I remember reading about it here, got a R820T, couldn't figure it out , stashed it away, and recently found it again.  

I tried following a Hack5 tutorial and ADSB but the links were dead.  Seems like every tutorial I find uses a different set of software and they all have at least one that is no longer supported.

So is anyone still messing around with these, or are they pretty much forgotten?

Sure, they work fine, I use one somewhat frequently.

The setup on windows was kind of a pain but worked fine once done. Linux is easy as can be.

Yup still a thing, very much a thing.

Not only a thing but getting bigger and better all the time. Non-SDR projects are endangered.

Damn right it's still a thing  

damn, that setup though.




when will it be my turn, brahs?  that is one sweet station.  

The SDR stuff is changing and evolving at a rapid pace instructions that were written a few months ago are outdated.

That's the problem I'm running onto.  Just getting my feet wet is an exercise in futility. Trying to do something "simple" like track aircraft with the ADSB tutorials from a year ago already leads down all sorts of dead ends with obsolete software that has been abandoned.  Not being in the know, it seems like everything I try to do requires some other piece of software that has been superseded by something else.

So is there anything simple I can do with this that a total noob can understand?

What OS are you using?

Are you mainly looking to do Adsb?

Are you interested in learning Linux/ raspberry pi?

Look at SDR# and the new rtl-sdr. Sdr# has an adsb program and sdr# will get your feet wet in SDR.

There are some linux distros that are pre-built with SDR apps installed.

I haven't used it, but Skywave Linux is one of the newer ones. There's a version
of Pentoo Linux that supports the hackrf that I use pretty extensively, and I think Kali has integrated it.

There is also a Live DVD for GNU Radio, which would be
pretty plug and play.

If you go with the pre-built stuff, the hassle is pretty low.

gnu radio is in the repos now, so any debian based distro (mint, Ubuntu, etc) can have all the main programs installed via the package manager (app store) so I don't see a reason to go with a pre made distro

This is the one to start with. They are accurate and don't drift. You can find cheaper ones but they wont perform as good.

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/

You can build one of the Softrock kits or put a WTB for one up on QRZ. If you get the RXTX kit you can use WSPR with it. Depending on what brand and model radio you have, there are SDR modules that go in where the filters normally go. The module brings the I/Q out to your sound card/mic input on the computer. This gives you a sort of hybrid setup and gives you the key receive advantages of SDR. Less than $100 out of pocket for any of those suggestions.

It seems like SDR is more for the folks that like to tinker with software than the guy who likes to actually use a comm system.

Not a darn thing wrong with that, but it makes it tough, if not impossible, to get any kind of smoothly functioning, much less full featured, software up and running without endless futzing.  (At least, that was the case a few years ago...)

Even worse than the constantly changing, fix one bug, introduce 2 more, game is Windows itself.  A few years ago when I was trying to get a full featured system going, the clunky-ness of Windows itself and it's constantly shifting USB infrastructure was just a giant drag.  It was impossible to keep all of the SDR goodies (sound cards, USB to serial or parallel ports, PowerMate Controls, etc...) talking to their appropriate apps.  Windows kept moving around the assignments, especially after a restart.  It took constant dorking around with the Windows and the App control panels to keep everything routed properly.  

Perhaps Linux solves that issue, but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes with it's own set of compatibility and update issues.


About the only thing I occasionally use SDR for is a simple dongle based panadapter for the IC706 IF's.

Anyway, as you can see, I'm pretty negative on the state of SDR software (the hardware is pretty easy).  But my experience is 3 or 4 years out of date, and perhaps things have gotten better.  I really hope so, because the operating paradigm (point and click frequency setting, visual spectrum and signals, etc...) is extremely cool.

I don't agree with that at all. I use my radio more than ever and for more things now that I have a high performance SDR. DX, ESSB rag chew, regular rag chew, digital, digital voice, etc.. Just like with any knobified radio I am constantly looking to get peak performance out of it.

As for getting things smooth and stable it certainly does take a different skill set. I often joke to people on the air that us serious SDR guys spend all our time "soldering together our software". If you don't enjoy systems administration then you will definitely not enjoy the bleeding edge of SDR for ham radio.

However you don't need to run near the bleeding edge. The Flex radio demographic is primarily guys who want the performance of a high end SDR without a lot of systems administration. They tend to plug their mic and speaker right into the radio and don't use a lot of ancillary software with the main radio software. And what is bleeding edge, anyway? Sure my amp, logger and digi mode software are all fully integrated with the SDR. But that is not that special, lots of knobified radio guys have all that setup through DX Labs or HRD. If you can keep DX Labs or HRD running that's 90% of the battle. Running the Flex or ANAN software is only 10% of the battle. So merely having an SDR is not that big of a deal from getting it all to run.

Nevertheless I and others do tend towards the bleeding edge. The Apache Labs ANAN series radios have no less than 39 setup screens and, while I don't have to, I mess with a lot of them because that's something I'm interested in. And where I really get on the bleeding edge is using adaptive predistortion linearization software with the amp, and by fully virtualizing all of my audio processing in digital audio workstation software. So I'll throw myself under that bus, but you can run an SDR transceiver and not get anywhere near that level of complexity.

