This weeks video on the TechMinds channel explores the various online web SDRs that are available to access for free. Accessing these online SDRs does not require any hardware apart from a PC and internet connection, although of course you are then receiving signals from a different location to yourself.
In the video he shows how to access the SDR# Spy Server Network which mostly consists of Airpsy and RTL-SDR units, the SDR-Console V3 Server network which consists of a wide array of different SDRs, the browser based WebSDR network which is mostly soundcard based SDRs but also RTL-SDR and other SDRs, and finally the KiwiSDR network which is made up of KiwiSDRs.
Using Software Defined Radio Without SDR Hardware - WebSDR
In her last video Sarah from the SignalsEverywhere YouTube channel showed us how to set up SDRTrunk for reception of digital P25 Police and other services with two RTL-SDR dongles. On this weeks episode Sarah shows us how to set up Broadcastify with SDRTrunk. Broadcastify is a an online service that allows you to stream audio from your SDR or scanner radio to their website for anyone to listen to. We note that sharing audio or some talkgroups may not be legal in all countries so please do your research first.
In the video Sarah shows the full setup process involving setting up a Broadcastify account, creating an alias list, adding talkgroups to share and finally setting up the Icecast server for streaming to the Broadcastify servers.
Thank you to John D for writing in and letting us know that Wired magazine has recently run an article about the "Nyansat" project. Nyansat aims to bring low cost open source satellite ground stations to the masses. The goal is to democratize citizen access to space by allowing for easier collection of satellite data, or even for collaborative citizen science radio astronomy projects such as the detection of space debris or undocumented satellites. John writes:
While most people think of a satellite ground station as a giant dish mounted on top of a building in the desert, technically any radio receiver that tunes into a satellite's signal can be called a ground station. Somewhere between the giant dish and the GPS chip in your phone is a ground station that uses a directional antenna to pull in the faint signals. So unless you're only interested in geosynchronous satellites, the antenna needs to be aimed at the satellite, and that's where NyanSat comes in.
The design of the NyanSat consists of a pan-tilt head, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for precise azimuth and elevation measurements, a motor-driver board, an optional OLED display, an optional GPS module, and is powered by an ESP32. Full source code is available in their git repo, found at https://github.com/RedBalloonShenanigans/antenny. The NyanSat's software is written in micropython specifically for the ESP32, but obviously could be ported if desired.
Mounting an antenna, adding an RTL-SDR, and actually tuning in a satellite, is still up to the builder.
One of the goals of the NyanSat project is to eventually build up a network of ground stations that can collaborate to contribute frequently updated satellite ephemeris information.
When they're in stock, the project's sponsor, Red Balloon Security, has occasionally been offering a kit containing a custom PCB that is pre-populated with the ESP32 and motor driver; a pan-tilt gimbal; an IMU; and an RTL-SDR. They've been selling them for $1.00(!), just to get them out in the hands of people. Keep your eye open in case they get another batch in.
The Red Balloon store lists the kit as currently out of stock so we suggest keeping an eye on their store just in case any of the $1 kits come back in stock.
NyanSat will also present a live twitch demo at this years online DefCon conference on Friday Aug 7 6:30-8PM EDT and Sat Aug 8 6:30-8PM EDT. On Sun Aug 9 12:30 EDT they will hold another event where they judge the best work of the Nyansat community.
The SatNOGS project which we have covered many times before on this blog is quite similar with it's own open source antenna rotator design, however the Nyansat design looks a bit easier to build as it doesn't require 3D printed parts. Although critically from their demos we haven't seen what sort of sized antennas the gimbal chosen by Nyansat is capable of moving.
In their example Sage use a dipole antenna and analysis frequency of 30 MHz. The notebook doesn't offer much additional information, but provides Python Numpy and Scipy code which can be used to detect and plot the lightning pulses.
In this episode of Frugal Radio's series of SDR beginners guide videos he discusses some antenna basics. He shows the most common types of antennas, provides several tips to help improve reception, and shows how to properly tune antennas using online calculators.
Near the end of the video he shows our multipurpose dipole antenna kit and shows how to adjust the telescopic elements for best reception. He demonstrates that simply extending the elements to the maximum length does not result in the best tuning, rather you need to tune the element length for the frequency being received to get the best results.
2020 SDR Guide Ep 4 : Antenna Basics for SDR Beginners inc RTL-SDR / Nooelec NESDR SMArt bundle
In this episode Frugal Radio explores the differences between three RTL-SDR dongles. In the video he compares a generic RTL-SDR, a Nooelec SMART and one of our RTL-SDR Blog V3 units. Initially the specifications are compared, and then he moves on to testing them on real signals with SDR#. Overall the RTL-SDR Blog V3 comes out with the highest final score thanks to it's additional features and low price.
2020 SDR Guide Ep 3 : Beginner Budget SDR Shootout (Generic vs Nooelec vs RTL-SDR v3) cheap SDRs!
Over on YouTube Sarah from SignalsEverywhere has uploaded a new tutorial video showing how to use two RTL-SDR dongles with the free SDRTrunk software to create a P25 Police scanner.
In the video she first shows how to install SDRTrunk in Windows and Linux, then how to install the JMBE codec required for decoding audio. She goes on to show how to import trunked system network data from a (paid) RadioReference subscription, how to blacklist unwanted talkgroups, and how to optimize operation with two RTL-SDR tuners. Finally she also shows how to set up the system manually if you don't have a RadioReference subscription.
SDRTrunk The FREE P25 Police Scanner! Windows and Linux Tutorial
A 15 year old Australian teenager has been accused of leaking sensitive COVID-19 patient data such as the phone numbers and addresses of people in quarantine, and conversations between health officials and doctors about COVID-19 patients. The leak occurred via a public web page that he had set up to share decoded POCSAG pager data that he received from his home.
Pagers are still typically used in many parts of the world by hospitals. It is a tried, tested and very reliable system for messaging, however most systems in the world send data out in unencrypted plain text for all to see. Anyone with a cheap scanner radio or $20 SDR and freely available software can decode every single message sent via paging from almost anywhere in a city as the signals are often extremely strong. Pagers are intended to be reserved for urgent infallible messaging, as paging is more reliable compared to mobile SMS since SMS messages do not always get through, or can be delayed by several minutes. Alternative secure communication channels such as SMS should be used for private information, however this protocol is not always followed due to the additional hassle.
The teen appears to have used either a Baofeng or RTL-SDR to receive the POCSAG pager signal available in his hometown in Western Australia. The pager signal was decoded with multimon-ng, and displayed via the PagerMon software. PagerMon creates a web page that displays pager messages in an easily readable format, and the page can be made accessible to the internet if desired. It seems that the teen is a scanner enthusiast, and did not intend to purposely leak patient data, however others found his PagerMon page and brought it to the attention of the media. His site has now been shut down, and officials have decided to shut down the pager system in favour of a double SMS system.
Some of the leaked pager messages via 9 News Perth
This is a story that repeats often all around the world. In the past we've seen whistleblowers report on patient data breaches in Vancouver, Kansas, and via an art installation in New York that continuously printed out pager messages.
