Messages

4021

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: New version of RTL-SDR.com dongle now available

« on: August 21, 2016, 2131 UTC »

Source code for various things I have and can get. Its just actually sitting, reading, thinking, and then doing it. Hopefully with summer winding down and PTO stockpiled, I better be able to find time.

I'm going to the GNURadio Conference in a few weeks and hopefully will glean some nuggets from there.

C++: I've tried that and it made my head hurt. I mentioned that I was trying to learn C++ to my Dad, who was in data processing decades ago. He doesn't think much of the object-oriented stuff. But then, I'm also not going to do this in COBOL.    Although... hooking a bunch of SDRs to a z-Series then having The Beast doing the processing would be wild, possibly insane. Which means it may have to be done (for the same reason that people climb mountains).

I'll prob start with C and try to keep it cross-platform with Mac/FreeBSD/Linux.



BTW: My winderz 7 laptop finally finished checking for updates, after 37.5 hours of continuous "work" (~50% CPU).

4022

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: New version of RTL-SDR.com dongle now available

« on: August 21, 2016, 1856 UTC »

For the preselector, I have a small tuned loop and going to try that thing and see how it works. It has loops for LW, MW, and SW (up to around 6200 kHz). The thing works fantastic for hooking to the Meduci MW-2 PLL. That radio has no preselector and is easily overloaded by stations. Tried the tuned loop and it pulled in 540 WXYG great, in glorious AM Stereo.

This morning, had my dual band VHF/UHF airband whip hooked up. At the antenna, it has a VHF/UHF airband bandpass filter on it.

Noise on VHF airband seems to be too high. Granted the antenna is on the deck, but should be far enough away from noise sources. Or maybe its not. Or something wrong with the coax. meh.


That sounds like a great project with the dual channel SDR. I'd love to write something like that, but, I still need to learn the basics of of the internals of SDRs and write my own simple things. Have a book on DSP and a few others things. The main problem is lack of time.

4023

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 0155 UTC 8/21/16

« on: August 21, 2016, 0202 UTC »

0201Z Very faint here, mostly in the noise. Can hear music for a few seconds, then fades out for a while.




_{RTL-SDR R820T2 USB dongle with Bonito Boni-Whip antenna}

4024

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: PRESERVING SHORTWAVE BROADCAST RECORDINGS

« on: August 21, 2016, 0100 UTC »

There is also:

The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive

4025

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6940 USB 0015 UTC 21 Aug 2016

« on: August 21, 2016, 0037 UTC »

0034Z 44443 ID "Wolverine Radio"
0034Z 44443 Percy Sledge "When A Man Loves A Woman"
0037Z 44443 Sam & Dave "Soul Man"
0041Z 44443 Aretha Franklin "I Never Loved A Man"
0042Z 44443 ID
0042Z 44443 The Byrds "Mr. Tambourine Man"
0101Z 55444 The Allman Brothers Band "Hoochie Coochie Man" (het is still there, but greatly reduced)
0104Z 55444 ID
0104Z 55444 Bonnie Raitt "Love Me Like A Man"
0108Z 55444 Joni Mitchell "Free Man In Paris"
0110Z 55444 Traffic "Here Comes A Man"
0115Z 45444 ID
0115Z 45444 Little Feat "Fat Man In The Bathtub"
0120Z 45444 The B-52s "Give Me Back My Man"
0124Z 45444 ID
0124Z 45444 Steely Dan "Third World Man"
0129Z 45444 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers "Forgotten Man"
0132Z 45444 Echo ID
0132Z 45444 SSTV
0134Z Off Air.

I=4 as there's an annoying het on 6924.


Thanks Wolverine. The manliest of shows being transmitted in the manliest of modes.




_{RTL-SDR R820T2 USB dongle with Bonito Boni-Whip antenna}

4026

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: New version of RTL-SDR.com dongle now available

« on: August 20, 2016, 2342 UTC »

Got MW & HF going. Had to select Direct Sampling (Q Branch) instead of the usual Quadrature.

With the 5' whip within a few feet of the laptop & its noisy PS-
Picked up two local strong stations stations on MW.
Got WWV at 10 MHz
And Voice of Greece on 9420 kHz. Opa!