Beware: once you go SDR, and I mean "real" SDR, i.e. a transceiver with a PC-based GUI, assuming your first experience isn't a total train wreck (don't try this on anything less than an i5 machine) you'll never go back. You might go out and buy a USB or MIDI spinny knob thing to have something to spin, but you won't go back!

"SDR" is a technology.

If you're talking about $10 SDR receivers, that's something specific. Yes using the $10 receivers as general purpose radio receivers is a little bit esoteric and probably not the highest reliability communications system. But it's a whole lot of fun, lots of capability, and it's ten bucks and some free software, seriously.

When I was younger I dreamed of things like the Icom R7000 and later, R8500 receivers for the ability to explore strange corners of the radio spectrum. The many thousands of dollars cost of such receivers made that impractical for all but the most serious hobbyists. Now for ten bucks I can get that, and more with spectrum scope/waterfall, infinitely variable bandwidth, and other cool features.

Details?  SDR?  Software?  Speakers?  



 

If tinkering isn't your thing, spend the extra bucks and get a FunCube Dongle. It shows up as a windows sound device when you plug it in, automatically. Then start your software and go, no tinkering required.

If you need links or URLs let me know.

Software

On the center screen is openHPSDR. On the right screen, clockwise from the top left: Elecraft KPA500 amplifier remote control, Pro Tools digital audio workstation, u-center GPS monitor (monitors GPSDO unit), DX Labs DXKeeper logger, Notepad (I use it as a scratch pad--no paper at my station!), PureSignal control panel (part of openHPSDR). Overlaid on the PureSignal control panel is the DDUtil control panel (a "helper" program for openHPSDR that provide macro buttons). On the left screen: most anything; I use this screen for web browsing, digital mode software, DX Labs Spotcollector, etc. Not shown (running in the background) is Voicemeeter Banana audio routing software and DX Labs Commander (part of the DX Labs software suite).

Hardware

Frequency reference: BG7TBL GPSDO. Radio: Apache Labs ANAN-100D. Amp: Elecraft KPA-500. Tuner: MFJ-998RT. PTT: random surplus footswitch. Microphone: Behringer B1. Digital audio interface: Behringer UMC202. Speakers: JBL LSR-305's. Computer: Dell Precision T5500 with dual Xeon W5590 CPUs and XFX R7-260X video card. Monitors: triple Dell P2210's. Keyboard: Corsair K70. Networking: Moxa NPORT 5450 device server and Cisco SG200-08 managed Gigabit switch. Power supply: Powerwerx SPS-30DM, APC BackUPS XS1000.

There only can be one SDR and its a Flex.

I'm getting that impression.  I bought the dongle because the SDR ADSB set up seemed pretty straightforward and interesting.  Now, it seems like every tutorial I follow has dead links, or features software that I can't find. It is definitely not very beginner friendly.  Hell, I don't even know what the hell you can do with it beyond make yellow waterfalls and wavy lines on the screen.

If you want to listen to P25, DStar, SDR or NXDN without paying for a scanner or mobile capable of monitoring that...two RTL dongles and a computer isn't a bad option.

OK, got the ADSB tracking working (poorly) and SDR# is working. I get red and yellow waterfalls, but no clue of what else to do with this. The stock antenna is obviously a huge limitation. I'll make one for the ADSB once I get a connector.

What else can I do with this device as it stands? What should I do about an antenna? What type of connector would be a good choice if I do make an antenna for the ADSB? I figured that it would probably be best to get one adapter then use standardized connectors for the antennas as much as possible.

As posted in my other thread, I'm in Oakland County, MI. Any way to use this as a scanner and pick up police/Fire/etc out here?

Well, hope I wasn't tooooo negative!

Look at aa's and K9's setups.  I had my setup to where it would run for a day or 2 before Windows broke, and it really was the coolest of all possible ways to operate a transceiver, as you can get an inkling of from the pix above.

I was scanning short wave stations around 11MHz, and saw a strong signal pop up on the spectrum at 11.6xx MHz.  I could tell from the spectrum (a strong carrier and 2 weaker sidebands) that it was an AM signal.  I just clicked on the signal in the waterfall and boom, out of the speaker comes a cool, probably Cuban, Numbers Station.

So it really is the ultimate in band awareness and frequency agility.

Anyway, it won't be my cup of tea until I can get good software for cheap hardware that doesn't need much futzing (like Flex / PowerSDR that I had forgotten about, but is mentioned above).  So please don't my negativity keep you from at least giving it a fair shake, and getting advice from those who dig it!

I have played with RTL-SDR dongles and had a lot of fun, but I finally broke down and bought a FunCube dongle. It is really nice.
It does HF as well as VHF/UHF with no external equipment. Just plug it into a USB socket and hook an antenna up and you are good to go.

It works instantly with no tinkering. I have been playing around with using it to listen to MotoTRBO. Although once I got it working, I immediately lost interest due to the content I was listening to. The only thing on MotoTRBO around here that I know of is an agency that I work for and I listen to that enough when I am at work.

My buddies think it is insane that I play with the FunCube as much, if not more than I do my Flex 6700.

I have a $20 rtl dongle that I've used to listen to the local police, watch satellites fly over, with a program called Adsb scope watched planes fly overhead, listened to the acars transmissions (haven't tried decoding those yet) listened to ATC, and just this past weekend strung up a wire and picked up a ham from across the country on 10m ssb.  You can also do novelty stuff like see the signal from your car key fob when you unlock the doors.