Podcasts about software defined radio

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Foundations of Amateur Radio A recent comment by a fellow amateur sparked a train of thought that made me wonder why there is a pervasive idea within our community that you need a radio transmitter and antenna to be a radio amateur, moreover that for some reason, if you don't have either, you're not a real amateur. I suppose it's related to the often repeated trope that the internet enabled modes like Allstar Link, Echolink and even IRLP, are not real radio, despite evidence to the contrary. Instead of fighting this weird notion, I figured I'd get on with it and find a way to play even if you don't currently have the ability to erect an antenna or key a transmitter for whatever reason. Before I dig in, a WebSDR is a Software Defined Radio connected to the Internet. It allows a user to open a web browser, pick from a massive collection of receivers around the world and listen in. Some of these also have the ability to transmit, but more on that later. Here's the idea. Have you ever considered tuning to a WebSDR, using it to pick a signal and using your computer to decode that signal? I'm aware that some sites provide a range of in-built decoders, but that doesn't cover the wide spectrum of modes that amateur radio represents, let alone the modes that are not specific to our hobby. As I've said previously, many of the modes in use today are essentially the width of an audio stream. This means that if you tune a WebSDR to a frequency the audio comes out of your computer speakers. If that's voice, your job is done and you can hear what's going on. If it's something else, then you're going to have to find a way to decode this to get the message. So, if you send the audio from your web browser into something like Fldigi or WSJT-X, you'll be able to decode the signal if it's supported by those tools. This is true for all the other tools too, Morse, RTTY, you name it. Depending on which operating system you're using the way to implement this will differ. Starting with a search for "WebSDR and WSJT-X" will get you on your way. You might ask why I'm advocating WSJT-X, even though it only supports a small set of modes and that's a fair question. In my experience, it's the simplest to get running and get results. Two tips, make sure you set your configuration to indicate that you don't have a radio, otherwise it's going to attempt to control something that isn't there, and make sure that your computer clock is set accurately using NTP or Network Time Protocol. You can thank me later. Now I hinted earlier at transmitting. There's a growing range of places where your amateur license will give you access to a station somewhere on the internet and with that the ability to get on air and make noise. An increasing number of radio amateur clubs are building remote stations for their members to enjoy. There are also individuals and small groups doing the same independently. A few organisations are offering this as a service to paid subscribers. These tools often implement a remote desktop session where you connect to a computer that in turn is connected to a radio. The supported modes depend on what is installed at the other end. Others implement a slightly different method where you run specialised software locally, sometimes inside a web browser, that connects to a server across the internet, allowing you to run whatever digital mode you want on your own computer. I'll point out that even if you start with receiving digital modes using a WebSDR, you can expand that into transmitting at a later stage. So, no antenna, no transmitter, no problem, still an amateur! I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Over the years I've talked about different ways of using our license to transmit. I've discussed things like modes such as voice AM, FM, and SSB, and digital modes like FT8, WSPR, RTTY, FreeDV, Hellschreiber, Olivia and even Morse code. Recently it occurred to me that there is something odd about how we do this as a community. Now that I've realised this it's hard to unsee. Let me see if I can get you to the same place of wonder. Why is it that we as amateurs only use one such mode at a time? Let me say that again. With all the modes we have available to us, why do we only use one mode at a time, why do we get our brain into the mindset of one activity, stop doing that in order to move to another mode? It's weird. Amateur radio is what's called "frequency agile". What I mean by that is we are not restricted to a fixed number of channels like most, if not all other radio users. We can set our transmission frequency to whatever we want, within the restrictions imposed by our license conditions, and start making noise. There's agreement on what mode you can use where, but within that comes a great deal of flexibility. We have the ability to find each other. Call CQ and if the band is open and your station is transmitting a signal, the chance is good that someone somewhere on planet Earth will respond. We change frequency at will, almost without thought, but why don't we do this with modes? The closest I've seen is local VHF and UHF contests where you get different points depending on which mode you're using, and even that seems hard fought. It's weird. We have an increasing range of Software Defined Radios, or SDR, where your voice, or incoming text, can be transformed to a different mode at the touch of a button, but we rarely if ever actually use this ability. In case you're thinking that the restriction relates to the availability of SDR in the average amateur radio shack, most amateur modes fit within a normal audio stream and that same flexibility could be applied to the vast majority of transmitters scattered around the globe, but to my knowledge, it isn't. Why is that? Better still, what can we do about it? Can we develop procedures and processes to make us more, let's call it "mode agile", giving us the ability to change mode at the same ease as we change frequency? What would a "mode and frequency agile" amateur look like? What processes would you use? Right now the best we have is to QSY, or announce that we're changing frequency, but I've never heard anyone use that to describe a change of mode. Of course it's possible that I've led a sheltered life and not been on-air enough, but if that's the case, I'd love to hear about it. So, what is stopping us from becoming even more flexible? Do we need to practice this, develop better tools, teach new amateurs, have multimode nets, invent new modes that share information across different modes simultaneously, build radios that can transmit on different frequencies, or something else? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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http://www.mofpodcast.com/www.pbnfamily.comhttps://www.facebook.com/matteroffactspodcast/https://www.facebook.com/groups/mofpodcastgroup/https://rumble.com/user/Mofpodcastwww.youtube.com/user/philrabhttps://www.instagram.com/mofpodcasthttps://twitter.com/themofpodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/cypress_survivalist/https://www.facebook.com/CypressSurvivalistSupport the showMerch at: https://southerngalscrafts.myshopify.com/Shop at Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ora9riPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/mofpodcastPurchase American Insurgent by Phil Rabalais: https://amzn.to/2FvSLMLShop at MantisX: http://www.mantisx.com/ref?id=173*The views and opinions of guests do not reflect the opinions of Phil Rabalais, Andrew Bobo, Nic Emricson, or the Matter of Facts Podcast****NOTE*** You may benefit from watching the stream on YouTube, Facebook, or Rumble (linked above) to see the software in action for the full experience. Phil's recent Commo class for Cypress Survivalist left him wondering what else he could fit into a topic, for show attendees and for his faithful audience. Down the rabbit hole he went into the land of SDR, or Software Defined Radio. The magical crossection of abandonware, software geek passion projects, and radio nerdism left him with a few more nuggets to add to his Signals Intelligence repetoire, and will make for a chaotic (but hopefully informative) show and tell. More info at https://www.rtl-sdr.com/Matter of Facts is now live-streaming our podcast on our YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Rumble. See the links above, join in the live chat, and see the faces behind the voices. Intro and Outro Music by Phil Rabalais All rights reserved, no commercial or non-commercial use without permission of creator prepper, prep, preparedness, prepared, emergency, survival, survive, self defense, 2nd amendment, 2a, gun rights, constitution, individual rights, train like you fight, firearms training, medical training, matter of facts podcast, mof podcast, reloading, handloading, ammo, ammunition, bullets, magazines, ar-15, ak-47, cz 75, cz, cz scorpion, bugout, bugout bag, get home bag, military, tactical 

