Low Cost SDR Dongles are Repurposed Digital European TV converters – DVB-TV Mass Produced = Low Cost ~ $20 Thanks to 2 Clever Engineers –Antti Palosaari & Eric Fry – Receive all Modes from 28 MHz – 1100MHz – Quite a Scanner!

Dongle Very low cost re-purposed DVBT chip set. Preforms A/D conversion sending I- Q samples (a bunch of numbers) via USB cable. NOT Upper Side Band ! USB Driver This is where most problems occur. It does not fall squarely in the hardware or software realm. Need to run Zadig software. Use Crtl- Panel to check and see if your device has been recognized. Computer Functions as a demodulator. Takes I-Q samples and returns audio and/or a graphics display. 3 of the most popular programs are: SDR#, SDR Console, HDSDR USB Cable Buss Three Essential Ingredients Mice are Plug–N-Play SDR Not So Much

Listen all ham bands 10-meters through 1296 MHz – All modes. Listening to unencrypted Police/Ambulance/Fire/EMS conversations. Listening to aircraft traffic control conversations. Tracking aircraft positions like a radar with ADSB decoding.ADSB decoding Decoding aircraft ACARS short messages.ACARS short messages Scanning trunking radio conversations.trunking radio Decoding unencrypted digital voice transmissions.digital voice Tracking maritime boat positions like a radar with AIS decoding.AIS decoding Decoding POCSAG/FLEX pager traffic.POCSAG/FLEX pager traffic Scanning for cordless phones and baby monitors. Tracking and receiving meteorological agency launched meteorological agency launched weather balloon dataweather balloon data. Tracking your own self launched high altitude balloon for payload recovery. Receiving wireless temperature sensors and wireless power meter sensors. Listening to VHF amateur radio. Decoding ham radio APRS packets.APRS packets Watching analogue broadcast TV.analogue broadcast TV Sniffing GSMSniffing GSM signals. Using rtl-sdr on your Android deviceUsing rtl-sdr on your Android device as a portable radio scanner. Receiving GPS signals and decoding them. Using rtl-sdr as a spectrum analyzer.spectrum analyzer Receiving NOAA weather satellite imagesReceiving NOAA weather satellite images. Listening to satellites and the ISS.the ISS antenna SWRantenna SWR. Areas of Interest

Radio astronomyRadio astronomy. Monitoring meteor scatter.meteor scatter Listening to FM radio, and decoding RDS information.decoding RDS information Listening to DAB broadcast radio.DAB broadcast radio Use rtl-sdr as a panadapter for your traditional hardware radio.rtl-sdr as a panadapter Decoding taxi mobile data terminalDecoding taxi mobile data terminal signals. Use rtl-sdr as a high quality entropy source for random number generation.high quality entropy source for random number generation Use rtl-sdr as a noise figure indicator.noise figure indicator Reverse engineering unknown protocols.unknown protocols Triangulating the source of a signal.source of a signal Searching for RF noise sourcesSearching for RF noise sources. Characterizing RF filters and measuring

ADSB – Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast – i.e. Radar Transponder 1090 MHz 1 Mbps – PPM This is what the dongle receives

rtl1090 software tunes dongle and demodulates data Plane Plotter plots on map and decodes data providing position, speed, altitude, flight #, course and other info

Plane Plotter Data View

ADSB Scope - A Free Plane Plotting Program How to Set Up ADSBScope Download ADSBScope zip file

AIS – Marine Traffic Off Air Recording of AIS – Long Island Sound Dongle AIS Mon Demodulator Virtual Audio IN / OUT Open CPN 4.00 COMPUTER SDR Program Linking 4 Programs 9.6 Kbs GMSK FM modulation 12.5 or 25 KHz BW using HDLC Packet Protocols

SDR Console – allows remote access

SDR# -- SDR Sharp

HDSDR

It’s New.. A Dongle On Steroids 12 bit vs 8 bits for a Dongle – HF thru 2 GHz Interfaces With Popular SDR Programs $ 145 from HRO About the same as the cost of a dongle plus an HF up converter, but, you get 12 bits instead of 8 and built-in front end filtering. Way better performance for the price point. SDRPlay Specs

Is SDR Better ? WFAN 660 Khz Adjacent Channel Test A comparison to a TS-430 DRM – Radio Romania 100% Digital, 24 KHz BW, USB, 6030 KHz Digital HF? SRDPlay & Weak Signal Propagation Reporter – WSPR 40-meter Over night SDRPlay & Laptop

Questions ? 73 Rich, K1OF The Last Word on Dongles: rtl-sdr.com