Johntron_
Newbie
I've just started exploring radio, and I'm totally captivated by how it works and what you can do with it. Unfortunately, I'm so new, I don't know if my setup is working well - maybe I'm doing something stupid like using the wrong antenna and don't know it - so I'm asking for some general guidance. If someone can recommend a book / blog, that's great; otherwise, I don't mind digging in and learning on my own - just need some pointers to get me started.
I've just recently purchased some things for this setup:
Since everyone always responds to these kind of questions with "it depends what you're interested in", here are my interests:
Here's some specific questions I have, but if you have something I should know, please share:
Thanks for reading!
I've just recently purchased some things for this setup:
- Downtown Dallas (across from the American Airline center if that means anything to you) - nearby airports are DAL and DFW.
- Bottom floor of a mid-rise apartment complex with other units surrounding me
- Shielded USB 2.0 HS cable with a ton of little RF chokes (the Internet has crazy suggestions)
- SDRPlay RSP2.
- SMA to BNC adapter from SDR to antenna coax.
- A cable from my signal generator with multiple turns around one large choke (BNC connectors - not sure what kind of coax).
- This BNC to PL-259 adapter: http://a.co/eEupFec[url]. [*]This tripod antenna: [url]http://a.co/1LQ0ged.
- Tin foil covering entire SDR and immediate connectors.
- Debian Stretch and Windows 10.
- Tools: rtl-sdr.com v3 dongle, 2 telescoping antennas, 2 wifi antennas, coax adapters + tee, entry-level oscilloscope, signal generator, power supplies, and other basic electronics gear.
Since everyone always responds to these kind of questions with "it depends what you're interested in", here are my interests:
- General exploration of all frequency bands (on a budget obviously).
- Understanding the EM spectrum around me - coming from my computer, my apartment's wiring/lighting/appliances, my neighbors, local stations, air traffic, industrial data links, DX / farther out.
- Reverse engineering / hacking / SIGINT - stuff like what Michael Ossmann does and crazy stories like The Thing.
- Custom software / hardware - protocols, electrical / RF engineering, etc. GNU Radio is really cool - I spent a lot of time getting this working on Debian Stretch (Linux).
Here's some specific questions I have, but if you have something I should know, please share:
- What's possible with my setup? I doubt I'll be able to receive satellite images or transmissions from the other side of the world, but what should I expect to pick up?
- What are some obvious things I should check to ensure my setup is working correctly?
- Are there tests I can perform to measure performance empirically? I can build some basic things like a Wheatstone bridge for measuring antenna SWR with my oscilloscope and signal generator, but I'm hesitant to do any transmissions, since I don't have a radio license or confidence I won't do something illegal/annoying.
- How do I identify and measure interference sources? I feel like RFI from USB and DC power are my biggest problems, but I don't know how to confirm.
- At what point should I stop focusing on reducing interference? e.g. what's inevitable, and what is irrelevant?
- After minimizing interference, are what upgrades would be good value? I don't want to spend $$$ for marginal improvements, and I know my environment will make a lot of things less practical.
- How to get connected - most popular forums like this, news sources, blogs, etc.
- Software suggestions? Cool new things? Something that really caught your interest lately?
Thanks for reading!