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Using a Mixer to Listen to HF on a RTL-SDR Dongle
Over on YouTube user w2aew has uploaded a tutorial video that clearly explains the theory behind upconverters. Upconverters are commonly used with the RTL-SDR to receive the HF (0 – 30 MHz) bands. In...
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Creating a Signal Strength Heatmap with an RTL-SDR
Over on Reddit, user tautology2 has linked to his project which is software that can create a heatmap of signal strengths. His software uses the data that is output from RTLSDR Scanner which is a...
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Radiosonde Decoding
Over on his blog, nerdsville has posted about his experiences with decoding Radiosondes, a.k.a Meteorological Weather Balloons using his Funcube Dongle, which is an SDR with similar capabilities to the...
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DSD+ Version 1.5 Released
Version 1.5 of Digital Speech Decoder Plus (DSD+) has been released. DSD+ is a popular Windows software tool used for decoding digital speech such as P25 with the RTL-SDR. The latest version comes with...
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SDR(X): New Upconverter for the RTL-SDR
A new UK designed and manufactured upconverter that goes by the name SDR(X) has recently become available for purchase. This upconverter connects to a RTL-SDR dongle and allows it to receive from 100...
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Raspberry Pi RTL-SDR Spectrum Analyzer Scanner
Adafruit has released a tutorial showing how to build a portable TFT screen based Raspberry Pi RTL-SDR spectrum analyzer that was inspired by the HackRF portapack. Construction of the project is very...
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Hak5: Mobile SDR Apps
On this episode of Hak5, a popular YouTube technology channel, Shannon shows two Android based ADS-B RTL-SDR apps that we have mentioned on this blog previously. One is “ADS-B on USB SDR RTL” and the...
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Using the HackRF on Android
Micheal Ossmann’s HackRF Linux library has recently been ported to Android by programmer Dennis Mantz. Dennis has also made a blog post showing how to use the library. In addition he’s uploaded a...
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Receiving Hellschreiber with the RTL-SDR and an Upconverter
Over on YouTube user BSoD Badgers has uploaded a video showing reception of Hellschreiber on HF at 20m. To receive the HF frequencies he used a ham-it-up upconverter. He used SDR# to receive the signal...
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Receiving Dead Satellites with the RTL-SDR
Recently happysat, a reader of RTL-SDR.com wrote in to let us know about an unusual hobby he has found with the RTL-SDR. Happysat has been using the RTL-SDR together with a QFH antenna to detect old...
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Decoding the Russian Parus (Cosmos) Navigation Satellites with the RTL-SDR
Once again Happysat, who previously wrote in to RTL-SDR.com to let us know how to receive dead satellites with the RTL-SDR has again written in to let us know about his latest achievements. Happysat...
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ADS-B Onboard a 737 with Realtime Primary Flight and Navigation Display
Recently we found this video from 2013 on YouTube by user carcharias04 showing an RTL-SDR being used for ADS-B on board a 737-800 commercial jet. In the video he uses a custom program that interfaces...
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SatNOGS – Hackaday Prize Winner uses RTL-SDR in Design
The popular Hackaday blog recently announced the winner of their grand competition to win a trip to space or $200k. The goal of the competition was to design and build the best example of “an open,...
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Watching a VHS Tape using a RTL-SDR
Over on YouTube user DogsRNiceMineCraft has uploaded a video showing a VHS tape being played using an RTL-SDR. To do this he connected the RF out port on his VHS tape player by wrapping the RTL-SDR...
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RTL-SDR As a Spectrum Analyzer
Hackaday has brought to attention a blog post by Kerry Wong which shows how the RTL-SDR can be used as a simple and inexpensive spectrum analyzer. In the past we’ve already posted numerous examples of...
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Reverse Engineering a Wireless Alarm with the HackRF
Wireless alarms consist of multiples devices such as sensors and detectors which all communicate to a central control box via RF signals. Blogger “fun over ip” decided that he wanted to understand the...
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RTL-SDR Based Passive Aircraft Radar
Over on YouTube we’ve discovered a video from earlier in the year showing the RTL-SDR being used as a passive aircraft radar. This is different to ADS-B which is a type of active radar. A passive radar...
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RTL-SDR Tutorial: Listening to TETRA Radio Channels
TETRA is a trunked radio communications system that stands for “Terrestrial Trunked Radio”. It is used heavily in many parts of the world, except for the USA. Recently, a software program called Tetra...
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Recording Video of Passing Aircraft with A Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR
Electronics experimenter Simon Aubury has recently made a write up on his blog about a project he has been working on. His project is the use of a Raspberry Pi with servo mounted video camera and...
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Sniffing and Analyzing GSM Signals with GR-GSM
Over a year ago we wrote a tutorial on how to analyze GSM cellular phone signals using a RTL-SDR, a Linux computer with GNU Radio, Wireshark and a GSM decoder called Airprobe. With this combination it...
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