Noisy and kind of crappy, but with that 5' whip next to the laptop, that was expected.

While switching to the outdoor antennas, the AC adapter came unplugged and noise went way, way down.

Have two antennas in use for testing for this - Bonito Boni-Whip & Wellbrook ALA100LN loop (~40' of wire), both into a phaser.

With maximum gain, the antennas saturate the SDR and there are images & noise all over the place.

When fine tuning the gain on various stations, the images will go away. Local strong stations sound good. Tried to get 540 WXYG on this (it sounds fantastic on my Yaesu FT-847 with these two antennas, at full gain). SINPO on the Yaesu is 55555 (for a little 850W station ~75 miles away), while on the RTL-SDR, its only 25353. The RTL-SDR struggled a bit with this one. At minimum images, it was a noisy signal, but still listenable.

Went back to Voice of Greece on 9420. When adjusting gain on the antennas, can get it in pretty good. Audio quality is still better on the Yaesu overall, which is not surprising as computer audio is usually mediocre at best. Will have to try this on my other PC that has a SoundBlaster X-Fi in it hooked up to 5.1 speakers.

Visited the 41m band. 7385 kHz was strong, brought up the gain and it sounded much better. No images on 7385, just increase in strength (as one would normally expect). Saw some stations above 8 MHz and tuned there to find that they're MW images. Turned down the gain and they went away.

The driver has RTL AGC & Tuner AGC, plus a gain control. When in Quadrature mode, we can fiddle with all three. When in Direct Sampling, only can check/uncheck RTL AGC, can't fine tune the gain. This would be a problem if we can't control the gain of the antenna. In my case, deselecting RTL AGC gives better signal control.

Also, sampling rate has an effect. 0.250 MSPS just makes noise & finds images, no useful audio. Useful rates are 1.024 MSPS to 1.4 MSPS (at least while listening to 540 kHz). Above 1.4 MSPS, its noise & garbage. Didn't seem to behave like this in the 31m band.

As long as you can adjust antenna gain easily, it seems to do a decent job. Its not a DX machine, but would be perfectly fine for casual listening. For $24.95, I'm not going to complain and will enjoy this device.

Will continue experiments with other antennas & things.


BTW: After composing this, tuned to 43m and saw activity... sure enough its Wolverine on 6940. Sounds fine on this except for a het on 6942.

4027

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: New version of RTL-SDR.com dongle now available

« on: August 20, 2016, 2244 UTC »

Win7 laptop has been searching for updates for ~24 hours now... 


Put the RTL-SDR on there and installed SDR#. Installed fine & receiving FM stations w/o problem. Had to crank up the gain (it came set to 0), which they mention. This seems to be doing a decent job.

Tuned down to MW & SW with just the 5' whip, but heard nothing. I did expect to hear a local 50kW that's ~20mi away and another 5kW pest that's ~5 mi away. Will need to investigate this. Perhaps SDR# (which is made more for the AirSpy SDRs) has to do something special with the RTL-SDR dongle.

Picked up aircraft on their band (incl activity above 134 MHz, which I don't remember there being much around here), weather radio, pagers on VHF-hi band, digital repeaters up on UHF, and I think I may have also just found my shiny new 900 MHz water meter transmitting around ~920 MHz.

Can't do a whole lot on here at the moment as the SWU is taking ~50% CPU.      Stupid windows.

4028

Software / Re: How many DGPS stations can you receive at the same time?

« on: August 20, 2016, 2112 UTC »

Thanks for the explanation. That's too bad. Guess I'll continue to wait for eLORAN.

4029

Huh? / China’s new quantum satellite will try to teleport data outside the bounds of sp

« on: August 20, 2016, 2002 UTC »

http://qz.com/760804/chinas-new-quantum-satellite-will-try-to-teleport-data-outside-the-bounds-of-space-and-time-and-create-an-unbreakable-code/

4030

Software / Re: How many DGPS stations can you receive at the same time?

« on: August 20, 2016, 1635 UTC »

That is seriously cool.

I'd be interested in trying that when its ready. Can it read I/Q files made by Perseus or Studio1?