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask This month, we are pulling questions that were asked via our Facebook Group. Questions answered on this week's podcast 1. Is this an issue with simulcast? 2. Can You Scan Brandmeister or TGIF Talk Groups? 3. Finding information about Lehigh PA's New TRS 4. What does AI mean for the Scanner Hobby? ====================================

In radio news, the format that wasn't.  Lots of news on the street.  Next those call letter and format changes.  This is followed up by a feature on John Landecker, and I present a feature on software defined radios.  Our classic aircheck  is Charlie O'donnel on Krla from 1966.  Finally our featured station is Ktnk from Lompock CaLifornia

Foundations of Amateur Radio When you key your transceiver, as-in, you trigger the Push To Talk or PTT button, you close a switch that activates the transmitter and in turn allows your voice to make it through the microphone and radio, via the coax out to the antenna and the world. When you release the button, the transmission stops. This is pretty much how we're taught that a radio transceiver works, essentially switching between transmit and receive, depending on the state of that magic switch. If you want to create a transmitter in software using GNU Radio, you might get to a point where you start looking for a conditional block, a magic piece of code that you can add to the system that checks the state of the PTT button and sets the state of your contraption accordingly. In programming terms, you might start looking for an IF .. THEN .. ELSE block, as in, IF PTT THEN transmit ELSE receive. Let me save you the trouble of looking for such a thing, because it doesn't exist. With that revelation you are forgiven if you come to the conclusion that you cannot create a PTT system using GNU Radio. It's a perfect example of attempting to think in a certain way and I'd like to show you that there are alternatives if only to help you experience an insight into how we do the things we do. I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. Over a decade ago I was helping with the erection of an antenna during a field day. It was a massive multi-element 10m yagi, heavy, unwieldy and precariously bolted to the top of a spindly mast strapped to the tray of a ute. Before lifting it to the top of the mast I was tasked with checking the SWR. I dutifully plugged in the coax, turned on my radio, keyed the microphone and confidently reported a 1:1 SWR. Over the next hour the antenna was manhandled into the air by half a dozen people and we set about making noise only to discover that the SWR was horrible. My lesson was that you need to whistle or hum into the microphone when you use SSB to test the SWR. Said differently, using SSB, if you transmit no sound, there is no signal and no standing wave to measure. Right now you're likely to picture a PTT switch as switching between open and closed. In one state nothing gets through, in the other, everything gets through. For example, you could construct a switch where in one position your analogue signal is connected to ground and disappears. In the other state it reappears. If you think about it, yelling into the microphone whilst not activating the PTT does exactly this. A Software Defined Radio or SDR uses an Analogue to Digital Converter, or ADC, to receive an analogue signal from an antenna and convert it into a series of numbers. To transmit, it uses the reverse, a Digital to Analogue Converter, or DAC, that converts a series of numbers into an analogue signal. No analogue signal means a voltage that doesn't change. In the digital world, it's the same, a series of numbers that don't change. When you multiply a number by zero, you get zero and when you multiply a number by one, you get the number. So, if you were to take a digital signal, which is nothing more than a series of numbers, and multiply it with zero, you'd get a series of zeros. If you multiply it by one, you'd get the original numbers. If you sent that series to a SDR transmitter, remember, it's essentially nothing more than a Digital to Analogue Converter, you'd get either no signal when you were converting only zeros, or you'd get an analogue signal when you're converting numbers. So, if you made a button that changed a variable to one when you pressed it and changed it to zero when you released it, you could multiply your digital signal by that variable and switch between getting a series of numbers or a series of zeros. Remind you of anything? That button, that changes between zero and one is your software defined PTT. It represents the software version of a switch and it shows us that signal processing requires that you look at problems in subtly different ways. This all to illustrate that using GNU Radio is going to take some time to get your head around. For some this happened years ago, for others like myself, we're in the thick of it. While you're thinking about that, consider time. What type of time accuracy would you need to synchronise two signals from two different antennas and why would you want to? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Hi - I'm John VK4JPM Darling Downs Radio Club Secretary with the club update for Sunday 15th of December. Nice and quick this week, and as we move towards the end of the year our scheduled regular club activities take a break until the beginning of February. But don't lose track of the dates: Saturday 8 February for our next club lunch social, and Monday 10 February for the member's meeting and tech topic. More details on those in the coming weeks. Speaking of tech topics, we had a great session with John VK4JBE discussing Software Defined Radios. John gave us a cheat sheet to help with SDR selection and has kindly provided some follow-up materials to help get started. That info will be on the website in a bit. Not taking a break: the weekly club nets will continue: 2m on VK4RDD at 1000 local on Sundays, and 80m on Saturday evenings. Check out our website at www.ddrci.org.au, 73 from John VK4JPM at the Darling Downs Radio Club. Hello, I'm Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I've been thinking. Many of the things that I remember from my childhood are still part of the items that are still common today. The events are still followed but the things that are used have been modernised. I can remember a genuine tree being cut and mounted in the house and then adorned with suitable decorations. These days there is the convenience of store-bought manufactured trees and trinkets which aren't necessarily valuable enough to wrap in tissue paper and store until the next year. When I first caught the bug of radio, I made my first logbook. It was nothing more than a school exercise book that I ruled up and labelled the columns for the date, time call signs etcetera. These days, a quick internet search will bring you many styles of logging from apps to printable styles, from records you can save on your electronic device to creating a permanent paper memento. That brought me to thinking about how we can make available stored information for use both within the shack, out in the field portable of course, and in our club activities too. Certainly, a printed form of reference is preferred by many of us but the convenience of electronic memory has a lot to recommend it. The amount of storage that is now cheaply available on memory cards and USB sticks is growing each year. When we think back to the now-lost WIA Callbook, there was so much material to guide operating in its pages; from frequencies of band segments to QSL bureau details and so much more made the pages. With the more precise division of bands as new modes are introduced, having a reference which can specify the correct details to use for a particular mode is handy both at home or portable. For clubs, a drive containing details of the club as well as linking to regulations, band plans awards, could be a great tool for new as well experienced amateurs. With PDF apps for free download, compiling and collating so much of the information can be done straight from the internet. Just be aware that a lot of material is subject to copyright ownership and permission must be obtained to publish it. This would apply to material from the ACMA and WIA, for instance. There will be those who don't like the idea of electronic resources preferring paper-based material. However, the portability of a small drive overcomes the problems of poor internet services in an area and if designed properly it could be updated by the user or through a central data service. There have been problems previously when the material was distributed on disks and pen drives when piracy was a common practice for many and ownership of material was viewed as a commercial necessity. These days we don't have a simple handbook or a callbook to help and it is sensible to remember that “when all else fails, there is amateur radio.” We just need to make it more convenient, at times. I'm Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that's what I think….how about you?

