Beginner Looking into SDR setup

[ZiggyHood]

Sorry for the long read, I'm lost.

I am completely new to the scanner world, but am willing to learn whatever I need to be successful with this.

I have at least 2 frequencies I want to broadcast on Broadcastify. I might do more frequencies later, but 2 is enough for now. These frequencies are 154 and 156 (not digital).

So far, my plan is to get a cheap dedicated pc to run this on. I'm trying to find which SDR devices to buy. One thing I'm confused on, is when looking at specs, I see khz and mhz being used instead of frequencies. Is this the same as a frequency? For instance, Google says a RTL-SDR can range from 500 kHz to 1.766 MHz. How do I know which frequencies I'd be able to receive? Would I be able to receive digital frequencies?

A question for those who know about using Broadcastify. How many frequencies can you stream per feed? I've seen it's only 1 frequency per feed, but again, I am confused. I use Scanner Radio app to listen to some local police activity from Broadcastify, and some of the volunteers will list in the information section that there are multiple frequencies being broadcast on the one feed.

 

[dave3825]

Google says a RTL-SDR can range from 500 kHz to 1.766 MHz

Google is correct and you read it wrong. It's not 1.766 MHz, its 1766 MHz, which is 1.76 GHz.

when looking at specs, I see khz and mhz being used instead of frequencies.

The lowest freq the dongle will go is 24.000 MHz and the highest is 1766.000 MHz. Anything over 1000 MHz is called generally called GHz (Gigahertz) so 1766 MHz would be 1.76 GHz. So the freqs of 154 MHz and 156 MHz are in-between 24 MHz and 1766 MHz so that dongle will receive them.

 

[ZiggyHood]

Google is correct and you read it wrong. It's not 1.766 MHz, its 1766 MHz, which is 1.76 GHz.

This is what I was going off of. Not sure why they put a decimal there then.

Anyway, thank you for the clarity on that.

 

[dave3825]

Because A I is not perfect. Both our searches yielded pretty much the same except for the decimal. Many times when you follow an A I link to the source you will see many incorrect statements that were generated from the actual facts or specs.

 

[dkcorlfla]

Sorry for the long read, I'm lost.

I am completely new to the scanner world, but am willing to learn whatever I need to be successful with this.

I have at least 2 frequencies I want to broadcast on Broadcastify. I might do more frequencies later, but 2 is enough for now. These frequencies are 154 and 156 (not digital).

So far, my plan is to get a cheap dedicated pc to run this on. I'm trying to find which SDR devices to buy. One thing I'm confused on, is when looking at specs, I see khz and mhz being used instead of frequencies. Is this the same as a frequency? For instance, Google says a RTL-SDR can range from 500 kHz to 1.766 MHz. How do I know which frequencies I'd be able to receive? Would I be able to receive digital frequencies?

A few notes that might help: all the sdr dongles can receive the VHF frequencies like 154Mhz. One thing to think about is how well the chip set is supported by different computer OS. You might want to run a Raspberry Pi as the low cost computer and the OS used on the Raspberry is Linux. The RTL2832U is fully supported by Linux. All the SDRs can receive digital but it takes a decoder to convert the digital noise to understandable audio. Digital can be can also be encrypted and those signals can not be decoded by anything other then the transceivers that have the special encryption chips in them.

Hope this helps,

 

[ki4hyf]

Digital can be can also be encrypted

True

and those signals can not be decoded by anything other then the transceivers that have the special encryption chips in them.

False

 

[dkcorlfla]

True

False

Care to expand on this? I was trying to keep it simple for the OP and legal. Sure encryption can be hacked but is it legal?

 

[ki4hyf]

I'm not a lawyer, so I can't speak of legalities, but there are at least two different SDR software packages that will decrypt different encryption schemes with a known key. Also, Unication pagers (receive only) will decrypt with known key, as well as some Uniden scanners with special (hacked) firmware.

 

[maus92]

Legal if you are in possession of / using a key with the permission of the system operator. Illegal if you are in possession of / using the key without their permission.

 

[ki4hyf]

Legal if you are in possession of / using a key with the permission of the system operator. Illegal if you are in possession of / using the key without their permission.

Do you have any references to the specific law forbidding possession of encryption keys? I don't think I've heard that claim before. Probably like the Communications Act which forbids the FCC from approving any scanner that can convert digital transmissions to analog voice audio.

 

[maus92]

How did the possession come about? Was it authorized? If not, theft or receiving stolen property if a third party distributes it, and it doesn't need to be intentional. Several federal statues and many states have laws that apply.

 

[dkcorlfla]

How did the possession come about? Was it authorized? If not, theft or receiving stolen property if a third party distributes it, and it doesn't need to be intentional. Several federal statues and many states have laws that apply.

Seem like common sense to me, kinda like the owner of a business gives you the key to the front door vs you found the key someplace.

One this for sure is putting a live feed on the Internet that's suppose to be private and was encrypted would not be a good idea. Not sure the OP had any intention of this but there was mention of broadcastify and digital in the original post.

In fact I do not believe it's good for the scanning hobby to put any feed on the Internet that might have sensitive comms in it. This in in part why many of the digital signals get encryption turned on.