RTL-SDR Assistance request

[freema22]

Hi team,
Several months ago, I attempted to use an SDR for my feed, with poor results. I gave up and went back to feeding via Baofeng radio connected to a USB soundcard. I was able to broadcast, but there was an annoying POP every time the squelch opened. So I decided to do a clean install and give the SDR another shot. I followed the instructions to a "T" from the RR Wiki page here: Raspberry Pi RTL-SDR Broadcastify - The RadioReference Wiki . It shows that I am online, but no sound is being transmitted. When I run the RTL_TEST -p I get the following message:

Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
usb_claim_interface error -6
Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.

I'm really quite the novice when it comes to RPi related stuff. This is a completely clean install with no other devices running on it. Can someone please walk me through how to resolve this?

Thanks for your help.

Mike

 

[HarryWilly]

I think you need to do a kernel blacklist of the driver.

See my post here, scroll towards the bottom to "An Important Step You May Need To Follow"

What happens is depending on what operating system you are running on the Raspberry Pi, if the drivers for the RTL dongles is pre-packaged (as several do) it loads it up, making it unavailable for other software.

 

[freema22]

So here's some weirdness. I tried the above with no success. Then, in this thread ( Linux setup issue - Failed to open rtlsdr device #0 - rtl-sdr.com (rtl-sdr.com) ) I found the suggestion to try a different USB port because RPi's are finnicky. Sure enough, move the dongle to a different USB port, and now it's talking to the RPi.

But, my problems have not been solved. I am still broadcasting anything. I have installed GQRX to look at what is going through the RTL-SDR and there is no data appearing on the waterfall. Even tuning into the local NOAA channel yields no data. Broadcastify shows me online, but nothing is coming from the dongle.

Any idea what's going on?

 

[freema22]

UPDATE: Partial success. In the directions reference above, it says to set the "freq" to 0.1Mhz below the "center freq". When I changed that to the actual frequency I wanted to monitor, the stream started. However, it appears to disconnect and random and won't reconnect without a reboot. Any ideas now?

 

[a417]

what do your logs say?