This is Allan VK4HIT with news from Ipswich and District Radio Club. Ron has been calling in the Ipswich morning net since July 1986. For Ron, it has been a labour of love and for the rest of us listening or taking part in the net, he has been a constant – the voice of reassurance in a world of change. Sadly, Monday, November 25 was the last time Ron made the regular call for stations owing to a change of home address which doesn't permit a base station setup. VK4RG was first licensed in 1956 and he is hopeful his trusty handheld will enable him to call in occasionally. VK4RG, we salute you and thank you for your service to the club and amateur radio. Reporting from Ipswich this is Allan, VK4HIT. I'm John VK4JPM Darling Downs Radio Club Secretary with the club update for Sunday 8th of December. Before I remind you about the tech meeting tomorrow night - yes, tomorrow night. John VK4JBE is coming up from Brisbane to give us all the good stuff about Software Defined Radios. If you're just catching up to the topic, check out the Wikipedia article online, because that's a good introduction to the introduction. All the info on the meeting is on the website at www.ddrci.org.au Hello, I'm Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I've been thinking. During the past week, the postman handed me the latest edition of Amateur Radio magazine and it prompted me to think about what we used to have. Once there was a state-based newsletter aptly called QTC. This was a great addition to the shack in that reminders of events were in tangible form rather than just committed to memory. When the weekly news went out on packet radio, it was an easy task to print it out and these days we are very likely to have a printer on our home network which can do the same job with the news bulletins. You see, QTC went into a column in AR magazine before it went SK. Largely club notes have been lost to the printed medium and this makes our broadcast news all the more important in getting the messages out to fellow amateur operators. This is especially true with the magazine now bi-monthly having gone from monthly to 11 issues a year and now every 2 months. I don't know how many clubs are running nets these days as there isn't a quickly accessible list for me to check. I know that not a lot can be heard from my location and without receiving reminders or newsletters I would bet that most of us are just as much in the dark as I am. So here we are engaged in a communications activity and we seem to be confounded by poor communications. I don't know how many missives are sent via the WIA Memnet service but I receive advice of the release of the digital issue of the magazine so that amounts to only 1 every 2 months. Periodically the text edition of the national news drops off until I send a plea for help and that makes me wonder how effective our IT systems are working for the WIA. To place a little context on the subject, I live in a house with people not only getting older but also living with chronic health issues. There are many times that I think of things that I would like to see done by me or others but circumstances don't give the luxury of acting on those thoughts. For me, getting updates in my email is a welcome piece of assistance as I don't have to devote time to searching them out. It also provides a point of connection to the wider community in a way that is accessed at convenient times. You see these ways of sharing are important on a personal level as much as they support club activity and growth. Once it was the cartoonist's jibe that you had to lick the tip of a pencil or bash the heck from a typewriter to get the news out. These days we can achieve things much more sedately and just as effectively with our mobile devices or shack computers. I look forward to getting your news in electronic or broadcast. I'm Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that's what I think….how about you?

