DF Aggregator: New Software for Networked Radio Direction Finding with KerberosSDR
Over on GitHub Corey (ckoval7) has released a new open source radio direction program called "DF Aggregator". This software is able to receive bearings and locations from multiple remotely networked KerberosSDRs, and display them on a map.
If you weren't already aware KerberosSDR is our 4-channel phase coherent capable RTL-SDR unit that we previously crowdfunded back in 2018. With a 4-channel phase coherent RTL-SDR interesting applications like radio direction finding (RDF), passive radar and beam forming become possible. It can also be used as four separate RTL-SDRs for multichannel monitoring.
A single KerberosSDR combined with an antenna array is able to determine a bearing towards a signal source. By using multiple KerberosSDR units spread over a large area it is possible to triangulate the location of a transmitter and display it on a map. Corey's software uses a modified branch of our open source KerberosSDR code in order to generate a modified XML page that the mapping software polls for updated data. Some instructions on it's use are available on our forums and on the GitHub.
The image below shows three KerberosSDR stations on the map, and two transmitter locations that have been triangulated using the bearings from the three distributed KerberosSDR units.Â
Alternative direction finding mapping software includes our Android App (mostly for mobile vehicular use), and RDF Mapper with our adapter code.
This is really frustrating. I guess they are no longer making the first version, one run for crowdfunding and no more? Not a good way to have happy customers. The new version hasn’t even started it’s crowdfunding campaign. It could be a year before we see new hardware.
I would happily buy the 4-channel system to look for a jamming issue we are suffering from today. But, I can’t because there isn’t any product. I would like to see this article removed as it references hardware that is no longer available.
Hi Michael, thanks for the feedback. We’ve actually had multiple KerberosSDR manufacturing runs since the initial 2018 crowdfunding campaign.
The last KerberosSDR unit sold last month, and we’ve decided to not do another run now that the successor is close to being finished. The minimum run required by the factory is not small or a trivial expense so we would run the risk of being stuck with significant stock of the older product. We’re a small company and the profit we get from these is not huge, so being stuck with the older product would be a significant financial problem for us, and would prevent us from being able to release the new improved KrakenSDR and fund ongoing software development. I hope this is an understandable situation and I do think that KrakenSDR will be worth the wait.
This article will still be valid for the upcoming KrakenSDR product so it will stay up.