Anyone tried RF Explorer?

[NeverDie]

http://rfexplorer.com/models/

Seems like it might be handy for at least two things I can think of:

1. The signal strength you're getting from your own wireless gear (z-wave, x10, insteon, etc.) at any given location you want to probe, and
2. Tracking sources and signal strengths of possible interference.


$129. I like the compact portable nature of it. I'm not sure whether it sweeps fast enough to catch signals of interest: it combines multiple 200-300ms sweeps to create a composite sweep. Perhaps that's the best one can do for $129? The graphical software that works with it seems interesting also.

[NeverDie]

For about the same amount of money, an AirSpy would probably have better performance: http://airspy.com/ Not sure when it will be available though.

Is anyone here currently using a DVB-T dongle and RTL-SDR or something similar for this purpose? For instance, I was quite impressed with the spectrum analyzer this guy built using a USB DVB-T (~$10-$20) and a Beaglebone ($45): http://robotics.ong.id.au/2013/07/29...lyzer-project/ In his video demo it looks speedy enough to be useful! His software can be downloaded for free from GitHUB. In the absence of further info, I'm leaning in the direction of trying it. I would need to order a DVB-T (like one of those here: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr. Which one is the best?). I already own a Beaglebone....

Suggestions/recommendations anyone?

P.S. HackRF was kickstarted in September and is now entering pilot production, but I get the impression it will cost somewhere around $300. It looks interesting, but so far the software to exploit it looks like a work in progress: http://www.sharebrained.com/2013/07/...rtapack-lives/

[NeverDie]

As it turns out, all the DVB-T's use the same RTL2832u inside them, so I'll just get a generic one of those.... Looks like SDR# will exploit it and will run on either windows or Linux.

Cool. I answered my own questions during this monolog, so I'm just posting this in case anyone else is interested in getting a simple, inexpensive, easy-to-use SDR-based signal analyzer up and running for around $5-$20, depending on where you buy it from. Over and out.

<end of monolog>

[sparkman]

Thanks for posting the monologue . I'm interested and checking those links. What hardware/OS are you planning to use with the dongle? Did you find any Windows based software options?

Cheers
Al

[NeverDie]

Here's a video that will walk you through how to do it very simply: http://hak5.org/episodes/hak5-1524

My near term goal was just to figure out what to order, which I did after my last post. I ordered this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RTL-SDR-Real...item4d18c16ce4. My tuner should arrive on Thursday. If you want it cheaper than $15 delivered, you can order from China and wait 30 days.

As of now, my tentative plan is to run sdr# on a windows laptop, as described in the video above. I suspect Windows may not have the real-time performance needed, in which case I'll either try the pentoo OS (as they recommend in their follow-on video here:http://hak5.org/episodes/hak5-1526), or else booting Kali Linux from a thumb drive (as described here: http://www.hamradioscience.com/gnu-radio-the-easy-way/), because that will leave my windows computer undisturbed and because the Kali image includes the gqrx software app, which looks as though it has at least some basic functionality as a spectrum analyzer:



All the software I've mentioned is free. There may be some paid-for software that's worth owning. I like the look of the 3D plotting in the RF Explorer software (there is a free version and a $49 pro version), but I haven't yet looked into whether it would work with a DVB-T dongle or not.

If nothing else, these options look like fairly simple, minimal effort ways to get up and running. If you find some better options--either hardware, software, or both--please do let me know.

[sparkman]

Great, thanks!

[NeverDie]

Received it today, so at least the shipping was prompt. I'm surprised the antenna it came with is rather short: about 4-5/8" long.

[Automated]

I've played quite a bit with the DVBT dongles and SDR#. In fact, I have a whole "bank" of them for various purposes. They're a lot of fun, and you can order them dirt cheap from places like DealExtreme. I've had a quick look at the RFXCOM traffic, and ZWave. ZWave is a bit of fun, if you pull up your entire ZWave device list and tell HS to poll all.

There are some links around you can find also regarding doing more practical things with them.

[NeverDie]

SDR# has already proven useful. I've been experimenting with sending small amounts of data using a 434Mhz transmitter (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10534), but its datasheet is so vague on specifics like bandwidth I felt as though I was operating somewhat in the dark. With the new dongle and SDR#, I can see not only it, but also the different channels and bandwidths used by various weather sensors I have, some of which are centered on the same frequency my transmitter is using and some which aren't. Since I can't change my transmitter, I'll try to shift the weather sensors to channels where they won't conflict.

It would be great if I could zoom-in on the weather sensor transmissions and just click to automatically decode them. I assume that must be where SDR's are heading.... Very cool.

[NeverDie]

I've played quite a bit with the DVBT dongles and SDR#. In fact, I have a whole "bank" of them for various purposes.

Do you have a "bank" of them so as to monitor a wider bandwidth simultaneously?

What other SDR's do you like?

[Automated]

Anyone tried RF Explorer?

Do you have a "bank" of them so as to monitor a wider bandwidth simultaneously?

What other SDR's do you like?

I use them to dedicate to different purposes of listening, so more to listen to more bands at once rather than purely a wider bandwidth on a single band. Those can then just run on the server, and stream audio if called up by one of our Sonos boxes, where I put custom channels for them. It's sort of my own little scanner network piped to Sonos. Then I have a few just for playing in the office.

I haven't really played with any other SDR's yet, but the dongles and SDR# are a fun start.

[prsmith777]

Hey NeverDie,

Did you ever try using the dongle for troubleshooting Zwave issues?

I just bought a dongle tonight to try to figure out which zwave switch is flooding my network with noise and making it so slow. Thought this would work better than the alternative of turning one switch off at a time to try and find the culprit.

I was planning on walking around the house and finding the switch that way. You think that would work?

[NeverDie]

I was planning on walking around the house and finding the switch that way. You think that would work?

Yes, that's how I would do it. If you're having the problem, that approach should find it and localize exactly which gang-box is the source.

[Automated]

If you have a large zwave network, it is fun to pull up all the zwave devices on one page, click poll all, and then watch the massive radio communications take place on a waterfall display using one of the earlier mentioned dongles.