Foundations of Amateur Radio In the process of developing something from scratch there are a great number of things that need doing. When you start it's unclear what's the most important thing, but experience has told me that starting, anywhere, is the best way to get runs on the board. Here's a smattering of what I'm talking about. What do we call this thing? How will we license it? What does it do? How will we determine what is required and what is nice to have? How will we avoid reinventing the wheel and how will we make sure that it's something that people want, rather than yet another solution looking for a problem? I started by looking at what else is going on. Specifically, the Software Defined Radio or SDR world isn't something that arrived yesterday. There's lots of stuff around and plenty of it is open source, so we can look inside and learn. I asked around to see if there was a table that compares how the various SDR tools talk to the world, or rather what protocol they use. Think about how you'd get the data from a radio to a computer and how you'd control the radio and the data flow. Now imagine that neither are in the same room, or even in the same country. I started writing down what I think is needed, and then realised that this replicates stuff that has already been done. Tools like rtl_sdr, soapy, OpenHPSDR and spyserver already do some or all of this, there are others. Thus the request for the table. This resulted in no table, but plenty of questions, including a discussion about protocols versus drivers, which lead me to the realisation that I'm going to be doing a lot of yak shaving before this project has anything to show for itself. This neatly prompted the idea that by the time I was done, the yak was going to be well and truly shaved and now the project has a name, "Bald Yak". At some point it appears that there was a coffee shop in 2012 with that name and there was an engineering student using it in 2004, so no major conflicts I can see, but feel free to point out any I missed. "Bald Yak" works as a name, two words, no hyphen, because it says nothing about what the project is about, which is what you do when you cannot think of a suitable relevant name, and you'd have to admit it rolls off the tongue better than "Amateur Radio GNU Radio Project" or "ARGRP". Another consideration is how to license this thing, whatever it is. As you might know, I'm a firm believer, advocate, user and contributor to something called Open Source Software. It essentially says that if you distribute the software, you are required to share the source code. Lofty goal, but the outcome is not particularly equitable. Bruce Perens K6BP is the creator of the Open Source Definition, derived from the Debian Free Software Guidelines where he was the primary author in 1997. In other words, Bruce has embodied these concepts for almost half my life. Bruce says this about Open Source today: "Open Source is the infrastructure of business, but the economic structure of Open Source is one of resource extraction like logging or mining: many businesses extract wealth from Open Source, but do not return significant value to the developers." Bruce is in the process of developing something called "Post Open" that attempts to address this inequity. Full disclaimer, I've been commenting on some of what Bruce is doing and he has graciously accepted most of my suggestions. I'm not yet a convert, but I think that what Bruce is attempting is crucial for the future of sustainability of the Open Source community. Which brings me back to licensing. How do we license "Bald Yak" and how do we strike a balance between eating food and allowing others to play with our toys? If you have suggestions, please let me know. For now I'm storing my stuff locally but fully plan to show and tell once I've figured out how. So, what is "Bald Yak"? Here is what I have so far. "The Bald Yak project aims to create a modular, bidirectional and distributed signal processing and control system that leverages GNU Radio." I hasten to add that this is a work in progress. I'd like the definition to be small and specific. If it can be improved, please feel free to make your pitch. My email address is cq@vk6flab.com. I'll also point out that this is slow, deliberately so. I want this to be fun, but I also want this to be real. I also need to manage my own life, family, health, finances and humour, so be gentle. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The hobby of amateur radio is one of experimentation and change. For decades this came in the form of circuit diagrams, components and scrounged hardware from anything that wasn't bolted down. New functionality came with the aid of a soldering iron. More recently, functionality comes from participation in the global electronics market where you can buy any radio you like and have it shipped to your door within hours at an unbeatable price. Mind you, buying all those unbelievably cheap radios does start adding up and if you want to use more sophisticated hardware, that too is possible, at a price, somewhere between $50 and a new Porsche. Whilst that's an option for some, for the rest of us, there are better and cheaper ways. Of course it doesn't stop there. If you connect any radio to a computer, you can use whatever software you like to encode and decode any signal you can imagine. With a traditional radio connected to a computer you can make it participate in hundreds of different so-called digital modes. Before I continue, let's look at radio in a slightly different way. Consider an antenna as a continuous source of voltages that are amplified, filtered and demodulated in some way by a radio. You can think of the combination of antenna, radio and computer as a stream decoder. To decode a signal in a new way requires a new decoder, which you could build from components or as I've said, buy online. During the week I've continued experimenting with GNU Radio. If you're unfamiliar, it's a toolkit that allows you to build so-called flow graphs that can process a signal stream. Think of it as a box of Lego that you can put together to build any type of decoder. Let me say that again. Imagine that you want to decode or transmit a mode like FreeDV, M17, APRS, Olivia, Contestia, or Hellschreiber. With the GNU Radio toolkit, all of this is possible and you won't need to buy new hardware or bust out the soldering iron every time you want to experiment with a new mode. If you have been playing with digital modes already, you'll likely point out that you can already do this today by using software running on a computer, and that's true. What that doesn't tell you is that this comes with a very specific limitation, namely that all those modes require that they fit inside a single audio channel because all those digital modes you might be familiar with are essentially using an SSB or FM signal with the audio generated or decoded by a computer. Even if you have a modern radio like for example an ICOM IC-7300, you'll still be limited in what modes of transmission you can make. ICOM limits the transmit bandwidth to 2.9 kHz. Flex Radio appears to double that to 7.9 kHz, but numbers are sketchy. The point remains, most current amateur radio technology is based around the notion that a mode essentially fits within a single audio channel and a very narrow one at that. So, why does this matter? If you run out of FT8 space on a band, right now you need to change to an alternate frequency to play, but you'll only be able to see the stations that are using the same alternate frequency, as long as they fit within the bandwidth of an audio signal. If you wanted to check out the main frequency, you'd have to change frequencies and keep switching back and forth. Using this idea, monitoring all of FT4, FT8, WSPR and all CW beacons, all at the same time becomes unimaginable, not to mention costly if you needed a radio for each band and each mode. What if you wanted to use another mode that took more than about 4 kHz, like say a 5 MHz wide DVB-T signal which you could be experimenting with on 70cm? Or, what if you'd like to compare a repeater input with its output at the same time? Or compare two repeaters together? Or find the best band to operate on right now? The point being, that there are things that simply don't fit within a single audio channel that you won't be able to play with using a traditional radio. As it happens, that too is a solved problem. Remember that I mentioned that you can think of an antenna, radio, and computer combination as a stream decoder? What if I told you that an SDR, a Software Defined Radio, is essentially a device that translates antenna voltages into numbers which you can process with GNU Radio? Whilst that does imply replacing your radio, you don't have to jump in at the deep end to start playing and even if you do decide to buy new hardware, you can get your toes wet with all manner of self build or commercial kits. Even better, you can start with the gear you already have today and become familiar with GNU Radio and when you're ready to expand your station, you can add in an SDR and continue to use the same tools to experiment. Not only that, you can do interesting things by combining what you already have. Consider for example the idea of using an RTL-SDR as the receiver with a traditional radio as the transmitter. You could decode all of the FT8 signals on a band and transmit where there was space to do so. The point being that you can do this one step at a time. Every time you download or build another GNU Radio flow graph, you can have a new decoder and as time goes on, you'll be able to decide what hardware you might want to pair it with. To be clear, I'm talking about the gradual change from component based radio using audio interfaces into software based radio. It's not like we haven't done this before. Anyone recall spark gaps, or valves? The future of experimentation is bright and it's filled with bits. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Ken Talks to Marc Balmer and Kristoff Bonne about spectrum24, The Conference for Creative Use of the Radio Spectrum in Open Systems. Following the success of the Software-Defined Radio and Amateur Radio devroom at FOSDEM, spectrum24 plans to bring users of the radio spectrum together. For over a century, technology has made it possible to transfer more data, faster, further. Today, wireless technology is everywhere and commonplace. However, it remains a playground and a ground for innovation for many communities. This conference is an opportunity to publicize your projects and allow the different communities that use the spectrum to meet over a weekend. If you have an interesting talk you would like to give please see https://spectrum-conference.org/24/cfp for more information spectrum24 will take place September 14./15. at SmartCity Campus (1 rue de Clairefontaine, 78120 Rambouillet.) at an old radio factory in Rambouillet near Paris, a short 15 minute walk from the train station. Conference Website: https://spectrum-conference.org/ Conference Mastodon: https://mastodon.radio/@spectrumconf Conference Location: https://smartcitycampus.fr/ FOSDEM Dev Track: https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-1662-trx-control-modern-software-to-control-amateur-radio-transceivers-and-other-hamradio-hardware/ Marc Balmer: https://trx-control.msys.ch/, https://msys.ch/, https://marcbalmer.ch, https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbalmer/ Kristoff Bonne: https://mastodon.radio/@on1arf

