Over on the TechMinds YouTube channel Matt has uploaded a video demonstrating the use of the ISM Packet Decoder plugin for SDR# which was released a few months ago. The plugin authors website also contains more information about the installation and features of plugin.
The plugin makes use of the well known rtl_433 software behind the scenes, which is a command line based RTL-SDR compatible decoder for various wireless ISM band devices such as weather stations, car keys, tire pressure sensors, doorbells and various other remote controlled devices. The plugin GUI makes using and displaying data from rtl_433 much more convenient.
Thank you to Adam from Double A Labs for submitting his latest YouTube video where he uses his RTL-SDR to probe the coaxial cable that provides his broadband internet and cable TV. In the video Adam explains how hybrid fiber-coaxial internet and TV broadband networks (such as Comcast/Xfinity) work, and how the Specktrum software can be used with an RTL-SDR to explore the spectrum on these cables. Adam writes:
What I found was pretty interesting, including a few unmodulated analog TV carriers on the line producing a black screen on my TV. I also explain how coaxial broadband networks work (bi-directional amplifiers, upstream/downstream splits, etc.) and how internet service providers are upgrading them.
How Broadband Cable Networks (Xfinity etc.) Work and Probing One with a Spectrum Analyzer (RTL-SDR)
The 2022 New England Workshop on Software-Defined Radio (NEWSDR’22) is the twelfth installment of an annual workshop series organized by the Boston SDR User Group (SDR-Boston). Given the continued global health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s event will be safely hosted online in a virtual setting. Although this will be a virtual event, the NEWSDR 2022 organizers are committed to achieving the primary goal of this workshop by providing a forum that enables SDR enthusiasts to get together, collaborate, and introduce SDR concepts to those interested in furthering their knowledge of SDR capabilities and available resources. NEWSDR 2022 welcomes both experienced SDR enthusiasts as well as individuals who are interested in getting started with SDR.
There are some interesting talks, panels and posters that will be presented, a summary of which can be found on the NEWSDR 2022 page. These are mostly research level talks, that may be interesting to people who love cutting edge SDR and radio research topics.
The talks will be livestreamed on YouTube for anyone to watch live or at a later date. The livestream YouTube player is embedded below.
NEWSDR 2022 :: 12th New England Workshop on Software Defined Radio
If you're interested, presentations from last years NEWSDR 2021 can be viewed in the following YouTube video.
NEWSDR 2021 :: 11th New England Workshop on Software Defined Radio
The new pricing is at quite a premium over the original LimeSDR Mini which released in 2017 for US$139, and the standard LimeSDR which released in 2016 for US$249. However we of course must to take into account the extreme inflation of electronic parts pricing that has occurred over the past few years.
Lime Micro have also noted that the standard LimeSDR has also now been discontinued due to the same supply shortages. The standard LimeSDR had 2x2 RX/TX channels and was capable of a bandwidth of up to 61.44 MHz. In comparison, both versions of the LimeSDR Mini are a 1x1 channel product with 40 MHz of bandwidth.
The LimeSDR Mini 2.0 is almost identical to the LimeSDR Mini 1.0, both still making use of the LMS7002 RF transceiver as the main chip and using the same overall design. The only change is an upgrade to the FPGA, which replaces the Intel MAX 10 16k logic gate FPGA with a significantly more capable Lattice ECP5 44k logic gate FPGA.
Given the new pricing, people on the lookout for a new hacker/research/experimenter SDR in this price range might want to consider this brief comparison to find the best suited SDR for your needs:
LimeSDR Mini 2.0- US$399
1x1 channels, 40 MHz bandwidth, 10 MHz to 3.5 GHz, 12-bits.
Thank you to a contributor for submitting an article about Airframes.io, which is an ACARS/VDL2/HFDL/Satellite ACARS aggregation site. The article below it attributed to Kevin Elliott and was edited by Frank Vance. They would also like to attribute the large group or volunteers at Airframes.io.
One of the most popular hobbyist uses of SDR is receiving and decoding vehicle information data such as ADS-B for aircraft or AIS for marine traffic. Some hobbyists have been banding together to exchange their mutual data streams to provide coverage over wide geographic areas.
One of the largest and most successful such projects in the aviation realm is ADS-B Exchange (https://www.adsbexchange.com/), where over 8,000 volunteer feeders provide ADS-B data to a global aviation map in real time.
But modern air carriers have much more data to and from their aircraft than just the position information from ADS-B. In the 1970s, ACARS was created to carry that traffic. Today, ACARS is seen on its own frequencies on VHF, embedded in AVLC on the VDL2 VHF frequencies, on HF (shortwave) frequencies using the HFDL network of stations worldwide, and on satellite on both the Inmarsat (ACARS over AERO, or AoA) and the Iridium (called ACARS over Iridium, or AoI) systems.
