(thepowerbase.com) The last few
months have seen an explosion of activity in the field of Software
Defined Radio (SDR), after it was discovered that cheap USB TV tuners
based on the Realtek RTL2832U chip could be dialed into frequencies well
outside their advertised ranges. What was designed and sold as a simple
device for watching TV on your computer could be turned into a radio
capable of receiving anything between 64 MHz to 1700 MHz with open
source software.
Now, anyone with about $20 USD to spare
can tune into everything from police and fire transmissions to the
International Space Station.
Tuner Hardware
Before you can start exploring the airwaves, you’ll need a USB tuner supported by RTL-SDR,
the software used to unlock the full potential of the Realtek RTL2832U
chip. For best results, you’ll also want to get one that uses
the Elonics E4000 tuner, as that will give you the broadest frequency
response. The RTL-SDR project maintains a short compatibility list which
can help narrow things down a bit:
| VID | PID | tuner | device name |
| 0x0bda | 0×2832 | all of them | Generic RTL2832U (e.g. hama nano) |
| 0x0bda | 0×2838 | E4000 | ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle |
| 0x0ccd | 0x00a9 | FC0012 | Terratec Cinergy T Stick Black (rev 1) |
| 0x0ccd | 0x00b3 | FC0013 | Terratec NOXON DAB/DAB+ USB dongle (rev 1) |
| 0x0ccd | 0x00d3 | E4000 | Terratec Cinergy T Stick RC (Rev.3) |
| 0x0ccd | 0x00e0 | E4000 | Terratec NOXON DAB/DAB+ USB dongle (rev 2) |
| 0x185b | 0×0620 | E4000 | Compro Videomate U620F |
| 0x185b | 0×0650 | E4000 | Compro Videomate U650F |
| 0x1f4d | 0xb803 | FC0012 | GTek T803 |
| 0x1f4d | 0xc803 | FC0012 | Lifeview LV5TDeluxe |
| 0x1b80 | 0xd3a4 | FC0013 | Twintech UT-40 |
| 0x1d19 | 0×1101 | FC2580 | Dexatek DK DVB-T Dongle (Logilink VG0002A) |
| 0x1d19 | 0×1102 | ? | Dexatek DK DVB-T Dongle (MSI DigiVox? mini II V3.0) |
| 0x1d19 | 0×1103 | FC2580 | Dexatek Technology Ltd. DK 5217 DVB-T Dongle |
| 0×0458 | 0x707f | ? | Genius TVGo DVB-T03 USB dongle (Ver. B) |
| 0x1b80 | 0xd393 | FC0012 | GIGABYTE GT-U7300 |
| 0x1b80 | 0xd394 | ? | DIKOM USB-DVBT HD |
| 0x1b80 | 0xd395 | FC0012 | Peak 102569AGPK |
| 0x1b80 | 0xd39d | FC0012 | SVEON STV20 DVB-T USB & FM |
| Tuner | Frequency range |
| Elonics E4000 | 52 – 2200 MHz with a gap from 1100 MHz to 1250 MHz (varies) |
| Rafael Micro R820T | 24 – 1766 MHz |
| Fitipower FC0013 | 22 – 1100 MHz (FC0013B/C, FC0013G has a separate L-band input, which is unconnected on most sticks) |
| Fitipower FC0012 | 22 – 948.6 MHz |
| FCI FC2580 | 146 – 308 MHz and 438 – 924 MHz (gap in between) |
Read more : http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/06/getting-started-with-rtl-sdr/
Links
http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr - good place to starthttp://www.rtlsdr.com/
http://gnuradio.org/
http://kmkeen.com/rtl-demod-guide/index.html
http://sdrsharp.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gqrx/
Those USB TV tuners used for SDR can also grab GPS data
http://hackaday.com/2012/04/13/those-usb-tv-tuners-used-for-sdr-can-also-grab-gps-data/
Real time GPS decoding with software defined radio
http://hackaday.com/2012/08/19/real-time-gps-decoding-with-software-defined-radio/
