It’s been awhile since we’ve covered the FUNcube dongle, but their updated extended frequency coverage hardware and new software dashboard merits a new look. The FUNcube Dongle is an SDR device covering the 150kHz to 1.9GHz frequency range (with a gap in coverage between 240 MHz and 420 MHz). It retails online for around GBP125, […]
Category Archives: RF
Digital Speech Decoder 1.7.0-dev adds D-Star support
DSD is a popular software tool for decoding various unencrypted digital radio protocols about which we’ve previously posted. We noticed that there is now a release of DSD which purports to be capable of decoding the amateur radio digital protocol known as D-Star. This is in addition to P25, X2-TDMA, ProVoice and NXDN offered in […]
Ham Radio Linux LiveDVD Ver. 14 supports RTL-SDR, HackRF and more
Andy, amateur radio operator KB1OIQ, has released the Version 14 of his Ham Radio Linux LiveDVD containing programs focused on amateur radio and SDR operations. This is a remastered version of Ubuntu Linux. As of version 13, there are 32-bit and 64-bit versions available, as well as an image for the PengPod 1000. This version […]
SkyJack open source drone hacking project
SamyKamkar developed this seriously cool project to wrest control of civilian drones away from their owners. SkyJack is a drone engineered to autonomously seek out, hack, and wirelessly take full control over any other drones within wireless or flying distance, creating an army of zombie drones under your control. Using a Parrot AR.Drone 2, a […]
GRCon13 video: Some More of Your RFz Are Belong to Me
At the recent GRCon2013, SDR guru Balint Seeber delivered this presentation on using GNU Radio to create new blocks and prototype flowgraphs relating to FasTrak RFID (used in traffic toll collection system), MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) Direction Finding, RADAR Detection and Multi-channel Decodings.
Rtl_fm Guide: The long lost documentation
Kyle Keen has written up documentation on his Rtl_fm utility, which enhances RTL-SDR operation on older PCs. Rtl_fm is a little utility I wrote for the RTL-SDR project. The program was made to fill a gap in software defined radio: all the computers weaker than a Pentium 4. Basically, an Atom processor processor does not […]
Decoding radio-controlled bus stop displays
Oona Räisänen (a/k/a Windytan) is a self-taught signals and electronics hacker from Helsinki, Finland, who is fascinated by mysteries, codes and ciphers, and vintage tech. She’s previously written regarding the use of digital transmissions carried on FM broadcast subcarriers as a means of supplying data to digital information signs used at bus stops.
RTL-SDR + SDR Radio + Funcube Sat
Amateur radio operator N4JTC has written a blog post about his experiences using the RTL-SDR dongle to receive the Funcube Satellite. With the recent record number of cubesat launches this month most Amateur Radio enthusiasts been busy, myself included. There hasn’t been a better time to get into receiving these satellites. With the inexpensive hardware, […]
Decoding FLEX pagers using RTL-SDR and Linux
Superkuh2 demonstrates how to decode FLEX pager radio traffic. He uses gr-pager and zarya’s implementation of it on the Linux platform with the RTL-SDR dongle. This script runs at a 250 KS/s sample rate and decodes one 12.5 KHz channel only. Internally it uses gnuradio’s optfir to generate low pass taps stopping at 12.5 KHz […]
R-Pi and RTL-SDR = AFSK transmission between two Linux boxes
This video depicts the successful transmission of AFSK data via a radio link between two Linux machines using a R-Pi and an RTL-SDR dongle. The crew at Kprod posted this cool RTL-SDR project on their blog. They use minimodem to do the encoding in a FLAC or in a WAV format, then use the R-Pi […]
Open source amateur radio programming software
If you own a modern amateur radio here’s an open source software project you’ll find useful. It’s called CHIRP, and supports programming of a large number of manufacturers and models, and provides a way to interface with multiple data sources and formats. Rigs included are ICOM (including D-Star models), Yaesu, Kenwood, TYT, Alinco, Baofeng and […]
Intro to Software Defined Radio (SDR) using cheap TV tuner dongles
If you see posts relating to USB dongle SDR’s and wonder what everyone’s talking about, this video is for you. In this presentation from last weekend’s Hack3rCon 4 conference in Charleston, WV, Justin Rogosky covers the basics relating to using the familiar RTL-SDR TV tuner dongles to monitor obscure portions of the radio spectrum.
Video: Breaking SCADA communications
In this presentation from the InfoSec 2013 conference held October 3, 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky, Mehdi Sabraoui discusses the relative insecurity of SCADA network protocols. He covers the Sixnet Tools, taking advantage of a proprietary communication protocol supported by nearly all of Sixnet’s SCADA devices to compromise these devices across a network. Mehdi is a […]
iSEC Open Security video: Hacking the Wireless World
In this presentation from the iSEC Open Security Forum, September 12, 2013 in Palo Alto, CA, Balint Seeber, Applications Engineer and SDR Evangelist / Ettus Research, provides an introduction on how to analyze and hack RF communications systems using open source software and cheap radio hardware. He describes, “The focus will be on how to […]
Decoding D-STAR headers with the RTL-SDR
D-STAR or Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio is a digital voice and data protocol used in amateur radio. Here’s a link which shows how the RTL-SDR can decode D-STAR text messages and headers (link is in Italian but Google translate can help, and the pictures show more than enough information). By using SDRSharp and […]
Rant: ham radio and hacking
Bill Meara just did a great guest post at Hackday on why today’s electronics hackers should give ham radio some serious consideration. With the removal of the Morse code requirement from all licensing exams, and the use of multiple choice testing (with the questions/answers available online) there’s no excuse not to consider pursuing your Amateur […]
Silvercrest (Lidl) TwinTalker 4810 446MHz PMR radio teardown
Joe Desbonnet acquired a Silvercrest (Lidl) TwinTalker 4810 PMR radio and decided to explore under the hood. PMR radios are a European equivalent of low power Family Radio Service and General Mobile Radio Service walkie-talkies used in the USA, but operate on the 446 MHz frequency band. Most use analog FM, though commercially targeted models […]
RTL-SDR spectrum analyzer for BeagleBone Black using ViewRF software
Stephen Ong previously released this video demonstrating the use of RTL-SDR dongle with the BeagleBone dev board to function as a spectrum analyzer. The software making this possible is known as ViewRF and Stephen has now released the instructions and code links for this project.
HP laptop security flaw discovered using RTL-SDR
Cronek reports discovering a security flaw in the microphone on certain HP laptops. Using his RTL-SDR dongle and SDR# he observed unusual signals around 24 MHz. He discovered that his HP EliteBook 8460p laptop computer was continuously and unintentionally transmitting the audio from the built in microphone at 24 MHz in FM modulation anytime the […]
DSD block for GNU Radio
Luke Berndt from the HackRF-dev forums has posted his work to make the functionality of DSD available to GNU Radio users in the form of a GRC block. “I have been playing around a bit and found an easy way to receive and playback digital LMR. More and more of the radio systems are going […]