There are now dozens of software defined radio packages that support the ultra cheap rtl sdr. Click here to browse our apps and support catalogue. Full coverage of all amateur bands from 6khz through hf, 6m, 2m, 4m, 2m, 1. Dxpatrol mk3 with otg usb cable and bncsma adaptor. The sdr touch development team will not be held responsible for any legal issues that might be. Sdr cube quick kit virtually no soldering required, because we did it for you. Before getting this sdr dongle, i had used one of the cheapcheap rtl dongles, and thought that for its low price, that rtl was fun, if woefully inadequate from overload to filtering to noise floor to range deafness on a 90 grounded, unund random wire and then thought perhaps more money would garner a better. The funcube dongle fcd is a small software defined receiver sdr with a built. With better software support and if the price stays near the same, it could become a killer deal for an inexpensive vhf uhf sdr radio platform. The upconverter certainly works as advertised, and its construction quality is very impressive for any amount of money.
We categorize the programs into general purpose software, single purpose software, research software and software compatible with audio piping. Sdr cube source download and unzip to see s ource files for those wishing to create customized versions of the sdr cube program. Fun cube dongle the fun cube dongle or fcd is an sdr product that has recently become available in small numbers and which has been bought by amateur radio enthusiasts around the world who wish to become involved with this new technology and explore its many applications. Hooked up the dongle to a discone antenna in the attic. The rtl dongle is the cheapest sdr receiver available today.
Hf converter kit for funcube dongle sdr sparkys blog. Developed to test endtoend and bidirectional data transport services between your device and your application. Of course, to most of us, the big upgrade from the sdrplay rsp1a is the rsp2s. Covering 601700 mhz, that initial product was developed in the u. For the hardware, david uses a 3m focal plane dish antenna and a 1200 mhz high pass filter. For example, if in the usa you tune the fcdpp lo to 10. Plugged into a pc running windows xp and the driver immediately self installed. Oh2ug dspicp pc programs download and unzip to access the windowslinuxmac programs that work with the oh2ug flasher bootloader in the sdr cube. The funcube is a cubesat a low cost miniature 10 cm cube sized satellite which is intended mainly for educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics, but has also piqued the interest of amateur radio.
On this page we will attempt to list, categorize and provide a brief overview of each software program. Sdruno supports rsp1, rsp1a, rsp2, rsp2pro, rspdx and the rspduo. In the paper dr david morgan of the british astronomical association radio astronomy group baarag describes how he used the funcube dongle as the heart of a radio telescope operating on 1420 mhz. It is written using the qt sdk and is available for linux, windows and mac os x. But as critical parts, of which there are 100, became scarce, designer howard. The beginners guide to software defined radio rtlsdr duration. I have both a sdrplay and a less expensive dongle with the up converter built in. I will talk to you later about a different type of sdr i need to develop which is part of a project that as. On the funcube dongle software defined radio site howard g6lvb says.
Insert the funcube dongle into the usbport from your computer. Were lucky to live in a time of phenomenal radio innovation. Upconverter for rtl sdr category is a curation of 7 web resources on, van dijken elektronics, dgk electronics, noolec. As many will be aware, the original raspberry pi had a problem with its usb host stack, for which i released a workaround here. Thanks again for making a great teaching tool and sdr dongle, you are the talk of the world in both radio amateur and software radio design.
It covers lf, mf, hf, vhf, uhf and l band coverage is 150khz240mhz and 420mhz to 1. It is not really practical as a full time listening receiver, but it is super fun to play with and a great value. For 2 meter repeater reception, i use a funcube dongle with sdrdx software v. With the hf converter the reception of a frequency range from 0 to 52mhz now becomes possible. Its a usb dongle that you plug into your pc, and with the installation of a piece of free software, you have a powerful software defined radio sdr that can receive signals from 24mhz right up into the ghz range. Written by admin leave a comment posted in amateur radio, digital signals, rtlsdr, satellite tagged with funcube, funcube dongle, rtlsdr. First, the guy couldnt get it to work so theres no guarantee it isnt defective and two, it has a coverage gap between 245420 mhz according to their website. Funcube pro plus differs from rtl sdr dvbt stick, with 11 filters to improved quality of reception on radio amateurs and satellite band inculding the amateur band 2m and 70cm bands. Dr morgan uses his funcube dongle with the spectrumlab windows software, which is a specialized audio analyzer. The idea behind the development of this device was to make available.
