[GLLUG] software defined radio in Linux

[Tom Schouten]

This sounded so cool I had to try it too.
I got a rtl2832u with a r820T tuner (24MHz - 1700MHz) for $10 on eBay.

I used GNU Radio's "gnuradio-companion", starting from instructions here:
http://slug.blog.aeminium.org/2012/04/21/rtlsdr/
The order of the 3 packages is not correct. Do them in this order: 
gnuradio, gr-osmosdr, rtl-sdr

You'll need a bunch of dev packages.  This is what I had to install 
extra on my debian system:
sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev  libusb-1.0.0-dev cmake python-cheetah


On 07/22/2012 11:07 PM, Charles Ulrich wrote:
>
> So, software-defined radio (SDR) is basically doing radio signal 
> processing in software rather than in dedicated hardware. (Your car 
> stereo is an example of a dedicated hardware radio.) Consumer-level 
> computers are now fast enough these days that they can do the rather 
> complicated radio signal processing in software and in real time. This 
> beings a host of benefits to the state of the art in radio. (But don't 
> ask me to explain them because I'm not sure I'd be able to make much 
> sense. :)
>
> Unfortunately, SDR transceivers (the stuff between the antenna and 
> computer) have been somewhat expensive because they're pretty 
> specialized and are not exactly mass produced. Last time I went 
> looking, the most popular one was well over $600. However, someone 
> recently discovered that there are some cheap (around $20) USB 
> television receiver dongles which turn out to also be pretty decent, 
> if limited, SDR receivers.
>
> I ordered one of these from Amazon and got around to trying it out 
> over the past few days. It covers most of the VHF and UHF bands. 
> (Though I've heard of people getting wider coverage with homebrew 
> frequency converter thingies.) Using a program called "Gqrx", I've 
> been able to tune into weather radio, FM radio, air traffic control, 
> and police dispatch from the comfort of my desk at home. The downside 
> is that this stuff is so new, you can't just apt-get or yum your way 
> into a working setup yet. Compiling GNU Radio and other dependencies 
> is nontrivial. I didn't follow a howto since my distro is old, but 
> there are some out there.
>
> I'm planning to attend this week's meeting to share what I've managed 
> so far. I'm just dipping my toes in so to speak, so I probably can't 
> answer all questions. Google "RTLSDR" to see what the Internets are 
> saying about all this.
>
> Charles
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