User:1sfoerster/enes100/fall2013/p1SDR

Problem Statement (Finish description)

 * locate, install and exercise SDR software to find and listen to a radio conversation
 * get pair of radio's working, figure out frequency transmitting on
 * connect to a wide frequency range antenna
 * develop tutorial introducing the software
 * figure out next steps

Summary of Work
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Conceive
Market/Customer Needs The engineering program would like to invest more funds into developing software defined radio projects. Moving projects forward will enable future projects.

Initial target goals Get RTL-SDR dongle radio receivers up and working with open source software and the wide range antenna. Begin exploring what might be done with them.

Project cost and schedule Initial work on SDR involves a $20 rtl-sdr dongle operating on open source software with a $50 discone antenna.

Design

 * Reverse Engineering:
 * Researched some basics on SDR - wiki summary here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio
 * Previous SDR project reviewed - https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/SDR
 * Some info about the rtl-sdr dongle we are using (R820T NooElec RTL-SDR) noting the range (24-1766 MHz) and the mcx, or micro coax, antenna plug http://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/nooelec/
 * Learned about radio use in general, and amateur radio in particular, mostly from connecting with folks at the local ham radio clubs.
 * The Laurel Amateur Radio Club http://www.larcmd.org/
 * The Columbia Amatuer Radio Association  http://www.columbiaara.org/


 * The Design Process
 * We considered using GNU radio programmed in python for the software running our dongles, found here - http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki -  This proved difficult for some members to install on their computers and use effectively. Ubuntu on a mac laptop was not running properly.
 * SDR-sharp, programmed in C+ was installed successfully and seemed to run the dongle fine. Some minor signals could be picked up with just the existing antenna in the regular FM broadcast bands, such as 99.1 News Radio. We decided to move forward using this software, and explore what might be done with it. A tutorial for installing the software we used is here - https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Klosito/ENES-100/SDR_Software_Installation_Tutorial
 * We tested the software using the handheld radios of the ham radio hobbyists at 147.54 MHz with video of the test here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buCzR5glg1I
 * Having the software installed and the radios receiving, we moved to explore what sorts of things we could receive. We had a pair of inoperable handheld walkie talkie type radios that we wanted to see if we could pick up. Those were gotten up and running, and we successfully received their signals set at channel 1 at 462 MHz with video of that test here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2JCHKLUZts&feature=youtu.be
 * The battery compartments of these showed signs of corrosion which needed cleaned up and care should be taken not to store them with their batteries in the future.
 * The antenna that came with the dongle is very small and not able to pick up much. It's size might make it best suited for the 900 MHz range. To pick up anything with it, the group had to take it outdoors.
 * A large discone antenna was available to assemble. This was assembled over at the radio club building. Connecting it to the dongle required going from the dongle's MCX connector to a UHF connector. We carefully soldered the connector from the original dongle antenna to a cable ending in the UHF connector, and this successfully connected us to the discone antenna.Finished wire.JPGDiscone.JPG
 * This involved cutting the base of the small antenna with a dremel tool using a cutting disk.
 * The exposed wire which was soldered to a small metal rod, was connected to a cut coaxial cable using a 10-20 butt splive.
 * This was wrapped in a sleeve that was shrunk around it, and then the braids were joined together over the sleeve with a short length of copper wire soldered to each.
 * A second sleeve was shrunk around the whole connection, creating our new wire with the desire MCX and UHF connectors.
 * Many more radio frequencies were tuned in. The local ham radio frequencies, music stations, NPR. We tried tuning a band used by BWI intermittently, but heard nothing while listening.
 * We believe we saw blips on the AIS broadcasting channel 162.25 that looked like actual AIS signals, so we proceeded with installing AIS, or ship tracking software. There was an open source version available and a free trial of a paid version. For our initial test, we set up the free trial of the paid version, ShipPlotter (http://www.coaa.co.uk/shipplotter.htm)
 * A tutorial we followed for this installation can be found here - http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-cheap-ais-ship-tracking/
 * We did not get a chance to test this with the wide range antenna. The general signals received in ShipPlotter,absent the large antenna anyway, looked weak. We were using stereo mix as our virtual audio piping method, and it was not a clear selection in the audio section of SDR#. We might, in the future, try downloading and installing VB-cable as our audio piping method.
 * We looked for the signals of some household radio signals, with the idea that future projects might involve hacking some of these.
 * We looked for the signal from a wireless door alarm as well as a 900 MHz cordless phone. Neither signal could be tracked down successfully. We did this by just scrolling through the range we expected their signals to be in. It was slow and inefficient. Research did not yield a precise frequency, or at least a more narrow range - that these devices might be working on. It was not clear we'd have seen the signals even if we got close to them.
 * Since that effort, we've become better at tuning in sdr sharp in order to find signals, and have put together the more powerful discone antenna that is capable of receiving much more than the small original antenna. Employing a scanner plugin for sdr# might make this successful in the future.
 * Under the "configure" button in the upper left of sdr#, rf gain can be adjusted which is valuable for finding signals.
 * We found it additionally helpful to adjust the contrast of the waterfall with the controls on the right hand side down to the bottom - or a blue waterfall with orange signal colors.
 * We learned the step size found under the radio box on the left controls how big a leap the tuner makes when you scroll it left of right and can be adjusted up or down.
 * Time spent using the radio with the wide range antenna picking up actual signals made our ability to tune in signals better through experience.

Operation
An RTL-SDR dongle, operated with SDR# on a laptop with a Windows operating system, and a wide range discone antenna is sufficient for basic operation.

Next Steps

 * We haven't had the opportunity to test our ShipPlotter software with a good placement of the discone antenna, which could be experimented with.
 * In the same way that ship tracking can be done with the rtl-sdr, planes might also be tracked. This might be easier given the closer proximity of planes, and could be explored.
 * After having a better antenna and becoming more experienced with tuning the dongle in SDR#, we haven't tried locating household RF signals again, and this might be more successful now.
 * Scanner plug ins can be used with SDR sharp in order to locate signals. This may assist in finding household RF signals for potential spoofing efforts. We would experiment with this next.
 * A programmable transmitter would be necessary once signals are located and recorded in order to reproduce them. We need one.