other SDR recording file formats is possible, you'll need to work with me by providing sample files and details on the format. This program is presently for macOS only. Support for Windows may happen... stay tuned!
mySdrPlayback now supports SDR# and SDRUno IQ Files.
NooElec have recently released a new LNA + filter combo called the "SAWbird+ H1 Barebones" which significantly lowers the entry bar for new amateur radio astronomers. It's designed to be used with RTL-SDR or other SDRs for radio astronomy, and in particular reception of the Hydrogen line.
The filter is centered at 1.42 GHz with a 70 MHz bandpass region. The LNA has a minimum gain of 40dB. For hydrogen line observations it is important that the LNA have very low noise figure, and this LNA fits the bill with a ~0.5dB to ~0.6dB noise figure. An additional feature on the PCB is an RF switch that is electrically controlled via expansion headers. This switch allows you to switch out the LNA for a 50 Ohm reference which is useful for calibration in more serious radio astronomy work.
This LNA draws 120mA of current meaning that it will work with the RTL-SDR V3 and Airspy's bias tee, but probably not with the SDRplay's bias tee which is limited to 100mA and seems to trip a fuse at higher current draws. For an SDRplay you could use external power instead, although you will need an additional DC blocking cap to prevent power from entering the SDR and destroying the ESD diodes.
If you don't know what the Hydrogen line is, we'll explain it here. Hydrogen atoms randomly emit photons at a wavelength of 21cm (1420.4058 MHz). Normally a single hydrogen atom will only very rarely emit a photon, but space and the galaxy is filled with many hydrogen atoms so the average effect is an observable RF power spike at 1420.4058 MHz. By pointing a radio telescope at the night sky and integrating the RF power over time, a power spike indicating the hydrogen line can be observed in a frequency spectrum plot. This can be used for some interesting experiments, for example you could measure the size and shape of our galaxy. Thicker areas of the galaxy will have more hydrogen and thus a larger spike. You can also measure the rotational speed of our galaxy by noting the frequency doppler shift.
Although this LNA lowers the entry bar, in order to receive the Hydrogen line with the SAWBird+ H1 you will still need a ~1m+ satellite dish and a feed tuned to 1.42 GHz or high gain Yagi, horn or helical antenna. Antennas and feeds like this are not yet available off the shelf, but if you search our blog for "hydrogen line" you'll see many project examples.
The NooElec SAWBird+ H1. For Hydrogen Line Observations.
We have just released an updated version of the KerberosSDR Android direction finding app. If you didn't already know KerberosSDR is our experimental 4x Coherent RTL-SDR product. With it, coherent applications like radio direction finding (RDF) and passive radar are possible. Together with the KerberosSDR direction finding Android app it is possible to visualize the direction finding data produced by a KerberosSDR running on a Pi3/Tinkerboard.
The KerberosSDR hardware is currently in preorder status on Indiegogo for the second production batch, and we expect it to be ready to ship out this month. If you preorder then you'll be able to purchase a KerberosSDR at a reduced price of USD$130. After shipping for batch two begins the price will rise to USD$150.
The new version of the KerberosSDR Android app adds the following features:
Heatmap Grid Plotting
Precise TX location pinpointing when enough data points are gathered
Turn by turn navigation to the RDF bearing direction / TX location
Bearing moving average smoothing
To understand what these features are, we've released two demo videos showing them in action. In the first video we use the new features to find an 858 MHz TETRA transmitter, and in the second video we find a 415 MHz DMR transmitter. The first video explains the new features so we recommend watching that first.
KerberosSDR Radio Direction Finding: Heatmap + Auto Navigation to Transmitter Location Demo 1
KerberosSDR Radio Direction Finding: Heatmap + Auto Navigation to Transmitter Location Demo 2
Over on YouTube Corrosive from the SignalsEverywhere channel has uploaded a new video showing us how you can make a DIY upconverter using a HackRF as a signal source and a cheap $10 RF Mixer. An upconverter converts lower frequencies into higher frequencies. For example, an upconverter is commonly used to convert HF signals into VHF, so that VHF/UHF only SDRs can receive HF.
In the video he uses the HackRF as a local oscillator source, a cheap RF mixer on a breakout board, and an Airspy as the receiver. In most circumstances if you needed and upconverter you'd just purchase one like the Ham-it-up, or the Spyverter for ~$40. However the interesting advantage of using a versatile signal generator like the HackRF is that it results in an upconverter that can upconvert HF to almost any frequency. Even without any filtering (which is recommended to remove signal images), Corrosive fings that he has excellent HF reception.
