OsmoSDR - turn a USB TV tuner into an SDR

[k8mcn]

for me, Hong Kong air mail... which, surprisingly, is faster than some US mail

[joetnymedic]

Ordered mine on the 10th and still waiting asked for a tracking number but nothing. ordered it from a site requested from someone here. I was told could be 15-20 days so guess I'll have to wait. feel like a kid waiting for his xmas toys-lol

[bezking]

They are shipped China Post or Hong Kong post so I wouldn't hold your breath

I am thinking about ordering another one and writing some kind of interface to use two of these with Unitrunker, etc - one for monitoring the CC and the other for tuning voice comms.

[jaded]

While you're waiting, build yourself a new antenna. Though I use an off-the-shelf discone I had lying around (i.e. not the one I linked to), I barely received anything without it. If you DIY-it, the materials you need are probably under $15.

[Forts]

I ordered 2 about 2 weeks ago... One from Hong Kong and one from Michigan. The MI one showed as shipped within 12 hours of me paying for it, but nothing has arrived yet (and I'm about an hour from MI in Ontario). Must be sitting in customs somewhere.....

[joetnymedic]

i was going to try a telescopic first and then buy at least a radio shack discone at minimal. I hate most stock antennas on any radio. my opinion is the stocks are set to recieve the bare minimal. but like i said thats just my opinion

[joetnymedic]

got the dongle today now trying to figure out the software. have a decent antenna hooked right up to it also. best software to run? easiest? I have several busy freqs in my area plus for testing purposes I'm sure I can pop in a wx freq

[n9mxq]

Use SDR# (SDR Sharp) find the download link in the thread.. You'll like it much better than The other software listed here..

Read through the thread, all the needed info is here.. And enjoy...

On a completely different note, I did a little experiment.. with an old CB handheld near the receiver I WAS able to pick up the signal.. Even though the posted freq limits stated nothing below 64MHz.. Now, when my HF rig comes back from the shop, I may just try something a bit lower..

[michaeldim]

Originally Posted by n9mxq

Use SDR# (SDR Sharp) find the download link in the thread.. You'll like it much better than The other software listed here..

Read through the thread, all the needed info is here.. And enjoy...

On a completely different note, I did a little experiment.. with an old CB handheld near the receiver I WAS able to pick up the signal.. Even though the posted freq limits stated nothing below 64MHz.. Now, when my HF rig comes back from the shop, I may just try something a bit lower..

How did you even get it to tune that low in the first place? Mine refuses a center frequency lower than ~50 or so.

[BlueLightRhyno]

Interesting thread.... reading/ following along.....

Maybe the Mods will let this one pass through.....

[n9mxq]

Originally Posted by michaeldim

How did you even get it to tune that low in the first place? Mine refuses a center frequency lower than ~50 or so.

Just entered the frequency in the center freq line of SDR#. I can punch in freqs from as low as the AM broadcast band up.. Don't see much, but I can enter the freqs in SDR# and HDSDR.

[DaveNF2G]

The receiver that I have is spec'd from 60 MHz up. It is also prone to image reception. If you keyed up a transmitter near the receiver, then you probably picked up an image.

[n9mxq]

An image directly on frequency...Hmmm what are the chances?

[k8mcn]

Originally Posted by n9mxq

An image directly on frequency...Hmmm what are the chances?

i would think slim......just sent several dits at low power (5Watts) on 20 meters and it did pick them up---but my guess is its over whelming the front en????any input from you guys??? I moved the dongle up to 6meters and sent the dits on 20 again and they weren't there------upped the power to 50 watts and stillnot there......BUT i CANT seem to pick up any thing on 20 from any other station, BUT i just have it hooked up to a scantenna too...............

[n9mxq]

Might be front end overload. Probably is. I've not picked any distant signals up with mine either, but I've no outdoor antenna to connect to, yet..

[TassieJay]

My E4000 USB receiver has weak but regular 'birdies' in the waterfall display. I used these as an indication as to when the receiver seems to be working or not. Birdies visible & move appropriately when I scroll the spectrum up or down = pretty good indication the receiver is at least trying to do something. No birdies or apparent birdies that don't move when I scroll up or down in freq says to me the receiver has stopped working at that freq. Its not 100% definitive or accurate I know, but its a rough indication none the less.
Based on that, mine begins to receive around 13 MHz, and stops for a break at about 34 MHz, then kicks back into action at 56 MHz, and doesn't quit until beyond 2150 MHz. Would love to definitively test with the sig-gen but don't have the time to do that at the moment. But 13 - 2100 MHz with a little gap around 40 MHz... pretty good for <$30!

[DaveNF2G]

Just because the software displays a frequency it does not mean that the receiver is actually tuned there.

[Forts]

Finally got my dongle today. First thing I did was a quick little bit of surgery to remove the existing antenna connector and replace it with a BNC. I installed it on my netbook, fired up SDR# and away it went... well, for the most part. It would run but the audio would stutter somewhat. Even though my CPU load was only showing about 50% I suspected it likely wasn't up to the task so I took it over to one of my desktops (an older Intel dual core) and installed everything there. Works like a charm! I find the displayed frequency is off by a bit (usually around 20-30khz) and there are some images and birdies.. but other than that it's really cool. At first I really didn't understand the whole waterfall thing, but after playing a little bit I can see it's a very valuable tool. I left it parked around the 422mhz area and after a while I started seeing little 'blips' on the waterfall. Searching that range with my Pro-106 yielded nothing so I parked the dongle on it... sure enough, a very faint MotoTRBO Capacity Plus rest channel beacon. Re-searching that same frequency range with my scanner (squelch wide open) also found the same signal. I can see this being a lot of fun on the nights the band is open and there are signals popping up all over. Being able to watch 2mhz at a time is really handy. Next step will be to pipe the audio from SDR# into either DMRDecode or Win32DSD via Virtual Audio Cable. Anyone that is wondering whether or not they should drop $20 to give this a try, go for it. Hooked up to an outdoor antenna it's lots of fun!

[N1KK]

Hello,

I have been playing a bit with DSD for APCO. but never heard
of DMRDecode. Will this work on Windows and if so how do you run it.
I downloaded it and from what I can see all the files have java extensions.

Could you please pass along its use and how to use it under Windows.

thanks
Ken
N1KK

[Unitrunker]

Download the JAR file. Double click to run and read this ...

Java program to decode DMR