Tag Archives: POCSAG

Hakology Day 11 : Blog Entry

[1712]
Just doing some RL stuff will be on this evening. SD card for RPi3 has arrived and whiteboard pens. Multimon-ng running on linux logging data. 🙂
[/1712]

[1904]
Munching food just about to get down to business.
[/1904]

[1909]
TODO:
-SDR# notes / audio / video
-POCSAG in PDW
-FLEX in multimon-ng
-Test RPi3 (with retropie of course)
-Check corsair ticket.
-VBLOG
-Audio working on RPi3 HDMI
[/1909]

[1920]
Whoot! looks like corsair have updated the ticket. Awaiting RMA confirmation swapping this brown mx for a new spangly red mx keyboard hopefully. That would be most awesome.
[/1920]

[2014]
Distracted by the internet again! … also reluctant to stop logging POCSAG messages … but I need the dongle.
[/2014]

[2102]
Rendering vblog
[/2102]

[2116]
Looking at demodulating FLEX using multimon-ng but IDK if I have the latest version compiled. Time for some updates.
[/2116]

[2124]
RPi3B vs RPiB there is no comparison, first impressions very impressed!
[/2124]

[2148]
RPi3 still updating & uploading vblog.
[/2148]

[2206]

[/2206]

[2224]
Rebuilt and installed latest version of multimon-ng. Now have FLEX messages demodulating whoot!
[/2224]

[2325]
Audio working on RPi3 Whoot!!! 😀
[/2325]

[0034]
Ready to record SDR# tutorial tomorrow.
On mumble with luc, hexon and gir.
Signing off for today, its been fun. 🙂
[/0035]

[0147]
Worth an update thank you gir for offering to send a RPi zero for hakology to have a play with … can’t wait 😀
[/0147]

[0234]
Thanks hexon been after this link for a long time … http://playdosgamesonline.com
Ran by the creator of textfiles.com
[/0234]

Hakology – Introduction to SDR

What is SDR?

S.D.R. stands for Software Defined Radio.

SDR is a combination of hardware and software used to scan/monitor/demodulate/transmit electromagnetic radio signals.

Signals?

Signals can be used to transmit voice or data.
The most common methods of transmission are FM and AM.

FM = Frequency modulation

AM = Amplitude modulation

FM, modulates the frequency of the carrier wave to transmit a signal.
AM, modulates the amplitude of the carrier wave to transmit a signal.

Both can be used to transmit analogue or digital data.

SDR setup?

You will need …
PC / laptop – Laptop preferably for portability, currently running on an i5 2.4ghz 8gb ram pretty smoothly, I did try this on an older atom processor on linux using gqrx but latency was an issue.

SDR dongle  – RTL2832U – If you want to follow along with the next few videos grab an RTL dongle you can always decided if you like the hobby enough to invest in more expensive equipment at a later date.

Antenna – You can use the one provided but its not recommended for the next few videos ill be using a cheap airband antenna I bought from ebay.

Realtek DVB-T+DAB+FM Dongle

RTL2832U – Notes: The dongle was never intended to be used for SDR but two researchers discovered the chip used was able to cover a wide range of frequencies (24 mhz – 1766 mhz) and decided to rewrite the drivers. (Antii Palosaari and Eric Fry of Osmocom) Since then the dongle has proved hugely successful with amateur radio enthusiasts.

So what can you do with SDR?

Voice, ADSB, ACARS, digital voice, AIS, POCSAG, FLEX, consumer devices, weather ballon data, HAM internet, DVB-T, GSM, GPS, spectrum analysis, weather satellites, ISS, radio astronomy, meteor scatter, FM/AM radio, RDS, DAB, RNG … probably much more!

Over the last few years lots of researchers and developers have started producing applications and code for the RTLSDR and hopefully many more projects to come as the community grows.

Keep tuned for more SDR fun stuff!

If you get bored in the meantime try googling some of the stuff I’ve listed above and start your own research / project / experiment / learning / hack / etc.

Useful links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_broadcasting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio
http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Signal_Identification_Guide

 

Hakology Day 9 : Blog Entry

[1124]
So it begins, late night last night, got the SDR working under windows. Todays goals, get the SDR working under linux and gqrx, look at what I managed to capture in the log and start a video showing how to setup SDR#.
[/1124]

[1215]
Really don’t want to stop logging messages lol, but I suppose its time to start making notes. Once I can get this running on the RPi ill leave it logging 24/7 for a while so I can analyse the data. Still lots of data being sent that shouldn’t be, names, phone numbers, address information, IP addresses, email addresses, URLs … and I’m sure if I log for long enough the obligatory username and password.
[/1215]

[1306]
So I can’t show or share any of the data I’m collecting. Hibby just pointed me to (Legal stuff) … even though I can’t share the data I can show you how to demodulate the signals yourself.
[/1306]

[1415]
Written up notes for SDR# installation.
[/1415]

[1513]
Executing operation tidy up for recording later also doing a few other chores.
[/1513]

[1606]
Still tidying 🙁 b/c I’m a messy bugger.
[/1606]

[1613]
Random picture for today …
Since I’m working on radio stuff here’s my baofeng handset its the uv-5r, a great starting handset for people looking to get in to HAM radio and start learning. I bought one relatively cheap on ebay around £20, before I got my licence so I could scan and listen a little. I’ve some other scanners and sets but ill save those for another day.
baofeng
[/1613]

[1713]
meh RL … need to script my house work or hack together some sort of roomba capable of washing up and making tea/coffee on demand.
[/1715]

[1824]
Chilling out time for a coffee and some food. BBL
[/1825]

[21.41]
A few pages of notes written and a rough idea for an introduction to SDR. Time for a brew and to record / talk through the audio. Will report back in a while.

Useful links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_broadcasting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio
http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Signal_Identification_Guide

Captured a little extra audio for the hakology introduction too.
[/2147]

[2344]
Sleep required.
[/2344]

[0448]
Woke up after a few hours sleep been doing a little radio research, too early to start the next blog entry, too late to be editing this one hmmm.
No vblog for day nine either will have to make up for it later.
[/0450]

Hakology Day 8 : Blog Entry

[1500]
Good afternoon hakologists. Late start but lots to do.
[/1500]

[1544]
Posted ebay stuff, bills to pay, boring stuff. Couple of support calls to make. Will be on soon though.
[/1544]

[1612]
The amount of profit water, gas, and electricity companies make you’d think they’d have more people staffing the phones. Especially when everyone uses mobiles these days. I hate online payment services much prefer top up cards or direct payment. Finally got through and turns out I’m ahead with my payments whoot whoot. Only one more call to make.
[/1612]

[1633]
Finally done with all the menial stuff. Time to get busy.
[/1633]

[1711]
Whiteboard pens ordered, need to login to the corsair portal and check progress on that ticket.
[/1711]

[2343]
Had a friend over for a while played a little doom4 and insurgency. Finally unlocked the BFG on doom, whoot! Hopefully not too far away from completing it on campaign mode.
[/2343]

[0119]
Reading up on FSK (frequency shift keying) and POCSAG. Managed to get SDR# working with PDW and virtual cable for the first time. Now logging messages and noting frequencies for a tutorial.
[/0119]

[0147]
fsksample
Rendering vlog preparing to setup multimon-ng and rtl-fm.
Reading.
[/0147]

[0204]

[/0204]

[0444]
flex
Time for some sleeps.
[/0444]