This video is an excellent way to learn about how upconverters work.
HackRF and RF Mixer = DIY RTL SDR Up-converter | Basics of the Passive ADE Mixer
With so many independent people receiving weather satellite images from the NOAA satellites daily, an interesting collaborative task is to stitch these images together to create a wide area composite image. Fortunately the WXtoIMG software already has stitching as a feature.
NOAA Weather Satellite Composite created with images from Jeff Kelly (New Jersey, US), Mike Kimzey (Philadelphia, US), David Kunz (San Francisco, US), Cornelius Danielsen (Norway), Alan Hinton (UK), Michael Sørensen (Denmark), and Hans-Juergen Luethje (Germany).
Weather Satellite Failure Updates
We also wanted to provide a brief update on some weather satellites that we RTL-SDR users often receive.
NOAA 15: About two weeks ago NOAA 15 failed and was producing glitched images. However after a few days it came right again, only to have failed again at the end of last month. It appears that the camera scanning motor is getting stuck due to being low on lubricant as the satellite is now well past it's intended life cycle at 11 years old. If you're interested, some info on how the camera on these satellites works can be found here. There is currently no plan for a fix, the only hope is to wait and see if the motor unsticks.
Meteor M2-1: Meteor M2-1 has also recently suffered problems yet again with it's orientation control, and we're regularly seeing off-axis or distorted images that show the curvature of the earth. Over the weekend it was turned off, and should be reset this week. This problem seems to occur and be fixed often, so hopefully it will be back online soon.
Meteor M2-2: The recently launched Meteor M2-2 is functional, but it is still in the testing phase, so is sometimes being turned off. Do not be alarmed if no signal is received sometimes.
GOES-17: GOES-17 is reported to be experiencing problems with it's infrared camera due to a blocked heatpipe, however it appears that they are able to work around this issue and obtain 97% uptime.
Every device that transmits radio waves has a unique and identifiable RF fingerprint which occurs due to the very slightly variations in the hardware manufacturing process. This means that devices using identical transmitters of the same make and model can still be differentiated from one another.
Nihal Pasham has been using this knowledge as a way to securely identify IoT sensors and other RF devices like car keyfobs. The idea is that these unique RF fingerprints are immune to authentication spoofing which could be used to create a fake transmitter with fake data. He suggests that RF fingerprinting could be used as an additional authentication check for low cost IoT devices with only basic security.
In order to recognize the minute differences in the RF fingerprints of different devices Nihal notes that a good pattern detection algorithm is required, and that a deep learning neural network fits the bill. Using neural network software Tensorflow, and an RTL-SDR for signal acquisition, he was able to train a proof of concept neural model that was able to classify two test transmitters with 97% accuracy.
Training a Deep Learning Neural Network with an RTL-SDR for RF Fingerprinting
In the past we've seen similar experiments by Oona Räisänen who used an RTL-SDR to fingerprint several hand held radios heard on the air via small variances in the power and frequencies of each radio's CTCSS tone. Using simple clustering techniques she was able to determine exactly who was transmitting based upon the unique CTCSS.
The LimeRFE is a power amplifier and filter bank solution designed for the low cost TX capable LimeSDR software defined radios. It has multiple bands from HF all the way up to 3.5 GHz, and is capable of putting out about 2W on the HF bands. Currently LimeRFE is crowdfunding over on CrowdSupply with a cost of US$599 or alternatively there is now a cheaper unit for US$449 without support for the cellular bands. The campaign is active for 4 more days from the time of this post, and after that the price is due to rise by another US$100.
The team at LimeMicro sent a unit to Daniel Estévez (EA4GPZ) for testing, and he has recently posted about his results and thoughts when using the LimeRFE for WSPR transmission with a 15m long wire antenna. Daniel connected his LimeRFE to his LimeSDR and used WSJT-X piped into SDRAngel via Pulseaudio to transmit WSPR on the 10m band. He notes that for lower bands, the LimeRFE will still need additional low pass filtering to attenuate harmonics. SDRAngel cannot yet control the LimeRFE so he also created a simple Python script for this purpose.
Unfortunately Daniel's unit only achieved 25dBm instead of the advertised 33dB, but in LimeMicro's post they note that they believe that this is due to shipping damage. However, even with only 0.3W power, Daniel's transmissions from Madrid were able to be picked up in the Canary Islands, Netherlands and Northern England.