In this episode of From the Crow's Nest, host Ken Miller chats with Doug Thornton, the technical director of Battelle's National Security Business Unit, to learn about the role software-defined radios do – and could – play into the future of electronic warfare.Doug tells Ken that software-defined radios offer the promise of offering more flexibility and experimentation for warfighters – but limitations from increased complexity and dynamic range to security concerns, can affect performance and even make it more difficult to meet compliance. Doug says standards are being developed for the technology now, and these radios are changing the landscape for how the U.S. conducts operations around the world.If you want to share your comments about the episode or the podcast in general, you can now email the host, Ken Miller, at HOST@fromthecrowsnest.org. To learn more about today's topics or to stay updated on EMSO and EW developments, visit our homepage.

Digital modes, like P25, NXDN, DMR and others will use FDMA, TDMA, or both allow multiple transmissions to share a single frequency at the same time. FDMA or Frequency Division Multiple Access divides a current carrier frequency into multiple parts, allowing for multiple users to operate on the same time on the same frequency. TDMA or Time Division Multiple Access divides a current transmission over time, allowing for 2 or more users to share a the same frequency at the same time, depending on the digital protocol that is used. The ability for these digital transmissions to place multiple users on the same frequency allows for better management of the limited radio spectrum resource. Not only does this allow for more frequencies to be distributed, but allows for end licenses to do more with a single radio license. Learn the differences between FDMA and TDMA in this week's podcast. ====================================

Do you program your scanner with FM or FM Narrowband?

Imagine knowing that your scanner radio has a full signal, but you can't hear anything. Maybe you're listening to a p25 trunk system,  but you can't listen to any of the activity.  You can see your scanner is trying to go to a voice channel. It's trying to work.   But you hear nothing.  How frustrating does this sound? For many, this is a common occurrence when they try to listen to a P25 Simulcast site on their scanner radios. Let's figure out why this is happening and some simple solutions you can try to overcome simulcast.   ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask This month, we are pulling questions that were asked via Facebook Messenger. ▶︎ How do I log P25 Radio IDs? ▶︎ Where can I find a manual for a Uniden BC950XLT? ▶︎ How can I fix a battery door on a SDS100 that will not close? ▶︎ Where can I find a list of Radio IDs for a Trunk system? ====================================

Guest: Tim Fowler, Offensive Security Analyst, Black Hills Information Security [@BHinfoSecurity]On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/roobixx/On Twitter | https://twitter.com/roobixxAt HackSpaceCon | https://www.hackspacecon.com/speakers24#tim-fowler____________________________Hosts: Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast [@RedefiningCyber]On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/sean-martinMarco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society PodcastOn ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli____________________________Episode NotesIn this thought-provoking episode of On Location with Sean and Marco, we soar into the fascinating world of space cybersecurity with our esteemed guest, Tim Fowler. As a penetration tester at Black Hills Information Security, specializing in offensive security, Tim shares his intriguing transition from focusing on terrestrial cybersecurity challenges to those within the space domain.With the space industry rapidly democratizing, he highlights the urgency for better securing our assets in space, drawing a compelling parallel with the historical oversight in the industrial control systems (ICS) sector. The conversation explores the unique challenges and opportunities space cybersecurity presents, including the emerging need for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) frameworks tailored for space. Tim's insights shed light on the importance of secure software development and contingency planning in this critical yet exhilarating field.Additionally, Tim enthuses about his upcoming workshop at HackSpaceCon, 'Bring Your Own Satellite' (BYOS), aimed at demystifying space cybersecurity through hands-on experience with virtual satellites. The episode also humorously touches upon the concept of 'Deorbit plans' and the fanciful notion of hacking the 'Death Star,' blending deep technical discussion with engaging speculative thought.This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the nexus of cybersecurity and space exploration, offering a unique perspective on a domain that is becoming increasingly integral to our daily lives and future aspirations.Key Questions AddressedHow can cybersecurity principles be applied to the space domain?What challenges does the democratization of space present to cybersecurity?How does one begin building a virtual satellite lab?____________________________Catch all of our event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/technology-cybersecurity-society-humanity-conference-and-event-coverage____________________________ResourcesHackSpaceCon: https://www.hackspacecon.com/About Tim's "Bring Your Own Satellite" Workshop: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/roobixx_satellitecommunication-virtuallab-spacetech-activity-7168236170760404992-uY1_/____________________________To see and hear more Redefining Society stories on ITSPmagazine, visit:https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-society-podcastTo see and hear more Redefining CyberSecurity content on ITSPmagazine, visit:https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-cybersecurity-podcastAre you interested in sponsoring our event coverage with an ad placement in the podcast?Learn More

