RevRadio

Project RevRadio
Status	In progress
Contact	User:Bertrik_Sikken
Last Update	2013-10-19

Introduction

Roof is looking much better now

This project consists of several small sub-projects related to radio reception at RevSpace. Reception is based (so far) on DVB-T dongles using an RTL2832 chip to do SDR (software-defined-radio).

Hardware

HF (0 - 30 MHz)

To receive signals from the relatively low frequency "HF" band, we have a ham-it-up board. The ham-it-up converts signals from 0-30 MHz up to 125-155 MHz, this makes is possible to use an RTL2832-based dongle to receive them.

Things that can be received with this setup:

• morse and rtty beacons;
• amateur radio voice;
• amateur radio SSTV (slow-scan TV);
• number stations such as the buzzer;
• commercial AM broadcasts
• etc.

Stuff we should can implement

• Put it in a box!
• Experiment with different (home made) antennas such as the mini whip
• Hooking it up to our main SDR computer. Requires antenna on the roof

Generic VHF/UHF (24 - 1700 MHz)

Still installing

For generic radio reception in the VHF/UHF bands, we have a setup consisting of a discone antenna (ICOM AH-7000) on the roof of RevSpace and an RTL2832 dongle (R820T tuner). A simple filter (1/4 wave open stub) has been built to suppress very strong pager signals.

Things that can be received with this setup:

• Citizens Band radio, 27 MHz
• 10 meter amateur band, 28-29.7 MHz
• 4 meter amateur band, 70-70.5 MHz
• broadcast FM stereo, 88-108 MHz;
• air traffic (voice);
• P2000 paging traffic at 169.650 MHz;
• weather images from the NOAA-15/18/19 weather satellites, at around 137 MHz;
• APRS traffic;
• weather info from weather balloons, at 400-410 MHz;
• ads-b/mode-s airplane transponders, at 1090 MHz
• etc.

Todo:

• Get rid of the massive broadcast FM band, it's worth the trade between doing FM DX and broadcast FM noise.

HAB tracker (434-435 MHz)

The colinear

For tracking high-altitude balloons, we have a setup consisting of a collinear antenna for 70cm on the roof of RevSpace, a so-called hab-amp (bandpass filter for 430-440 MHz and low noise amplifier) and an RTL2832 dongle (FC0013 tuner). For more information, see the dedicated page at HAB_Tracker_Station

Things that can be received with this setup:

• The complete 70 cm amateur band, 430-440 MHz
  • 70 cm ISM band, ~434 Mhz
  • high-altitude balloons, see spacenear tracker

Software

Currently one PC is dedicated to radio reception, called "habtracker". To start the PC:

• Windows XP, hostname "habtracker", IP 10.42.44.94 (MAC 00:21:70:02:62:0f)
• Start the machine with a magic WoL packet: 'wakeonlan -i 10.42.255.255 00:21:70:02:62:0f; ping habtracker'

Remote control

The PC can be remotely controlled as follows:

• Teamviewer, ID: 675540724
• VNC: geheim ;-)

Running projects

AIS decoding

• COAA's shipplotter to APRS.fi
• Our APRS.fi page
• Heatmap of received ships

Amateur satellite reception

In this upcoming project, we try to receive amateur satellites and process data like telemetry. There are several amateur satellites in orbit right now, some of which transmit in frequency range of our HAB setup.

We have already managed to receive (but not decode yet) signals from the STRaND-1 and HOPE-1 (HO-68) satellites.

In the future, we plan to receive and decode telemetry from the existing Delfi-C3 and its upcoming successor Delfi-n3xt (to be launched in November 2013).

Longer term plans

Stuff we are still planning to do:

• wait for proper cables for the ham-it-up
• think about an antenna for HF: random piece of wire would be a nice starter
  • setup ham-it-up for 24/7 listening