As far as the messages go, do they transmit time? If so, would be interesting to correlate the time they broadcast with their relative position in the file. And along with their position, calculate the propagation delay. Or something.

4031

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: New version of RTL-SDR.com dongle now available

« on: August 20, 2016, 0142 UTC »

Currently working on some unrelated computer things tonight, but going to get to it tomorrow for sure.

In the package:
- RTL-SDR. In a nice metal case. Unlike my E4000-something or another which is in plastic.
- Antenna magmount
- UHF+ antenna  Extended: 7 7/8"  Collapsed: 2.5"
- HF/VHF antenna. Extended its 5' long. Collapsed its 8"  <--- This antenna was a big surprise. Who does this in 2016?
- Dessicant

As you will notice, there is a gap in the supplied whips between 7 7/8" and 8". I hope this won't be a problem.


Have to say, initial impressions of opening & seeing the physical things, I am happy. Also picked up the assortment of antenna adaptors so will hook up to the various good antennas (most importantly that are away from the house).

4032

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: New version of RTL-SDR.com dongle now available

« on: August 20, 2016, 0005 UTC »

On a lark after reading this on Tuesday, I went to the website to read about it and liked it. So ordered it. This morning receive an email that it was shipped, got home and it was waiting for me.

A very pleasant surprise for the weekend.

4033

Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Romania International 15130 AM 1136 UTC 16 Aug 2016

« on: August 16, 2016, 1218 UTC »

English Service of Radio Romania International

1136Z 35422 Music
1140Z 35422 ID
1140Z 35422 The Mail Bag Program. Reading letters & reception reports from listeners.
1150Z 35422 Another program about a writer, I think (I was busy driving and not taking notes)




_{Pioneer DEH-X4750BT with 31" whip}

4034

Longwave Loggings / Re: LORAN 100 kHz 2150 UTC 4 Aug 2016

« on: August 16, 2016, 0035 UTC »

The phoenix may rise again...



H.R.5531 - Miscellaneous Maritime Transportation Amendments Act of 2016
Sponsor:   Rep. Hunter, Duncan D. [R-CA-50] (Introduced 06/20/2016)
Committees:   House - Transportation and Infrastructure
Latest Action:   06/20/2016 Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

               TITLE I--POSITION, NAVIGATION, AND TIMING

SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE.

    This title may be cited as the ``National Positioning, Navigation,
and Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2016''.

SEC. 102. BACKUP GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM.

    (a) In General.--Subtitle VIII of title 46, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:

            ``CHAPTER 807--POSITION, NAVIGATION, AND TIMING

``Sec.
``80701. Land-based complementary and backup system.
``Sec. 80701. Land-based complementary and backup system
    ``(a) In General.--Subject to the availability of appropriations,
the Commandant of the Coast Guard, in consultation with the Secretary
of Transportation, shall provide for the establishment, sustainment,
and operation of a reliable land-based positioning, navigation, and
timing system to provide a complement to and backup for the Global
Positioning System (in this section referred to as `GPS') to ensure the
availability of uncorrupted and nondegraded positioning, navigation,
and timing signals for military and civilian users in the event that
GPS signals are corrupted, degraded, unreliable, or otherwise
unavailable.
    ``(b) Requirements.--The system established under subsection (a)
shall--
            ``(1) be wireless;
            ``(2) be terrestrial;
            ``(3) provide wide-area coverage;
            ``(4) deliver a precise, high-power 100 kilohertz signal;
            ``(5) be synchronized with coordinated universal time;
            ``(6) be resilient and extremely difficult to disrupt or
        degrade;
            ``(7) be able to penetrate underground and inside
        buildings;
            ``(8) be capable of ready deployment to remote locations;
            ``(9) take full advantage of the infrastructure of the
        existing, unused Government long-range navigation system
        (commonly known as `LORAN');
            ``(10) incorporate the expertise of the private sector with
        respect to development, building, and operation;
            ``(11) work in concert with and complement any other
        similar positioning, navigation, and timing systems, including
        enhanced long-range navigation systems;
            ``(12) be available for use by Federal and non-Federal
        government agencies for public purposes at no cost; and
            ``(13) incorporate such other requirements determined
        necessary by the Commandant.
    ``(c) Implementation Date.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of enactment of this section, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, in
consultation with the Secretary of Transportation, shall provide to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate a plan to ensure that the system required
under this section is fully operational not later than 3 years after
such date of enactment.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The analysis for subtitle VIII of title
46, United States Code, is amended by adding after the item relating to
chapter 805 the following:

``807. Position, Navigation, and Timing.....................   80701''.

