Category: RTL-SDR

Building a Passive Radar System with RTL-SDR Dongles

Back in 2013 we posted about Juha Vierinen’s project in which he created a passive radar system from two RTL-SDR dongles, two Yagi antennas, and some custom processing code. Passive radar can be used to detect flying aircraft by listening for signals bouncing off their fuselage and can also be used to detect meteors entering the atmosphere. The radar is passive because it does not use a transmitter, but instead relies on other already strong transmitters such as FM broadcast radio stations. Juha writes:

A passive radar is a special type of radar [that] doesn’t require you to have a transmitter. You rely on a radio transmitter of opportunity provided by somebody else to illuminate radar targets. This can be your local radio or television station broadcasting with up to several megawatts of power. 

How passive radar works
How passive radar works

His previous write up was brief, but now over on Hackaday Juha has made a detailed post about his RTL-SDR passive radar project. In the post he explains what passive radar is, shows some examples of his and others results, shows how it can be done with an RTL-SDR dongle, and finally briefly explains the signal processing required. In his next post Juha aims to go into further detail on how passive radar works in practice.

Below we show a video that shows an example of one of his passive radar tests that was performed with a USRP software defined radio and two Yagi antennas. 

This video shows a lot of airplanes around the New England area detected using a simple passive radar setup, consisting of: one USRP and two yagi antennas, a quad core linux PC. Every now and then an occasional specular meteor echo is observed too.

In his other tests shown on YouTube Juha also used two RTL-SDR dongle’s with a shared clock and was able to get similar results.

FM Radio Passive Radar, WWLI 105.1 MHz

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.

How coax cable loss affects ADS-B reception

Over on YouTube user Adam Alicajic has uploaded a video showing how coax cable loss affects the frame rate when receiving ADS-B. To do this test Adam uses a precision attenuator in between his ADS-B antenna and RTL-SDR dongle to simulate attenuation from coax cable loss. His results show that for every 1 dB of attenuation the frame rate drops by about 10%.

Coax cable loss for common type of cable can be estimated with calculators available at http://www.net-comber.com/cable-loss.html and http://www.arrg.us/pages/Loss-Calc.htm. RG-6 cable has a low loss at 1090 MHz of about 0.23 – 0.32 dB per meter, whereas RG58 has a loss of about 0.5 – 0.6 dB per meter and RG174 (stock antenna cable on most RTL-SDR units) has a greater loss of about 1.2 dB per meter.

Coax length loss contribution to the bad ADS-B reception

LightSail now active and transmitting data

The LightSail is a solar sailing spacecraft that has been launched by the planetary society. It is based on the “solar sail” concept, which uses a large reflective foil to harness the suns energy as a means of propulsion. The planetary society write about solar sails:

Solar sails use the sun’s energy as a method of propulsion—flight by light. Light is made of packets of energy called photons. While photons have no mass, a photon traveling as a packet of light has energy and momentum.

Solar sail spacecraft capture light momentum with large, lightweight mirrored surfaces—sails. As light reflects off a sail, most of its momentum is transferred, pushing on the sail. The resulting acceleration is small, but continuous. Unlike chemical rockets that provide short bursts of thrust, solar sails thrust continuously and can reach higher speeds over time.

The LightSail Concept
The LightSail Concept

Currently a test mission of the LightSail concept is under way. The LightSail is in orbit and expected stay in orbit for about 1-2 months. Initially the mission had trouble with communications, but after an automatic reboot of the on board computers they have now confirmed that the LightSail is transmitting properly.

With an RTL-SDR and appropriate satellite antenna, it should be possible to monitor the LightSail. The LightSail transmits at a frequency of 437.435 MHz with the AX.25 protocol, FSK encoding at 9600bps and with a call sign of KK6HIT. The LightSail can be tracked at http://sail.planetary.org/missioncontrol and the planetary society are also requesting that amateur radio tracking enthusiasts email over any data they capture. Over on twitter some users have confirmed LightSail downlink hits:

Review of Nobu’s HF Upconverter, Galvanic Isolator and 14 MHz Low Pass Filter

Back in April we posted about some new products made by Japanese RTL-SDR experimenter and product manufacturer Nobu. Nobu’s new products were a 1:1 galvanic isolator and a low pass filter. The galvanic isolator isolates the antenna from the RTL-SDR and PC, significantly reducing noise. The low pass filter is useful when used with direct sampling modified RTL-SDRs to filter out any strong interfering signals that are above 14 MHz.

Recently Nobu sent us at RTL-SDR.com some samples of his products. He sent us one of his HF upconverters, a galvanic isolator and a low pass filter.

NobuProducts
Nobu’s RTL-SDR Products: HF Upconverter, Galvanic Isolator, Low Pass Filter. Placed next to an RTL-SDR for size comparison.

