SDR (Software Defined Radio) For Satellite

[Babadem]

This is a very interesting subject. I will look into it.

 

[wallyhts]

I'm so glad I sold my icom PCR-1000 a few years back.

Thinking about putting a R Pi, DVBT and prepaid 4g card into an outdoor enclosure and mount in another town just to play around.

 

[Balock]

After listening to the show, I ordered a couple of the dongles and a HamItUp yesterday evening, as well as several jumpers--all should be in before Christmas. Now I just need to rebuild a discone and either my wire dipole or my CushCraft D-4 (maybe both), as well as tap into one of the LNBF outputs to find Brian's hidden signals .

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

My wife just called, my SDR and the converter arrived just a few minutes ago.

I dont have the jumpers to hook up the converter, but plan on playing with the SDR tonight.

 

[Pismire]

Mine arrived today. Looking forward to playing with it after work.

 

[KE4EST]

Use SDR# Software

Posted Via The SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[Pismire]

I found this page http://rtlsdr.org/softwarewindows very helpful for setup.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I got mine setup and running on my Mac... via Windows 8.

Yeah the antenna sucks. But it works.

Can you spot the HD Radio broadcast?

 

[Pismire]

Oh your telling me about the cruddy antenna. I can hear the local mexican fm station fine but our emergency services aren't that great. Pretty remote location here. Time to get a scanner antenna (or build one). Other than that pretty fun little device.

 

[northgeorgia]

I bent a wire coathanger into a loop and temporarily attached it to a piece of coax. I used an adapter to connect that into the dongle. I noticed some improvement. Would like to experiment with other configurations before soldering it into place.

 

[Titanium]

Received the up convertor today. Waiting for the SMA to MCX cable. Scheduled to arrive next week by postal from China...... I will be patient....

The DVBT antenna became a donor for an adapter. Not good for much else...

BTW... this is what the waterfall should look like when the IF level range is set at a good level and you have good CN. Have a discone antenna at 30'

 

[Balock]

I bent a wire coathanger into a loop and temporarily attached it to a piece of coax. I used an adapter to connect that into the dongle. I noticed some improvement. Would like to experiment with other configurations before soldering it into place.

Years ago I built a 1/4-wave 2-meter ground plane antenna from coat hangers and an SO-239 chassis connector (a common antenna for beginning Tech-level hams). I imagine that design could be modified to make a reasonable wide-band discone antenna.

 

[Titanium]

Built a discone based on the 239 connector and heavy screen material. Worked well.

Bought this antenna a few years back and have been quite pleased with the performance. At $49 it is a great deal! http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=190993893521

 

[Balock]

That's a nice looking design on the JetStream. How robust has it been? Mine is an old RatShack discone that is missing a few elements and isn't in the air right now. I've been using my VU-190 OTA antenna (VHF/UHF) for scanning and it works very well, although it's obviously directional.

My dongles and upconverter should arrive by the end of this week and the jumpers by end of next week (on the slow boat from China ).

 

[Titanium]

Lost a rubber tip protector on one element when moving a few years ago, but no fault of the design and wouldn't affect performance.

Well constructed out of aluminum and stainless steel. Expect that it will last many years. Very impressed with the quality build.

I also use my TV antennas for monitoring. Nice to use the rotor and works great on weaker stations. I am at 1700' but down in a valley. Sometimes TV and radio reception can be a challenge. TV reception is by ground effect and signals don't get better when raising the antenna!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Been playing with it in the office today, with the crappy antenna I am surprised how much I can pick up, up here. (I am on the top floor of the second tallest skyscraper in Hartford) and I am just using the crappy antenna that came with it.

I haven't figured out how to pick up broadcast AM or Shortwave radio with it yet, but I am still playing.

 

[updatelee]

Ive been using a Antennacraft ST2 (http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants/2732.html) for quite a few years for my scanners and for ATSC reception. Im sure there are better antenna's out there for specific frequencies, when you get into something that is good at all frequencies and you want it omni directional then your going to get some serious compromises. But Im happy with it. One nice thing is the mounting clamp is the perfect diameter for a dishnet/expressvu satellite mounting arm. Makes it easy to install.

I have the output from the antenna going into a spaun 5x8 powered multiswitch, I just dont use the satellite inputs. It gives me a little gain (vaiable) to overcome the loss of splitting it 8 times to various TV's, ATSC adapters, and scanners.

UDL

 

[Conky]

http://sdrformariners.blogspot.ie/p/beginner-antennas.html
is a good site to start

 

[Stargazer]

This could be interesting to use with that satellite signal experiment that people were doing a few years back where people would get signals from the side of a metal building or a cd as a satellite reflector and the lnb pointing towards it. Being able to see this much information on all the frequencies could be some interesting experimentation.

 

[Jim S.]

I got mine setup and running on my Mac... via Windows 8.

If you want to try running it natively on the Mac, http://gqrx.dk