The Nextel Conundrum: Originally established as a convenient communication solution for small businesses, Nextel swiftly expanded its services to include cellular telephony.    However, the positioning of Nextel within the RF spectrum, sandwiched besides public safety frequencies, combined with its network built for capacity, led to unprecedented challenges.    The dense clustering of Nextel sites interfered with public safety radios, prompting the necessity for rebanding. Rebanding entailed a complex realignment of frequencies to mitigate interference issues. This intricate shuffle involved relocating Nextel closer to cellular carriers while carving out exclusive bands for public safety entities. This relocation of the 800Mhz public safety spectrum, known as rebanding, posed a significant problem for scanner enthusiasts who monitored many Motorola trunking systems in the 800Mhz band.   The impact of rebanding reverberated through the scanner radio community, rendering many radios obsolete overnight.    Today, we still need to be aware of systems that are operating in the rebanded spectrum and ensure our radios are programmed correctly to monitor these systems.   ====================================

Once upon a time, we only had analog trunked radio systems.   These systems all had analog voice talk groups. These systems included Motorola Type I, Motorola Type IIi, Motorola Type II, EDACS, and LTR systems. Today, we are living in a digital trunked environment, where there are no analog voice channels.  All voice is done using a form of digital modulation.   These systems include P25, DMR, and NXDN. But, we had an in between.  This is where we had digital talk groups on an analog trunked system.  On a Motorola Type II system, we could find P25 talk groups.  On EDACS systems, we'd find ProVoice talk groups. This podcast will discuss analog and digital systems, and explain why our older P25 scanners like a Uniden BC785D will not work on today's P25 Trunked systems. ====================================

  There are two distinct flavors of trunked radio systems that we need to be aware of when programming our scanners. There are systems that require that every frequency for each site be programmed into their pre-determined channel number, and those that do not. Systems that require every frequency be programmed into our scanners in their designated sequence are Logical Channel Numbered systems and include EDACS, LTR, and all flavors of DMR. Control channel only systems only require the control channels to be programmed into our scanners, as those systems have a predetermined channel mapping as part of their system protocol.   These systems include Motorola Type II systems and P25 Trunked systems. However, don't let "Control Channel Only" fool you.  There is a best practice that you should be aware of that most miss when programming your scanners.  We cover that and more in this week's podcast.   ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.   Click here to Subscribe! Questions answered on this week's podcast 1. Jenny has a question about a strange signal she is hearing on her scanner 2. Garrett would like to know about picking up Low Band VHF with his SDR's antenna ====================================

Did you know that trunked radio systems are just like an orchestra? There are several parts in each that work in harmony.   In our latest podcast, we compare the two to make it easier for you to understand exactly how a trunked system works. We also dive into why trunked systems are an excellent way of utilizing the limited radio frequency resources. YOUTUBE LINK TBD ========= ===========================

Conventional is the "OG" when it comes to scanning. Every scanner radio that has ever been sold can receive conventional (analog) signals. This week's session of Scanner Radio University will break down several modes of conventional transmissions you can receive with your scanner radio.

Welcome to the first in a series of classes that we are calling "Scanner Radio University". Over the next several weeks and months, we will be covering topics that will not only be geared towards those just entering the hobby, but topics that maybe you needed to overlook because a lot of today scanners just work out of the box or with computer assisted programming. This week, we will cover the basics of what scanner radio is, who uses them, where to buy one, and where to get help.

Discover the incredible story behind my love for scanner radios. Join me as I reminisce about my first scanner radio and how it sparked my lifelong passion to helping others with the scanner radio hobby.

The Yaesu FT-60R has to be one of the longest radios available for purchase. First released in 2004, the FT-60R is still for sale, 20 years later! Yes, this is a Ham Radio, but this rugged two way radio has a wide enough receiver that it could be used as a conventional only scanner radio. While it lacks some of the bells and whistles that most scanner radios have, this radio has enough going for it that the losses can be overlooked. Today's review is broken down into 3 parts.   A general summary review, a amateur radio review, and a scanner radio review. ====================================

We've made it through another year. Here is a quick rundown of what we did in 2023 and what is planned for Scanner School in 2024. ====================================

