Category: RTL-SDR

A Few GOES Reception Tips and Info on Receiving EMWIN Data

Thank you to Carl Reinemann for writing in and sharing his website that contains a few tips that he's learned when setting up an RTL-SDR based receiver for GOES 16/17 weather satellite image reception.  As well as the tips, he's uploaded a nice set of images that show his setup, and several of the images he has received.

In addition, he's also noted how the default config files provided by goestools do not download EMWIN (Emergency Managers Weather Information Network) images. EMWIN images are not photos, but rather weather forecast and data visualizations that may be useful for people needing to predict or respond to weather. Over on his Github he's uploaded a modified version of goestools which has config files for EMWIN and other image products that might be of interest to some.

If you're interested, Carl Reinemann also has various bits of information about building APT/Meteor satellite RTL-SDR receivers on his main site too. Of interest in particular is his notes on creating wide area composites of NOAA APT images with WXtoIMG which we have posted about in the past.

Some EMWIN Images Received by Carl Reinmann's GOES receiver.
Examples of some EMWIN Images Received by Carl Reinemann's GOES receiver.

YouTube Guide: Installing GQRX on Windows 10

GQRX is a general purpose GUI based SDR program that is typically used most often on Linux and Mac computers, however it is still possible to install and use it on Windows. Over on YouTube M Khanfar has uploaded a tutorial video that shows a step by step guide on how to get GQRX running on Windows 10.

The process is a little long as it involves an install of Windows GNU Radio, Python, pip and various Python dependencies required by GQRX, as well as setting up the Windows PATH. If you prefer a text guide, the full tutorial is also typed out in the YouTube video description.

GNU Radio , GQRX in Win10 installation Guide

SignalsEverywhere: How to set up an RTL-SDR SpyServer on Windows

Over on YouTube SignalsEverywhere/Harold is back with a new video tutorial that shows users how to set up a SDR# SpyServer with an RTL-SDR dongle. SpyServer is a program included with SDR# that allows you to access your Airspy or RTL-SDR dongle remotely through the internet or local network connection. Thanks to it's compression techniques and that it does most processing on the server side, it requires significantly less network bandwidth compared to a raw IQ server like rtl_tcp.

In the video Harold first shows how to access the SpyServer network in SDR# which consists of many remote SpyServers that have been made accessible to the public for free. He then goes on to explain how you can set up your own SpyServer by simply editing a text config file. He notes that you may need to perform port forwarding on your router if you wish to make the server publicly accessible.

RTL SDR Spyserver Remote SDR Setup Tutorial (on Windows)

PiSDR Ready to use SDR Raspbian Image Updated to V4.0

It's been a good time for ready to use SDR Linux OS images recently, as we've seen the release of two new images, DragonOS and gorizont-rtlsdr over this lock down period. And now the already popular and mature PiSDR image has also been updated. 

PiSDR is a ready to use Raspbian based operating system for Raspberry Pi's which comes pre-loaded with many programs for software defined radios. It currently supports the RTL-SDR, LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, Airspy, and Airspy HF+ and has preinstalled software such as SDR Angel, Soapy Remote, GQRX, GNURadio, LimeUtil, and LimeVNA.

The latest update includes various bug fixes as well the following new features:

  • Three times smaller.
  • HackRF Support.
  • Verified Compilation on GitHub Actions.
  • New Software: Quisk, CygnusRFI, rpitx, rtl_433, acarsdec, gpredict, multimon-ng, and leansdr
PiSDR Running a SDRAngel with a LimeSDR
PiSDR Running a SDRAngel with a LimeSDR

TechMinds: Demonstrating the QT-DAB Digital Audio Broadcast Decoder

Over on YouTube TechMinds has uploaded a video where he explores the QT-DAB software (formerly known as SDR-J), which is a program capable of decoding Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) signals. QT-DAB is compatible with several SDRs including the RTL-SDR, HackRF, Airspy and SDRplay units. 

DAB stands for Digital Audio Broadcast and is a digital broadcast radio signal that is available in many countries outside of the USA. The digital signal encodes several radio stations, and it is considered a modern alternative or future replacement for standard analog broadcast FM.

In the video TechMinds explains how to download, install and use the software on a Windows machine. He goes on to demonstrate some DAB decoding in action with various SDRs and then shows how to connect QT-DAB to a remote RTL-SDR via rtl_tcp.