Continue reading →

New EAS SAME Weather Alert Decoder

Over on Reddit and GitHub user cuppa-joe has released a Python based EAS SAME Alert message decoder called dsame which is compatible with the RTL-SDR. EAS is an acronym for Emergency Alert System and is a system that is most commonly used to alert the public to local weather emergencies such as tornadoes, flash floods and severe thunderstorms.

Local EAS weather alerts are encoded with the SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) protocol. They are transmitted on the local weather radio frequency in the USA and Canada and some weather radio’s are capable of decoding the EAS SAME data. Cuppa-joe’s dsame EAS decoder outputs full EAS weather messages such as:

The National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Missouri has issued a Required Weekly Test valid until 12:30 PM for the following counties in Kansas: Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Miami, and for the following counties in Missouri: Clay, Platte, Jackson, Cass. (KEAX/NWS)

To use the software you will still need to use a EAS demodulator such as multimon-ng which is available for Windows and Linux, and you will also need Python 2.7+ installed.

An example EAS SAME alert can be heard in the player below:

New ADS-B Filter with Built in Bias Tee Available

Adam who is the manufacturer of the popular LNA4ALL low noise amplifier (LNA) that is commonly used with the RTL-SDR has come out with a new product for ADS-B enthusiasts. The product is an ADS-B filter with a built in bias tee for providing phantom power. Adam previously sold an older version of the ADS-B filter that came without the bias tee.

The bias tee allows you to inject DC power into the coaxial cable in order to easily power an LNA (like the LNA4ALL) or other device that is placed near the antenna. The antenna could be far away from a power source, such as on your roof or up a mast. It ensures DC power reaches the LNA, but at the same time does not enter the RTL-SDR dongle, as DC current on the antenna input could destroy the RTL-SDR. For best performance it is recommended to use an LNA near the antenna, especially if you have a long run of coaxial cable between the antenna and RTL-SDR.

The filter uses Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) type components as opposed to the seemingly more commonly used SAW and microstrip filters. Adam writes that each type of filter has its tradeoffs, but he believes the LTCC filter is the best for this application.

Comparison between different filter types.
Comparison between different filter types.

The insertion loss of the filter in the pass band is about 2.4 dB and the filter will significantly attenuate broadcast band FM, TV stations, WiFi and 1.8 GHz+ cell phones. However, it does not do so well with 950 MHz cell towers and possible radar on 1.2-1.3 GHz as the LTCC filter is not as sharp as a SAW filter. In Adams own tests he shows that the addition of the filter improves ADS-B decoding performance by about 20%, but the improvement you see will vary greatly with your RF environment.

The filter is currently selling for 20 Euros + 5 Euros shipping (~$28 USD).

ADS-B LTCC Filter with Bias Tee
ADS-B LTCC Filter with Bias Tee

RTL-SDR vs. AIRSPY on ADS-B Reception: Round 2

A few days ago we posted about Anthony Stirk’s comparison between the RTL-SDR and the Airspy on receiving ADS-B signals. In his first test Anthony used an E4000 dongle, which is known to have inferior performance at the ADS-B frequency of 1090 MHz.

Now Anthony has done his test again, but this time with an R820T2 RTL-SDR. His results show that the R820T2 RTL-SDR is better than the E4000 RTL-SDR, but that the Airspy is still better than the R820T2 RTL-SDR. The R820T2 received at maximum distances more comparable to the Airspy, though still fell short of the Airspy by some 50 kms in some directions. Anthony’s writes that his distance seems to be mainly limited by geography so it is possible that in some other location the Airspy could out perform the RTL-SDR by a more significant distance.

The most interesting part of his last experiment was that over a 28 hour period the E4000 RTL-SDR received only a total of 2.9 million messages whilst the Airspy received a total of 10.3 million messages. In the new experiment the R820T2 received a total of 22.3 million messages whilst the Airspy received a total of 31 million messages, which is a little closer. However, with the R820T2 RTL-SDR, 3 million messages were unusable, versus only 31 unusable messages with the Airspy.

From these results it’s clear that the better design and more ADC bits in the Airspy can significantly improve ADS-B reception. However, there is a cost difference at $199 for the Airspy vs <$20 for the RTL-SDR. The Airspy cost may be soon less of a problem we are aware that an Airspy Lite version is in the works and that will probably cost around $99 USD.

In the future Anthony will do another test with no error correction enabled because the current version of the Airspy ADS-B decoder has no error correction whereas the RTL-SDR ADS-B decoder does. Those results may show that the Airspy is even better that shown here.

Update: Anthony ran the test again with a modified version of ADSB# with not error correction and obtained the following results which show that the Airspy receives about double the messages compared to the RTL-SDR:

Total Messages Received:
Airspy 65,150,313
RTL 32,973,049

Airborne Position:
Airspy 4,615,972
RTL 2,270,810

Unusable:
Airspy 533
RTL 635,549

Airspy vs R820T2 RTL-SDR on Maximum ADS-B Distance.
Airspy vs R820T2 RTL-SDR on Maximum ADS-B Distance.