Foundations of Amateur Radio Walking into your shack is often a joyous experience. You take a moment to smile at your setup and, at least mentally, rub your hands in glee anticipating some fun. Well, that is how it is for me, but recently it's been less of that and more of an audible groan at the accumulated cruft that makes it nigh on impossible to sit down, let alone achieve anything fun. It's not as bad as it could be. I'm forced to keep my station at least operational to host my weekly net, but if that wasn't there, it would have been overtaken by anything and everything finding a flat surface to put stuff on. It got to the point where I had to move some radio equipment off my desk, just so I could pile more stuff onto it. So, on Tuesday I finally had enough. It was a pretty normal day, waiting for others to get stuff done, deadlines be damned, but I took one look at the shack and snapped. This has happened before and I suspect that it will continue to happen throughout my life, but that day I'd crossed the line. Before I share what I achieved, I should mention a couple of other things. If you've been here for a while you'll know that I am an unashamed computer geek. Software Defined Radio, or SDR, appears to have been invented just for me, embedded computers, digital modes, networking, data analytics, Linux, Docker, you name it, I'm there. Mind you, this isn't new. It's been true for nearly forty years now, ever since I set foot into my high-school computer lab where I found myself looking at a bank of Apple 2 computers. Then I bought the first computer in my class, a Commodore VIC 20. Life was never quite the same. This to tell you just how much computing features in my day-to-day. I have a long term plan to use embedded computers like for example a Raspberry Pi to essentially turn my analogue Yaesu FT-857d into a networked SDR. The idea being that I use my main computer to do the processing and the Pi to control the radio and feed the audio in and out across the network. I want to make it so that you can use any traditional SDR tool with such a radio, and if I get it right, any other radio. For more context, I'm getting more and more deaf. I swear my SO is speaking softer each day and hearing tests tell me that audio above 2 kHz is pretty much gone. I have been playing with audio signal processing with a view to tailoring the audio coming from my radio into something more audible to me. On Tuesday I had an ah-ha moment. I could keep waiting until I got all that done and then set-up my shack just so, or I could embrace the analogue nature of my gear and use the mixing desk I have to feed the audio through its on-board audio processing and at least improve my audio experience today, rather than some nebulous future time. Finally, I purchased a peg board some time ago for the specific purpose of strapping my coax switches to so I would not have to contend with coax all over my desk whilst trying to remember which switch did what when I finally had a moment to play. All this came together in a new version of my shack, albeit an alpha pre-release, to be treated with extreme caution, if you break it, you get to keep both parts and it will kill a kitten without notice. To get started, I removed all non-radio stuff from my desk. Including half a dozen computers, a dozen patch leads and adaptors left over from the harmonics testing project, there were monitor cables, USB cables, a variety of power supplies and a stray binder with empty pages. I found all the radio gear that I really wanted to have on my desk, placed it where I could actually use it and figured out how to connect the audio output from each radio to the mixing desk which also found a home. Then I jumped on the RF side of things. Getting started was the hardest part. I decided that it would make sense to split the peg board in two, one half for HF, the other for VHF and UHF. I have two coax switches that I use as the entry point onto the board. They're each fed with the antenna coax and each have one port connected to the other. The idea being that during a thunderstorm I can connect the two antennas to each other and isolate the rest of the shack. It won't protect against an actual direct hit, but all charge being built up should dissipate between the two antennas. Feel free to give me suggestions on how better to do this in a shack located on the second floor of a house in Australia. Note that the rules for grounding across the world are drastically different, so don't assume that your laws apply in Australia. The HF coax side has a strapped down Bias-T which powers the SG237 antenna coupler that's outside. Then there's a switch so I can connect HF to a radio or to a beacon, which I also strapped to the peg board. On the VHF side there's just a second coax switch to select between two radios, but only one is currently connected. I plan to strap my PlutoSDR to the other port. I powered everything up and couldn't trigger the local repeater. I got out my handheld and tried. That worked fine. I could even hear it on my main radio, but it wouldn't trigger. No SWR issues, I could hear local broadcast stations, but still couldn't trigger the repeater. It took an embarrassingly long time to discover that I had managed to feed the HF antenna into the VHF/UHF side. The SWR was fine because it was triggering the SG237, so, fun. On the audio side I can now change the compression of a signal, change the low, mid and high frequencies and if I feel inclined change the balance between my ears. Microphone is via the hand microphone, for now. There's no CAT control at the moment and I still need to plumb in the push to talk, or PTT, foot pedal. I also need to move the peg board so RF cables aren't dangling in the breeze, but overall, a massive improvement and best of all, I turned on my radio and it wasn't even Saturday morning. So, what's your excuse for procrastinating? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Are you looking for a last minute Scanner Radio gift this holiday season? Do you need something for yourself or someone else? Here is a list of Scanner Radio accessories that you can have as a gift in just a few days. ====================================

How does the Radio Reference obtain the data that it publishes? Is it from Federal Licensed Databases or other online frequency repositories?   Nope! It comes from Scannerds like you and I.   In other words, the data that is inside the Radio Reference database is user contributed data that has been confirmed. We'll cover how you can find and submit data in this podcast episode, and cover the differences between paid and premium accounts. ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.  Questions answered on this week's podcast Ralph is looking for help using DSD Plus and his Scanner Danny has a few questions about setting up a Software Defined Radio Terry would like to know what the best Apps for the Scanner Radio Hobby. ====================================

Garrett Farwell returns to the podcast this week to talk about his recent trip from California to Colorado aboard Amtrak's California Zephyr. How does a “Scannerd” occupy their time while on a multi-day and multi-state land cruise?   With their portable scanner of course! Garrett shares how he prepared for his trip using online resources to find frequencies he might be interested in monitoring on his journey and how one last minute surprise really helped him get his trip off on the right “track”. I always look forward to having Garrett on the podcast and would like to thank him again for sharing what he has learned on this trip with the “Scannerd” community. ====================================

David Vine returns to the podcast this week to share alternative uses to Ham Radios. Not only can you use VHF and UHF Ham Radios to talk and monitor amateur radio frequencies, but you can use most of them to monitor outside the amateur radio band.  This means many ham radios can also be used as basic scanner radios. Frequencies that can be monitored will vary by make and model, but for the most part, expect to be able to monitor the VHF and UHF public safety bands with a VHF or UHF ham radio. Setting up scan lists and alpha tagging frequencies are most likely different from what you are used to with your scanner, but if you learn how to use a radio within its limits, you may find that having a ham radio and using it as a receiver, could really add value to your radio collection. And yes, I do give Baofeng radios a virtual poke in the ribs, but if you can use a radio like that or something similar to monitor a single or short list of conventional analog channels, then that could free up your scanner to monitor other activity.   And the more radios you have monitoring less frequencies, then the more activity you'll hear and enjoy. ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting scannerschool.com/ask   Questions answered on this week's podcast Scott would like to know how to make his scanner scan faster Derek is looking for a scanner that has a display that is easy to see and will work well in his area. ====================================

