Fun with bits of ether:

Software Defined Radio (SDR)

NERP Meetup Mar-31-2014
(Not Exclusively Raspberry Pi)
Presenter: Drew Fustini
@pdp7 / drew@pdp7.com

Video Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1tazUyp-oM
Pumping Station: One
Chicago Hackerspace

Software Defined Radio (SDR)

Application of Digital Signal Processing to radio

waveforms
Similar to software-based digital audio
techniques
Sound card digitizes audio waveforms
Software radio peripheral digitizes radio
waveforms.
Like very fast sound card with speaker &
microphone replaced by an antenna.
Implement virtually any wireless technology:
Bluetooth, ZigBee, cellular technologies, FM, etc
*text on this slide from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mossmann/hackrf-an-open-source-sdr-platform

http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki
GNU Radio is a free & open-source software
development toolkit that provides signal processing
blocks to implement software radios.
It can be used with readily-available low-cost external
RF hardware to create software-defined radios, or
without hardware in a simulation-like environment.
It is widely used in hobbyist, academic and commercial
environments to support both wireless communications
research and real-world radio systems.

FUNcube Concept
The original FUNcube Dongle concept:
receiving information from space as part of a
global educational collaboration project

FUNcube Dongle Pro+

http://www.funcubedongle.com/

125 GBP / $208 USD

Guaranteed coverage:

150kHz to 1.9GHz

Gap between 240MHz and 420MHz

FUNcube Dongles are the ground receiver for the

FUNcube Satellite project
Its also all-mode: this means that its not just limited
to narrow band FM reception.

HackRF: open source SDR platform

operates from 30 MHz to 6 GHz, a wider

range than any SDR peripheral
used to transmit or receive radio signals. It
operates in half-duplex mode: it can transmit
or receive
Max bandwidth is 20 MHz, about 10 times
the bandwidth of TV tuner dongles popular for
SDR
used for high speed digital radio applications
such as LTE or 802.11g
Post-kickstarter, expected retail ~$300:
http://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/

HackRF Hardware

LPC43xx ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller

CoolRunner-II CPLD (may switch to MAX V)

Cheap USB adapters

as SDR receiver

Find cheap <$30 USB DVB-T adapters from

many sources online
DVB-T is used to broadcast TV in Europe
Libraries have been written to use USB DVB-T
with certain a software defined radio

Adafruit SDR USB stick

If you've ever been curious about software defined radio (SDR), this USB stick is the
easiest way possible to have fun with a powerful, configurable receiver.

$22: Software Defined Radio Receiver USB Stick - RTL2832 w/R820T

RTL2832U and R820T tuner with an MCX RF connector

Tune into signals from 24MHz to 1850MHz.

Use a computer (with Windows, Mac, or Linux) to tune into:

FM Radio

AM signals (but not AM radio)

CW (morse code!)

unencrypted radio signals (such as those used by many police and fire
departments)

POCSAG pagers

basic 'DVB-T' antenna

NooElec SDR stick on Amazon

$20: NooElec Brand RTL-SDR, FM+DAB,

DVB-T USB Stick Set with RTL2832U &
R820T. Great SDR for SDR#, HDSDR, and
Other Popular SDR Software Packages

http://www.amazon.com/NooElec-RTL-SDR-RTL2

rtl-sdr library

http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
DVB-T dongles based on the Realtek
RTL2832U can be used as a cheap SDR
chip allows transferring the raw I/Q samples to
the host, which is officially used for
DAB/DAB+/FM demodulation.
History and Discovery of RTLSDR

rtl-sdr supported devices

http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
The RTL2832U outputs 8-bit I/Q-samples, and the highest theoretically possible
sample-rate is 3.2 MS/s, however, the highest sample-rate without lost samples that
has been tested so far is 2.56 MS/s. The frequency range is highly dependent of the
used tuner, dongles that use the Elonics E4000 offer the widest possible range (see
table below).

Elonics E4000 52 - 2200 MHz with a gap from 1100 MHz to 1250 MHz (varies)

Rafael Micro R820T24 - 1766 MHz

Rafael Micro R828D

24 - 1766 MHz

Fitipower FC0013 22 - 1100 MHz (FC0013B/C, FC0013G has a separate L-band

input, which is unconnected on most sticks)

Fitipower FC0012

22 - 948.6 MHz

FCI FC2580 146 - 308 MHz and 438 - 924 MHz (gap in between)

Build rtl-sdr on BeagleBone Black

Using Angstrom on eMMC

opkg update

opkg install libusb-1.0-dev

git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git

Follow commands in my GitHub Gist:

https://gist.github.com/pdp7/5503462

Test rtl-sdr
From GitHub Gist:
https://gist.github.com/pdp7/8683297

root@beaglebone:~# rtl_eeprom
Found 1 device(s):
0:

Generic RTL2832U OEM

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U

OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner

Play FM radio station 96.3MHz

(using Adafruit USB $5 audio adapter)
root@beaglebone:~# nice -n -10 rtl_fm -f 96.3e6 -M wbfm -r 48000 | aplay -r 48k -f S16_LE
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001
Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Tuner gain set to automatic.
Tuned to 96571000 Hz.
Oversampling input by: 6x.
Oversampling output by: 1x.
Buffer size: 8.03ms
Exact sample rate is: 1020000.026345 Hz
Sampling at 1020000 S/s.
Output at 170000 Hz.
Playing raw data 'stdin' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000
Hz, Mono

Alternative if no USB audio adapter

http://www.meetup.com/Southeast-Michigan-Beagle
Listening to audio via my Mac using
BeagleBone connected to tuner. 'sox' installed
on my Mac for the 'play' app. 'rtl_fm' :
ssh root@192.168.7.2 "nice -n -10 rtl_fm -W -f
96.3M" | play -r 32k -t raw -e signed-integer -b
16 -c 1 -V1 --buffer 100000 -

rtlizer: RF Spectrum Analyzer

http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/beaglebone/480-rtliz

ViewRF: RF Spectrum Analyzer

http://hackaday.com/2013/09/09/an-rtl-sdr-spectrum

Gqrx
http://gqrx.dk/

Gqrx by Alexandru Csete

http://gqrx.dk/
Open source software defined radio receiver
powered by the GNU Radio SDR framework and
the Qt graphical toolkit
Packaged for Ubuntu Linux & Mac OS X
Supported Hardware:
http://gqrx.dk/supported-hardware
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/oz9aec/videos

Run your own GSM base station!

http://openbts.org/
OpenBTS is a Unix application that uses a
software radio to present a GSM air interface
to standard 2G GSM handset and uses a SIP
softswitch or PBX to connect calls
Range Networks SDR1 Open Source
Software-Defined Radio:
http://openbts.org/sdr1.html

The Amp Hour interviews

HackRF creator:

http://www.theamphour.com/the-amp-hour-161-gifted-grimg

Matt started and still runs Ettus Research, now a 12

person Software Defined Radio (SDR) company
located in the Bay Area

http://www.theamphour.com/the-amp-hour-101-quality-quad

Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) products

are computer-hosted software radios:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Software_Radio_Peri