Airframes.io (https://app.airframes.io/) is a project that has been under development for a while to aggregate ACARS data in the same way ADS-B Exchange is aggregating ADS-B data. Under the capable leadership of Kevin Elliott (https://github.com/kevinelliott), software development has progressed to the point that new feeders are actively being sought to improve the global coverage and provide a broader base of data to improve the decoding.
With a wide variety of data sources, this is a collaboration project that is open to all levels of SDR hobbyists. A simple RTL-SDR.COM unit attached to a Raspberry Pi with a smaller antenna works well with the VHF coverage. Depending on one's interest level, an HFDL feeder may require multiple SDRs with much broader frequency range, capable of reception in the sub-30 MHz bands. The L-band based Iridium AoI uses a small antenna as well, but requires a wide bandwidth SDR. Finally, reception of the C-band Inmarsat (AoA) traffic may involve a moving dish antenna of at least 6 foot diameter to obtain usable signals.
What kind of data is seen in ACARS? One can observe weather conditions aloft, messages to/from the carrier operations staff, information about the origin and destination of the flight, and technical data on the aircraft operation (not all of which can be decoded at this time.) Additionally, the HFDL and satellite feeds offer location information out of sight of the traditional ADS-B coverage, such as over the oceans and polar regions.
The About page at Airframes.io (https://app.airframes.io/about) has plenty of good information to help anyone get started with feeding, including links to popular software packages useful for running different types of feeders. Support is available on the #airframes-io channel (https://discord.gg/X2TgnFgsRW) on the ADSBExhange Discord server (https://discord.gg/aXt7KdycJk).
Additional information about setting up a receiver/feeder for HFDL, Inmarsat L-band, Inmarsat C-band, and Iridium L-band is available on The Bald Geek's GitHub page: https://thebaldgeek.github.io/Consider joining with the dozens of volunteers already feeding and contributing software updates to the Airframe.io project.
In his latest video Rob from the Frugal Radio YouTube channel has uploaded a video where he experiments with a SDR web interface and smartphone App called "Rdio-scanner". Rdio-scanner is an interface that tries to reproduce the user experience of using a real hardware scanner with an SDR and RF voice decoding/recording software like Trunk Recorder being used in the background. Rob writes:
rdio-scanner creates a customizable web interface from which to control your software defined radio. Using it, you can turn a computer, phone or tablet into something that closely resembles a hardware scanner!
Trunk Recorder is the software that decodes the unencrypted P25 signals and records them to disk. Here is it demonstrated working on a large Simulcast (LSM) site.
rdio-scanner reads the audio files. Through the rdio-scanner interface, you are basically choosing which audio files to play.
Rob runs the rdio-scanner software on his Panasonic Toughbook, noting that the interface looks really great in Tablet mode and works well with the touchscreen. He also notes that his toughbook has a SIM card socket, so a data SIM would enable him to access his P25 monitoring system at home from anywhere.
SDR experiments with Rdio-scanner, Trunk Recorder, Airspy Mini & Panasonic Toughbook on P25 LSM
Over on her YouTube channel SignalsEverywhere, Sarah has uploaded a new video that shows us how TCP/IP connections can be made over the amateur radio spectrum using low cost NPR-70 TCP/IP modems that operate in the 70cm amateur band at around 433 MHz.
With a TCP/IP connection available it is then possible to play games over the amateur radio bands and Sarah demonstrates this in action with some classic games like Unreal Tournament 2004, noting that the ping was about 225ms. She notes that she used a lower symbol rate to keep within the legal limits within the USA, however in other regions a higher symbol rate may be possible, resulting in better ping. She goes on to try a strategy game called OpenRA which is a bit more suited to running on low speed high latency networks, noting that the radio TCP/IP connection worked very well.
In the video Sarah also shows what the modem signal looks like on the spectrum and waterfall using SDR++.
Playing Classic Games over Amateur Radio | NPR-70 Modem TCP/IP Unreal Tournament and OpenRA
Job's latest work has seen him detect Pulsar B0329+54 with his 1.9m dish and an RTL-SDR. He writes:
A pulsar is the rapidly spinning and pulsating remnant of an exploded star.
PSR B0329+54 is a pulsar approximately 3,460 light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis. It completes one rotation every 0.71452 seconds and is approximately 5 million years old
Everything indicates that I may have been able to detect the pulsar B0329+54 with JRT [Job's Radio Telescope]. This dish has a diameter of 1.9 meters, which would make it the first time (!) this pulsar has been detected with a dish of this size as far as I can tell. This result was obtained thanks to the good help and software of Michiel Klaassen.
Job has also provided a PDF file that documents his setup and results in more detail, which we have uploaded to our server here.