DAB Radio Decoder For SDR (RTL_SDR - HACKRF - AIRSPY)

Broadcastify Calls: Radio Call Archiving + Incentives for SDR Software Developers

Broadcastify is a large scanner audio streaming site which provides live audio streams of Fire, Police, EMS, Aircraft and Rail communications across the USA and in many other countries. These streams are all provided by volunteers running scanners and software defined radios like RTL-SDRs in their local areas.

Recently Broadcastify have announced the beta of their "Calls" platform. This allows them to provide not only live streams of audio, but also an archived history of every radio call received. We believe that this is a technology similar to Radiocapture. The service advertises 30-day call retention, duplicate call handling, live call playback, playlists playback, tight integration with the RadioReference database and detailed statistics of the call and source.

Currently you can contribute received calls to Broadcastify via the Trunk Recorder software. However, Broadcastify recently wrote in and wanted our readers to know that they are providing incentives to SDR software developers to adapt their software in order to allow calls to be ingested into the Broadcastify Calls platform. 

We're announcing developer incentives for the Broadcastify Calls Platform.

If developers adapt their SDR based application to function as a call ingest platform for Broadcastify Calls, Broadcastify will pay them up to $2,500 for their efforts. Here are the details:

  • To qualify for incentives, developers must apply and have an approved agreement with RadioReference.com/Broadcastify. Developers can request to be part of the incentive program by contact us at [email protected]
  • When first system comes online in production on Broadcastify Calls, developer receives a $500 USD check
  • When 5 systems come online in production on Broadcastify Calls, developer receives an additional $2,000 USD check

Documentation for the API can be found here:

https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Broadcastify-Calls-API

Broadcastify Calls
Broadcastify Calls

YouTube Series on Inmarsat Decoding with Scytale-C

Paul (microp11) is the programmer behind the Scytale-C Inmarsat decoder which has become very popular with RTL-SDR owners. With Scytale-C, and RTL-SDR and an appropriate L-band antenna and amplifier it is possible to receive STD-C NCS data from Inmarsat satellites. This is a public broadcast which contains information like search and rescue (SAR) and coast guard messages as well as news, weather, pirate activity and other incident reports. If you're interested, we have a tutorial available here which uses different software.

Paul has recently created a 6-part video series explaining Scytale-C and all it's features. As well as showing how to setup a Scytale-C decoder with the SDR# plugin in order to receive the STD-C text data via the UI, Paul's series goes into more depth showing how to review and inspect the raw data packets, how to monitor multiple Inmarsat channels at once using SDR# Spyservers and how to use the map feature for plotting coordinate and region data.

Gorizont-rtlsdr: Another Linux OS Distro with Built in RTL-SDR Support & Software

A few days ago we posted about DragonOS, which is a Linux ISO file with several built in SDR programs that the creator Aaron has been working on during his COVID-19 lockdown period. We've now got a second lockdown inspired Linux distribution called "gorizont-rtlsdr" which was submitted by Steve Cox. The distro is based on Xubuntu 18.04 and focuses only on software for RTL-SDRs. Steve writes:

gorizont linux 1.0 is a live, USB bootable or VM .iso image, and my first attempt at sharing a project like this. It's built specifically for rtl_sdr/ RTL2832U family dongles, no other devices will be supported in the future (although drivers can be installed if required). It's meant for the cheapest, most available hardware out there.

I think there's a useful niche for this distro, Skywave Linux is getting a bit long-in-the-tooth and un-updated, and the recently reviewed DragonOS, whilst good, is a little complicated for beginners to use. gorizont concentrates on purely terrestrial HF/VHF/UHF analogue and digital signal exploration and decoding, hence the name. It also provides instant DAB+ and FM radio reception for emergency information using RTL V3 stock antennae.

It's built for customisation and compilation of evolving software, hence it's rather portly size. A pretty full suite of dev libraries and repos come as included. Users can also create a bootable USB image or .iso of an updated system using Systemback if gorizont is run as a VM.

We didn't see a list of programs preinstalled, but from the Readme it appears to have at least GNU Radio, GQRX, multimon-ng, DSD+, welle.io, PyBOMBs, wine32, sox, as well as a preset Virtual Audio sync set up through pulseaudio for piping audio between programs. We expect that many more programs will also have been preinstalled.