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Showing posts from November, 2017

SDR and ATC Transponders

Here is the skinny on my ATC transponder ADS-B phun and games .   Get a SDR receiver for the princely sum of $25, including antennas and tripod here: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/ Mode A, C and S Transponders at Al Ain Airport Ubuntu Linux First try the Ubuntu repos for dump1090 if that is the Linux version you are using: $ sudo apt install dump1090 and see if you are lucky! Fedora Linux Here is what I did to build Malcom Rob's version of dump1090 on Fedora 26: According to legend, Malcom's is the best one and according to the below, it really is much better than rtl_adsb . Get the rtl-sdr library, which includes a set of useful basic utilities, including rtl_test, rtl_fm, rtl_tcp and rtl_adsb : # dnf install rtl-sdr Get the development files, so we can build other software with this library: # dnf install rtl-sdr-devel Get and make Malcom's software: # cd # mkdir sw # cd sw # git clone git://github.com...

Software Defined Radios With a Macbook Pro

I finally succumbed to the temptation and bought a couple of RTL SDR dongles.  These thingies are so cheap, they really open the art of amateur radio to the masses again. There are also some notes on the not so cheap, more advanced HackRF One dongle at the bottom of this article. CubicSDR on a Macbook Pro These gadgets are wide band digital receivers, which make them much fun.  Effectively, RTL-SDR with CubicSDR provides you with a wide band DIY Spectrum Analyzer that works from about 1 MHz all the way up to about 3 GHz. Read all about RTL-SDR here: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ If you have no idea what to do with SDR toys, go here: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/ or here: https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/funcube-dongle-sdr/ or, of course here: http://www.aeronetworks.ca/2017/07/cube-satellites.html BTW, if you use Linux or BSD, skip to the bottom of the page. Where to Buy an SDR Widget Get your own RTL-SDR kit for the enormous sum of $26 here: htt...