H.R.1678 - National Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2015/
Sponsor:   Rep. Garamendi, John [D-CA-3] (Introduced 03/26/2015)
Committees:   House - Armed Services
Latest Action:   08/13/2015 Referred to the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 20, 2016

  Mr. Hunter (for himself and Mr. Garamendi) introduced the following
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and
                             Infrastructure

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Secretary of Defense to establish a backup for the
           global positioning system, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Positioning, Navigation,
and Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite signals are
        used by all critical infrastructure sectors in the United
        States and are crucial to the reliable and secure operation of
        defense systems operated by the United States Armed Forces.
            (2) Use and dependence on GPS signals in the United States
        continues to grow.
            (3) GPS signals are relatively weak and consequently unable
        to reach many indoor environments or underground installations,
        which limits their use for first responders, law enforcement,
        the Armed Forces, and other users.
            (4) Due to the relative weakness of GPS signals, such
        signals can be easily corrupted, degraded, or denied access to.
            (5) There is an increasing use of inexpensive and widely
        available GPS jammers by organized crime syndicates and rogue
        states.
            (6) A prolonged disruption of GPS signals caused by jamming
        or other cyber security threats would cause serious national
        security, intelligence, and economic disruption for the United
        States.
            (7) Since 2004, the Federal Government has recognized that
        the absence of a reliable backup system for GPS is a glaring
        economic and security threat to the United States, and has
        reaffirmed its interest in developing an enhanced long-range
        navigation system (LORAN), or eLORAN, as a reliable land-based
        backup for GPS signals.
            (8) The establishment of a land-based positioning,
        navigation, and timing backup system to complement GPS as soon
        as practicable is essential to secure the economic and national
        security interests of the United States.

SEC. 3. BACKUP GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM.

    (a) Establishment.--Section 2281 of title 10, United States Code,
is amended by--
            (1) redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new
        subsection:
    ``(d) Land-Based Complementary and Backup System.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary of Defense, in
        consultation with the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the
        Secretary of Transportation, shall provide for the
        establishment, sustainment, and operation of a reliable land-
        based positioning, navigation, and timing system to provide a
        complement to and backup for GPS to ensure the availability of
        uncorrupted or non-degraded positioning, navigation, and timing
        signals for military and civilian users if GPS signals are
        corrupted, degraded, unreliable, or otherwise unavailable.
            ``(2) Requirements.--The system established under paragraph
        (1) shall--
                    ``(A) be wireless, terrestrial, and wide-area;
                    ``(B) provide a precise, high-power 100 kilohertz
                signal;
                    ``(C) be resilient and extremely difficult to
                disrupt or degrade;
                    ``(D) be able to penetrate underground and inside
                buildings;
                    ``(E) take full advantage of existing, unused
                government long-range navigation system (commonly known
                as `LORAN') infrastructure;
                    ``(F) incorporate the expertise and contributions
                of the private sector to quickly establish a system
                architecture, build, and operate a land-based GPS back-
                up system; and
                    ``(G) work in concert with and complement any other
                similar positioning, navigation, and timing systems,
                including enhanced long-range navigation systems
                (commonly known as `eLORAN').''.
    (b) Implementation Date.--The Secretary of Defense, in consultation
with the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Secretary of
Transportation, shall ensure that the system required under subsection
(d) of section 2281 of title 10, United States Code, as inserted by
subsection (a) of this section, is fully operational not later than
three years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

4035

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio ? 6925 USB 2352 UTC 8/15/16

« on: August 16, 2016, 0000 UTC »

2358Z Nothing here at all.




_{Yaesu FT-847 with Bonito Mini-Whip and Wellbrook ALA100LN loop}