SDR: What are the basics?

Good morning.

I've probably purchased my last scanner until someone (Uniden? Whistler?) develops a radio that can handle Linear Simulcast Modulation (LSM).

I've heard that SDR is probably the best way to proceed for LSM and other digital systems such as Mototrbo, but I know absolutely nothing about where and how to begin. Would someone on this forum please kindly point me toward a "SDR for Dummies" type of resource? Essentially all the research I've done so far seems to assume that the reader knows a lot more than I do about SDR technology.

My primary computer is a Toshiba laptop with Windows 7.

Thanks in advance!

-Johnnie (KC5IGH)

kc5igh said:

Would someone on this forum please kindly point me toward a "SDR for Dummies" type of resource? Essentially all the research I've done so far seems to assume that the reader knows a lot more than I do about SDR technology.

Click to expand...

take a look here:
rtl-sdr.com

While this isn't really intended to be a beginner's guide, our SDR wiki is nonetheless a good place to start to get an idea of many of the SDRs out there - their cost and most importantly, where we know of them, reviews, mailing lists and lots more

Is it complete? Heck no - it's a field that's constantly growing - but it's a good place to start...

Software Defined Radios - The RadioReference Wiki

Mike

Thanks, ka3JJz!

I'll check it out.

-Johnnie

Thanks, mikepdx!

I'll check it out.

-Johnnie

If you want to monitor an LSM system, using OP25 (it's Linux-based, for the record) can allow you to do that very thing and do it quite well actually. There's a thread with more info here with a ton of info, steps, tips, etc:

http://forums.radioreference.com/so...-virtualbox-project-run-op25-windows-7-a.html

It's not as complicated as it seems but if you're not a fairly or even modestly computer literate person you'd probably be able to get it up and running in a short period of time. Best part is the requirements: a PC running a distribution of Linux (preferably a newer distro like Linux Mint, etc), an SDR device which would include the "cheap USB TV tuners" you can find for $10-20 these days or even less, an antenna to pull in the signals (as the included antenna for most SDR devices like RTL sticks tends to be pretty lame), and the time and patience to install everything required, compile it, and then create some config files for the system(s) you want to create (text files, easy to make and edit).

If you're serious about monitoring an LSM system or systems, OP25 offers an alternative that even the best scanners with P25 Phase II support can't really match (personal opinion there but I don't think I'm alone in it).

Of course this would be considered pretty advanced if you're just now stepping into the SDR pool, so to speak, but it's something to consider for LSM monitoring and realistically the only alternative that matters.

"Welcome to the party, pal..."

As an additional tip, I highly recommend this book (can be purchased in eBook form as well) because it covers a lot of ground - it's basically a compilation of the RTL-SDR website articles but even so, having it all in one place is pretty useful:

The Hobbyist's Guide to the RTL-SDR

(Disclaimier:that is not an affiliate link, I have no connection to the author or Amazon)

Thanks, brOadband!

If you use linux and are interested in decoding for instance POCSAG pager messages multimon-ng is an excellent tool
https://github.com/EliasOenal/multimon-ng

But sdrsharp will also do that job if you prefer windows.

As previously mentioned rtlsdr.com is also good place to find info.