There are a couple of different software packages that you can use to run it and it does work quite well for digitial signal decoding. You may be able to get powersdr if to work with your dongle. Otg miniusb cable and smabnc adaptor included here the mk4 manual and instructions. Airspy r2 the defacto standard for sdr scanning all modes, vhf and uhf. Funcube sdr dongle overview and first impressions ham. I have used sdruno, hpsdr, sdr sharp and have been using sdr console v3 which i like the best so far. Funcube vs rtl sdr part 2 8 years ago by admin 0 this time small side by side comparison of a funcube dongle and a cheap rtl sdr dvbt dongle hama nano connected to the same antenna with no preamp and using identical test signals from geostationary uhf military satellite downlinks in the 240 270 mhz range to. Airspy is a line of popular softwaredefined radio sdr receivers developed to achieve high.
This test suite is a comprehensive device developer software toolkit. Sdrplay recommends bonito antennas and this compact moonraker hf antenna for our us government and hf alerting partner click here. Despite being a lowcost 8bit solution it is a reasonable performer on vhf but does not meet the same standard as the airspy and sdrplay sdrs, both of which have a higher dynamic range and greater bandwidth. The original cube was remarkable, allowing a 90 khz bandwidth to be observed as a spectrum display. Airspy mini vhfuhf airspy in a dongle format always keep one in your pocket. Is there a wrapper that would allow the funcube dongle to be used. High dynamic range inside forget about overloading.
Click for more info rf powercube coming to production in fall of 2020. If you know of a program that is missing please leave. A subreddit for the lowcost software defined radio sdr community. The funcube dongle sdr receiver has been a huge success so far and enjoys wide acceptance with many radio amateurs for receiving satellites and other vhfuhf communications. The interface started up, and to get things running, there are two things you need to do. Simon browns sdrradio worked as well, and with equal ease, though as luck would have it i tried it on the very day that the free licence key for the program expired. See more ideas about ham radio, software and ham radio antenna. Using sdrsharp and hdsdr, which programs i really enjoy with a real. The only drawback so far was reception of shortwave.
A small side by side comparison of a funcube dongle and a cheap rtl sdr dvbt dongle hama nano connected to the same antenna and using identical test systems from a geostationary inmarsat. A radio astronomy paper describes the use of the amsatuk funcube dongle software defined radio as part of a radio telescope. There are also plans for an educational version of the funcube, that will be slightly less expensive and have less frequency coverage than the funcube dongle pro discussed here. Ill be away for a few days next week 19 august to 23 august. Be sure you use the following parameters then go to the funcube tab and enter the frequency. We have included the recommended warehouse settings for each satellite as well as the fcd centre frequency. Before getting this sdr dongle, i had used one of the cheapcheap rtl dongles. If you need better performance then consider either of these two cost.
Gqrx is a software defined radio receiver for funcube dongle fcd, rtl2832ubased dvbt devices rtl sdr, universal software radio peripherals usrp and osmo sdr devices. For any proper listening, i do use sdr sharp or sdr radio, but typically its on a. The sigfox sdr dongle is the hardware platform on which to run the sigfox device test suite. Costumers in usa can order dxpatrol performance and sensitivity dxpatrol on hf with sdrradio software dxpatrol running on a table android with sdr touch rtl fun cube dongle hf converter 5. Folks, today we spent some time with the new raspberry pi 2 and the funcube dongle pro plus. It is certianly fun to play with and if you are an sdr fan i would recommend getting one. Certificate and qsl cards available online as announced at the recent amsatuk colloquium, a certificate of achievement andor a amateur radio style qsl card are now available online. The rtlsdr dongle recently, people have been using cheap rtlsdr dongles designed originally so that pcs could decode digital tv transmissions as sdr hardware. It was easy for me to get it all going with no hassle other than my own ignorance. Downloaded and had sdr sharp up and running with the dongle within minutes. Only those who have successfully received telemetry from funcube1 and uploaded it to the warehouse are able to download these documents. All rtlsdr compatible devices employ the rtl2832u as an adc and usb controller, but. Each satellite carrying a funcube payload has a dedicated dashboard and we have updated the one page summary funcube dashboard summary v 3 of those dashboards, their current version number and a dedicated download link. Hdsdr is a freeware software defined radio sdr program for microsoft windows 2000xpvista7.
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