A friend of mine @Dansgeary is new to mastodon. He is An old school CB radio and HAM guy who used to talk to Australia when the sunspots hit right. Anyway, hes not a giant tech nerd like me but I told him about software defined radio and now I'm gonna set up an older laptop and get him on SDR for thanksgiving... Anyone got suggestions for interesting things to do with an SDR for someone new to that? @ai6yr maybe?
@dlakelan @Dansgeary @ai6yr I hear ft8 is fun?
I mean, it's RF black magic getting a low power signal out from under the noise floor. Its gotta impress even the oldest of Heathkit era hams.
@kajer @dlakelan @Dansgeary LOL, it's a point of debate, but I think of FT8 as the equivalent of a slot machine... pull the handle, hope you get a jackpot. Pull the handle. hope you get a jackpot. Pull the handle, hope you get a jackpot. Take a puff of your cigarette. Pull the handle, hope you get a jackpot (repeat all day).
I once setup a OCF inverted v dipole on top of a friends barn, and got Australia from Fresno, CA. It's really a crap shoot.
Ah, quite regular to get to Australia for me! Gets in quite well depending on time of year, band, etc.
@Dansgeary@mastodon.social @kajer@infosec.exchange @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @dlakelan@mastodon.sdf.org
i've read about tcpip over shortwave, but never invested in equipment. thinking about again as a way to escape the billionaire zoo. baud rate? depends on equipment no doubt.
@m3t00 @Dansgeary @ai6yr @dlakelan
Holy shit
I have done ax25 on 9600 and 1200 baud vhf packet modems... But SW?!?!
I think my airgap transmitter has more throughput than any common digital mode
@dlakelan @Dansgeary Oooh, so many cool things to do! The top of my list:
1. Use the SDR to receive aircraft locations using ADS-B
2. Use the SDR to receive any ham radio signal (HF, VHF, UHF)
3. Use the SDR to receive satellite signals (from space!)
4. Use the SDR to figure out all of the gadgets and devices in your neighborhood... receive weather stations. See the TPMS/air pressure in your neighbor's tires. Monitor when they are opening and closing their garage door, lol.
5. ACARS receiver for aviation
6. If near an ocean, monitor AIS ship positions.
@ai6yr
Hes in the bay area so the AIS for the SF Bay should be fun.
I like checking the tire pressure for the neighborhood. thats hilarious.
@Dansgeary
I noticed a pulsed signal that happened near 154 mhz. Looked at the frequencies used by the county and found that was used by public works A bit later and I had it decoded. it gives a number that I assume is the location then another number . So I get numbers like 0101 00.50 2 minutes later another like 0102 00.51 and so on.
Totally useless to me but was fun finding out the county gets constant water level readings once per hour by bridges and I was able to read them. I can see the second number rising with the tides. Now have the program I wrote looking for woodpeckers and other potential signals I can try to figure out.
Ignoring all the Tire pressures.
If yours goes below 100 khz there are lots of interesting signals to try to decode. Most seem to be encrypted so beyond my abilities.
@nerb @dlakelan @Dansgeary Ha! That's really cool about your bridges!
@ai6yr
Oh these all sound like so much fun!! Wish I could join in… but think I’m on wrong side of the world in Australia…
Still I’d enjoy hearing how they go. 🤗
ACARS is always fun.
@dlakelan @Dansgeary @ai6yr that's wonderful. One of my Labor comrades here in Oz is keen on radio. Helped support independence fighters in East Timor back in the day, very cool dude. I'm currently accessing a webpage that someone is providing that maybe uses SDR (Idk anything about radio) that puts local emergency services scanners online. ScannerRadio doesn't pick up our local new frequency, but this random website does. Useful for keeping an ear on local bushfire activity.
@dlakelan @Dansgeary @ai6yr Depends on the SDR. Some don't tune below 30mhz.
But, that means he could listen to police or air, or anything a scanner might hear. If he can hear below 30 hooboy - swling, amateur radio, blah blah blah - even CB.
@AG7GM
0.1MHz to 1.5GHz for the nooelec device I'm looking at. so yeah he should be able to hear all the HF stuff he could want.
@AG7GM @dlakelan @Dansgeary @ai6yr Tuning below 30 milli hour impedance would indeed be awesome.
@dlakelan @Dansgeary @ai6yr hello!