Sebastian has been tinkering with the Analog Devices ADF4351 eval board and written a review. “The ADF4351 from Analog Devices (ADI) is a modern wideband PLL synthesizer with integrated low phase noise VCO. It is capable of generating signals between 35 MHz to 4400 MHz with a very low jitter of typical 0.3 ps. ADI […]
Category Archives: RF
DCC 2012: FlexRadio and SDR architecture
At the 31th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference held last September in Atlanta, GA, FlexRadio VP Stephen Hicks N5AC gives an in depth presentation on SDR and its potential. He outlines his company’s new Flex 6000 series, a Linux based commercial product based on components used in government radios. While this is not […]
DEFCON 20: tools for GPS hacking
At DEFCON 20, Fergus Noble and Colin Beighley discussed the basics of GPS operation and how hackers can access and use its data. They have developed and released a new set of tools which they hope will make GPS accessible to hackers and experimenters. These resources include a library, libswiftnav, which contains a complete toolset […]
C-Band DRO LNB teardown
Sebastian, amateur radio operator KF5OBS, offers up this under the hood look at a C-Band DRO LNB. “A low-noise block downconverter (LNB) is a key element in a satellite receiver system and is responsible for converting the relatively high frequency of the received signal into the more convenient L-Band. But how do they work and […]
Closer look at a direct sequence spread spectrum signal
Sebastian Westerhold draws our attention to his article taking a closer look at a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signal. Sebastian is holder of amateur radio license KF5OBS and is interested in experimenting with pseudorandom number generators. In his article he describes the generation of a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) using a linear feedback shift […]
Video: PhreakNIC 16 – Wardriving the 4.9GHz public safety bands
What is the 4.9 GHz public safety band? In the US RF hackers may be familiar with the old VHF and UHF FM voice police/fire/ems radio bands. Few are aware that in the post-9/11 environment other public safety data and digital voice ops are moving to previously unused portions of the spectrum. In this video […]
Toorcon: HackRF low cost SDR platform
At the recent Toorcon conference in San Diego, Michael Ossmann from GreatScottGadgets presented this talk providing details on his HackRF project which we covered in a recent post. In this video Michael presents an overview of the history of SDR and details on the development of the HackRF board. Visit the HackRF project page for […]
TI Bluetooth SensorTag kit
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player TI has announced the availability of their Bluetooth low energy SensorTag kit. With a downloadable SensorTag App and sample applications, the kit removes the barriers to entry for smartphone app developers who want to take advantage of the growing number of Bluetooth low energy-enabled smartphones and tablets. The kit lists […]
ToorCon 14 badge
Attendees at the recent ToorCon 14 conference in San Diego were provided this RF-enabled badge. Containing the same CC1110 radio circuit as the popular IM-Me, it’s a sub-1 GHz wireless transceiver controlled directly from your computer. The badge was designed by hardware maker Michael Ossmann, a Colorado-based engineer whose freelance embedded work has stretched across […]
HackRF open source SDR
At the recently concluded Toorcon conference in San Diege, CA, developers Michael Ossmann and Jared Boone released the latest version of the HackRF board. “The HackRF project is developing an open source design for a low cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) transceiver platform. SDR technology allows a single piece of equipment to implement virtually any […]
Magnetic loop antenna controlled by Arduino
This video by Ricardo Caratti demonstrates his method for controlling a Magnetic Loop antenna with an Arduino. The antenna’s tuning capacitor is adjusted using a stepper motor interfaced with the Arduino equipped to read IR commands sent from a compatible IR remote control. This allows the tuning capacitor to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Due to […]
OpenBeacon – An open source active RFID project
OpenBeacon is a comprehensive open source platform for active RFID applications operating in the license free 2.4GHz ISM band. The project involves base station hardware, as well as active tag hardware. OpenBeacon is based on Open Source software and a very flexible and reprogrammable lowcost Open Source RFmodule. The firmware sources and hardware schematics are […]
Imagination Labs #SMWsocialobjects Arduino badge
Jack Chalkey, Creative Technologist with Imagination Labs, has posted an outline of their Arduino based project for Social Media Week. The project was conceived by several lab members who returned from EMFcamp 2012 with some tech and an idea for badges. “The tech was badges (more like lanyards) with an onboard Arduino Leonardo, RF module, […]
Freescale RF engineering tools app V1.0
If you need to do RF related computations on a regular basis, now there’s an app for that! Freescale has released their FREE RF Engineering Tools App V1.0. “The RF Engineering Tools app is a compilation of calculators and converters that can assist the typical RF designer, university student, professor and other members of the […]
RadioBlock adds RF comms to your embedded project
Here’s an interesting project we found on Kickstarter. Known as RadioBlock, this device promises to provide a simple “radio building block” for your embedded projects. The blocks have a four pin connector, two for 3-6 Vdd and ground, and two for TTL serial comms. The RF link consists of an IEEE802.15.4 Atmel RF231 module and […]
DeepSec 2011: intelligent Bluetooth fuzzing – why bother?
Security researchers Tommi Mäkilä and Jukka Taimisto of Codenomicon gave this presentation at the DeepSec 2011 conference discussing ways to sensibly test Bluetooth stacks. Their talk presents the number of ways in which Bluetooth attacks have been attempted with varying degrees of success. They also present a discussion on fuzzing techniques and creating intelligent fuzzers […]
GSM GPS shield for Arduino
Boris Landoni draws our attention to the GSM GPS shield for Arduino designed by Open Electronics. “The shield is designed and based on the module GSM/GPRS SIM900 or the GSM/GPRS & GPS module SIM908, to make calls, voice and data connections via GPRS. This new version has several new hardware features, that allow maximum customization […]
Tech doc: Microwave Filters, Impedance-Matching Networks, and Coupling Structures
Drone writes to inform us about the release of a major tech document from the early days of microwave development. The seminal 1963 1,096 page tome on microwave filters by Matthaei, Jones, and Young, “Microwave Filters, Impedance-Matching Networks, and Coupling Structures” has been released to the public via the U.S. Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). […]
Tech bulletin repository covers RF and more
Drone sends a link to a repository with 13 years of technical bulletins produced and edited by English Amateur Radio operator John Stockley G8MNY. “Each bulletin is listed by topic and may be downloaded individually in PDF format. Many bulletins cover RF-related topics, but there are a lot of other subjects covered as well. These […]
panStamp wireless open source modules
panStamp is an open source project created for the enthusiasts interested in measuring and controlling things wirelessly. panStamps are small wireless boards specially designed to fit in low-power applications, simple to program and simple to work with. They allow for direct connection with your sensors to make then available wirelessly. panStamps are NOT WiFi modules. […]