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Monitoring House Power Usage using an RTL-SDR
Home automation enthusiast Bruce Winter has recently posted on his blog about how he uses the RTL-SDR as part of his home automation system to automatically monitor his power (and solar power...
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Characterizing RF Filters with a Noise Source and RTL-SDR Dongle
Over on YouTube RTL-SDR experimenter Adam Alicajic has uploaded a video showing how it is possible to use the RTL-SDR as a tool to measure the frequency response of an RF filter. To do this he uses a...
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Characterizing the SWR of an Antenna with a Noise Source and an RTL-SDR
In our last post Adam Alicajic showed us on YouTube how to determine the frequency response of an RF filter using just a wideband noise source an LNA and an RTL-SDR dongle. In his latest video Adam...
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SDR on TV: Using SDR to Break into Homes with Wireless Alarms
Earlier this year the American TV show Good Morning America featured a segment on software defined radios being used to break into houses with wireless alarm sensors. The story is based on a Defcon...
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Digital Ding Dong Ditch – Hacking wireless doorbells with Arduino and RTL-SDR
Over on YouTube user Samy Kamkar has uploaded a video showing how he was able to use an RTL-SDR to copy his friends wireless doorbell signal and prank him by replaying it using an Arduino and 433 MHz...
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Freqwatch – RTL-SDR Frequency Scanner and Recorder
Freqwatch is a new Linux based software program that has recently been released by programmer Joshua Davis. Freqwatch makes use of rtl_power to scan a wide swath of RF spectrum and then automatically...
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Chaos Communications Congress Talks – Iridium Pager Hacking
A few days ago the Chaos Communications Congress (a technology and hacking focused conference) commenced. Amongst the talks there was one about reverse engineering the Iridium satellite paging system...
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RTL-SDR with GQRX Running on an Odroid C1 at 1 MSPS and Max FFT
Over on YouTube user neutron2025 has uploaded some videos showing GQRX running on an Odroid C1. The Odroid C1 is a low cost ($35 USD) mini computer with an Arm Cortex A5 quad core CPU and 1 GB RAM...
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New SDR# Plugin: PAL / SECAM TV
The SDR# plugins programmer over at rtl-sdr.ru has recently released a new plugin which allows the decoding of PAL / SECAM TV images from within SDR# (note link in Russian, use Google translate or see...
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Monitoring a Trunked P25 LSM Simulcast System with OP25 and an RTL SDR
Over on YouTube user jdlucas78 has uploaded a video showing a P25 LSM modulated digital voice signal being decoded by the Osmocom OP25 software for Linux. Although DSD and DSD+ can decode P25 voice, it...
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Beaglebone Black FM/Internet Radio Combo Receiver using an RTL-SDR
Last year we missed this interesting project by Frederick Vandenbosch where he created a FM/internet radio combination receiver using a BeagleBone Black mini embedded PC and an RTL-SDR dongle. The idea...
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Compiling and using DSD 1.7 for D-STAR on Linux
Amateur Radio hobbyist George Smart has recently written a tutorial showing how to compile and install DSD v1.7 on a Linux computer in order to receive D-STAR digital voice. D-STAR is a digital voice...
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Receiving VOR Radio Navigation with an RTL-SDR and GNU Radio
Over on YouTube user hpux735 has uploaded a video where he explores the feasibility of receiving VOR radio navigation signals using GNU Radio and an RTL-SDR. VOR is an acronym for VHF Omni Directional...
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New Oregon Scientific Temperature/Humidity Data Receiver Software for MacOS...
Recently programmer Erik Larsen wrote in to us to let us know about a MacOS application he has been developing to receive temperature and humidity data from Oregon Scientific v2.1 sensors. Oregon...
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Measuring Frequency Deviation of an FM Transmitter with an RTL-SDR
Over on YouTube user KP4MD has uploaded a video showing how she uses an RTL-SDR together with SDR#, a program called Visual Analyzer and an AEA PK-232 Terminal Node Controller to measure the frequency...
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Updates to the Power Line Noise Detector “Driveby” System
A few days ago we posted about Tim Havens “driveby” project, which is a RTL-SDR based system he developed to help create heatmaps of power line noise in his neighborhood. Upon doing further research,...
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RTL-SDR Panadapter Using Hardware Radio Receiver IF Stages
Over on YouTube user Jay Moore has uploaded a video explaining how to connect an RTL-SDR dongle to the IF stage of a hardware radio in order to create a panadapter. In the video Jay briefly explains...
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Listening to SCA with HDSDR, SDR# and an RTL-SDR
In the USA and Canada a subcarrier called SCA (Subsidary Communications Authority) is used to add additional services to a broadcast FM signal. Some examples of the extra services provided are live...
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RTL-SDR Cell Phone IMSI, TMSI and Key Sniffer
Over on YouTube user Kali Gsm has uploaded a video showing off a new software program he has written that allows an RTL-SDR to be used to gather IMSI, TMSI and Key information from a cell phone...
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HackRF Controlling a Quadcopter
Over on YouTube user Mike has uploaded a video showing a quadcopter being controlled by the HackRF, a low cost transmit capable software defined radio. Mike uses a Hubson X4 quadcopter and controls it...
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