Scanners and Receivers are more cousins than brothers and sisters. Both receive frequencies, both can scan frequencies, and both do not transmit. However, each has their own strong points and weaknesses when it comes to tuning, range, and features. Found out if you should buy a receiver for your radio arsenal in this podcast episode.   ====================================

Are you looking for a creative way to build a radio bond with your child? Have you tried to scan something they can relate to, such as their own school? When your child hears a teacher, faculty, or staff that they know and can recognize talking on the radio, it could spark an interest for scanning within them. Scanning your child's school can also be of interest during times where the school has engaged their own safety protocols and have locked down.   Or, it could be interesting to hear about late pickups, routine maintenance, or other day to day activities. Remember, there is more to scanning than just public safety, and the secrets are in the searches! ====================================

For many, you can't talk about scanning without mentioning Larry Van Horn. Larry has influenced many in the hobby when it comes to Military Monitoring.    He wrote for Monitoring Time Magazine for many years and continued to write for “The Spectrum Monitor” once MT ceased publication. Not only was Larry a wealth of information when it came to Military Monitoring, but his yearly airshow columns were second to none. Larry, N5FPW, spent many years monitoring and sharing information.  Larry was special, in that he never forgot anything, which helped when writing his many column and publications. This week's podcast is a conversation Larry and I had that originally aired as Podcast # 178. Larry's legacy will live on for decades to come and I know I'll miss his columns on future editions of TSM. Larry Van Horn, N5FPW, retired US Navy Chief Petty Officer, Author, Contributor, mentor, and friend.   You will be missed. ====================================

If you've ever wanted to create or build your own scanner accessories, 3D printing may be an exciting avenue to start exploring. Matt Neely has been bitten by the 3D Printing bug, and has already printed many scanner radio accessories for a fraction of what ‘store bought' products would cost. Imagine printing your own replacement parts.  This includes belt clips, channel, squelch, and volume control knobs.   Maybe even SDS100 battery door retainer clips or desk stands. Free plans for many parts and pieces are available right now on thingaverse.com And you might even be able to create these parts locally, even if you don't already own a 3D Printer of your own. Matt knows all the ins and outs of printing replacement parts at home, and will teach you how to create your own on today's podcast. ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting https://www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.  https://www.scannerschool.com/youtube Questions answered on this week's podcast Joe would like help understanding how trunked systems work and how they are programmed into a scanner Gary is traveling and would like help with GPS scanning and monitoring CB traffic ====================================

Icom recently displayed their newest receiver at the 2023 Tokyo Hamfest. This is being called the successor to the IC-R30, but I completely disagree.  It lacks most of the features that made the IC-R30 great.  To call it a successor, based on the released specs, is an insult to the former model. The IC-R15 looks to be a neutered receiver and does not include the frequency ranges commonly found on most of the Icom receivers that predated this new model. I, for one, am hopeful that these preliminary specs are incorrect and we will see a more robust version of this receiver come from Icom in the next few months. ====================================

300 Weekly Episodes!   12 Weeks shy of 6 years!   All I can say is WOW! Instead of spending a lot of time looking back at the last 300 episodes, let's talk about what the plans are for the next 6 years or 300 episodes of the podcast. Yes - the podcast will remain - but there is something new that is in the works that will make the podcast even better, and more enjoyable for you. Thank you all for your support over the last 300 episodes.     ====================================

Finally - after 20 years in my house I'm finally able to build my radio room the way I want it. I've had 2 temporary locations that always looked like a hodgepodge of radios, computers, and wires.  Frankly, each was an embarrassment in their own right. But - no matter how bad they looked in my opinion, they were functional. And that is the story here!   Whether you have a single radio on a desk, nightstand, or on your hip, whatever works best for you is perfectly fine!  We don't need perfect places to call home to our radios.   Will my new room be perfect?   I hope so, but I'm sure there will be things I'm going to want to change before I even start putting my radios back onto my desks. Follow me on my social media channels to get a glimpse of this new spot, what it means to the podcast, and what new topics this new room will allow me to create.   Links are at the bottom of this description.   ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.   Click here to Subscribe! Questions answered on this week's podcast Rob would like to disable Zip Code scanning and enable his favorites lists on his scanner. David has a question about how well Zip Code scanning works   ====================================

Do you want to be known as your community's go to guy or gal for scanner radio help and programming? Luke Hartnett is known in his firehouse as being the point of contact for any radio issues other members may have.   And by word of mouth, he is quickly becoming known in his area for being a "Scanner Scholar". Hear how Luke built trust with those around him, networked with other radio users, and because known as "The Guru" in his community on today's podcast.   ====================================

Finally - not one, but TWO new scanners from Uniden. Should we be excited about these two new radios, or should we pass on them? That all depends on your location and your needs. See, these scanners break the mold and give us something we've never seen before A scanner radio, with no trunking, no P25, but supports DMR and NXDN. Who is this radio for? The answers are in this week's podcast.   ====================================

Looking to level-up your portable scanner radios? Today's podcast covers 10 must have accessories every user needs. A shortlist of what we cover (with affiliate links): Easier To Read Manuals https://www.scannermaster.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=500&Click=6262 Aftermarket Antennas http://www.scannermaster.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=27&Click=6262 Protective Cases http://www.scannermaster.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=41&Click=6262 ====================================

Scanner radios, with some small exceptions, come in two form factors.  Handheld for portable use, or desktop/mobile for single location installations. Which type of scanner is right for your needs?  If you are looking for your first or next scanner and can't decide between a handheld or desktop scanner, I have 5 reasons why you should consider a portable radio. ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.   Click here to Subscribe! Questions answered on this week's podcast Rob would like to disable Zip Code scanning and enable his favorites lists on his scanner. David has a question about how well Zip Code scanning works   ====================================