SDR Radio

[Scott]

I don't know how many out there have been paying attention to the software defined radio information showing up in Hackaday and on other sites. There is a cheap tv-tuner dongle at deal extreme that is compatible with GnuRadio. Only $20 and you are up and running with your very own SDR receiver. There is also a nice tutorial out there to get you started. This is a considerable cheaper cost of entry than the funcube dongle and certainly the USRP.

[Ryan]

I purchased one of these recently via an ebay seller that reddit reccomended. Zach managed to get it working in GNU radio but i never figured it out. The tutorials featured on hackaday were posted after i gave up, so i may try again soon. I could use some help understanding the GNU radio side of things. 

[Scott Kovaleski]

I started feeling more comfortable with gnuradio-companion (and gnuradio in general) after working through the examples on this page.

There are at least two sets of video tutorials (i haven't worked through them yet). This one is the first I subscribed to. This one targets the cheap receivers.

It might be fun to sort of focus on this stuff at a future hack night, or a dedicated night. I would not say I am an expert by any means, but sometimes it is easier to fumble through stuff in a group rather than alone. Looks like the next hack night I will be at will be in August (unless I can sneak out for a little while on Thu, but we are packing for another overseas trip the following day to Edinburgh and London). But maybe the next time I am around we can assess if there is interest beyond Ryan, Scott and Zach for a more dedicated hack night.

[Ryan]

Found a program called SDR# (sdr sharp, its the only way to google it) that runs in windows. It now supports the RTLSDR thing that i got online if you use the daily builds of it. Anyone interested is welcome to play around with it at the next hack night at our place.