Android SDR

[krokus]

Has anyone setup an SDR with one of the Android apps? If so, which dongle did you use? Which app? Did you power the dongle from the Android device, a powered USB OTG, or a powered hub? What type of monitoring were you using the setup to accomplish?

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[RaleighGuy]

I'd love to hear these answers too. Just ordered my first Dongle and it'd be great to be able to use an android tablet to decode DMR.

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[satboy8888]

I've been keeping my eye out for a "USB on the go" adapter that will handle power input as well. Preferably not from a shady source so it works and doesn't damage anything.

In terms of apps, I believe I've only really seen analog running apps but I could be wrong too.

 

[moonbounce]

I've been keeping my eye out for a "USB on the go" adapter that will handle power input as well. Preferably not from a shady source so it works and doesn't damage anything.

In terms of apps, I believe I've only really seen analog running apps but I could be wrong too.

I just bought a USB female to female adapter from Canada Computers for $5.99. I will be downloading SDR Touch and plugging in my R820t later and will see if it works out.

I don't think you can do the same thing with DSDplus, but if you could, that would be a PLUS .

 

[ka3jjz]

There was an article on one of the sites about a guy who was using a tablet with a Funcube Dongle...a well structured Google search should turn it up...Mike

 

[wd9ewk]

Has anyone setup an SDR with one of the Android apps? If so, which dongle did you use? Which app? Did you power the dongle from the Android device, a powered USB OTG, or a powered hub? What type of monitoring were you using the setup to accomplish?

I have been using the "RF Analyzer" Android app ($$$ from Google Play store) on my Nexus 5 mobile phone, as well as my Nexus 7 (1st generation) tablet. I don't have the tablet with me to get the exact OS version, but it is 5.1 something. The phone is on 5.1.1 right now. This app works with the HackRF as is, and can also work with the RTL-SDR dongles with the additional RTL2832U driver (free download from Google Play). I used a $3.95 USB OTG cable from Fry's Electronics, not one of the powered OTG cables, and my devices were able to run both RTL-type dongles and the HackRF devices (I have both the commercial HackRF One and the HackRF Blue that was from a crowdfunding campaign at the end of 2014).

I don't do much listening with the Android devices this way. It works, but sometimes the RF Analyzer app needs to be stopped and restarted if I make changes to the mode I'm receiving, for example. I think I remember reading about this on rtl-sdr.com and wanted to try it for myself. I had a credit on my Google Play account, so I didn't have to spend any of my $$$ to get RF Analyzer. I have been doing more with these SDR devices and the cheap Windows tablets than using my Android tablet or mobile phone, since I have access to more software that will run on those Windows tablets.

 

[wd9ewk]

There was an article on one of the sites about a guy who was using a tablet with a Funcube Dongle...

I have been using a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ with Windows tablets as a downlink receiver when working amateur satellites for the last few months. My tablets started out with Windows 8.1, and have since been upgraded to WIndows 10. I currently use an HP Stream 8 tablet (8-inch display, 1 GB RAM, 32 GB internal storage) and a WinBook TW100 (10-inch display, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB internal storage). Although I have SDR# and SDR-Radio installed on these tablets, I prefer HDSDR when working satellites. I wrote an article about what I had been doing with this setup that appeared in recent issues of the AMSAT Journal and the AMSAT-UK OSCAR NEWS publications.

I can write more about what I'm doing with the Windows tablets if there's any interest, but I think I should start a new thread for that. Or find an existing thread where my post would be on-topic.

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

I am aware of only one Android App, SDR Touch. It also requires installation of a driver that only supports some Realtek RTL2832U based dongles.
SDR Touch brings RTL-SDR to Android - rtl-sdr.com

73 Eric

 

[iiCamper]

I have tried a number of sdr software on the android on two different samsung tablets. SdRtouch , RF analyzer, ADSB Receiver , ADS-B on Android , wavesink, they all work but sometimes you need to restart then a couple of times to work properly with the driver that you need to install.


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[krokus]

For those that have used the dongles with Android, what sort(s) of monitoring were you doing? How well did it work?

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[jaspence]

Power with dongle

If I understand my manual correctly, it is the mini USB on the tablet that cannot handle both power and transfer functions at the same time. I have used a powered hub to run my USB keyboard adapter and SDR dongle, but it cannot supply power to the tablet.

 

[Inglewood]

I've used a RTL dongle from eBay and free version of SDR Touch with an OTG on a Nexus 7 tablet and didn't have any power issues. But even the on the quad core N7 the user interface was sloooow. Received OK and kinda groovy.

The big problem with the dongles are the huge frequency errors and even if you cal them they drift like anything with temperature. For a few buck more you can now get dongles that ave a 1ppm or better TCXO in them which goes solves the frequency drift. See:

http://forums.radioreference.com/vo...e/319750-new-dongles-much-better-results.html

 

[dafunk60]

I use the same "RF Analyzer" app with my HackRF on Android as wd9ewk

(see post)

and my experience has been similar. I was happy to cough up $4 as I want to encourage developer support for this niche device. I only really use this setup for an initial exploration of a new environment to determine if deploying a laptop & specialized antenna is worth the effort.