OwlG

After updating my firmware I was supprised to see that rtl_power wasn't included with rtl-sdr. It has been included for some time now. Luckily after an hour of trying to cross compile it I cheated and stumbled across an ipk ​ ​https://steve-m.de/projects/rtl-sdr/openwrt/packages/ ​ ​Once I got it installed it worked great. If you aren't familur with rtl_power it is a great little tool. http://kmkeen.com/rtl-power/ ​ ​I use it mostly to look at the aircraft band in my area. Now that I can remote into my pi I can take this little setup out side and <ronco> set it and forget it </ronco>. The csv files if generates can get pretty big so a larger SD card is a plus. ​ ​Using heatmap.py and the python imaging lib is a little much for the pineapple to handle so instead I just transfer the csv files over and map them on my laptop. ​ ​ ​ ​

I decided I wanted to build one of these to use with the weather sats and my RTL. It works great for that and has a bonus of working well with the aircraft band 118-137 MHz It was intimidating looking at first but once I started it took less than a half hour to get on the air. There are plenty of how to's out there using different materials. Give it a shot yourself.

Hey Swaggie! First you need to find out which is more active in your area. A lot of times one band is more used than the other (usually 2m VHF). A basic dual band radio will eat into your budget pretty fast so I will give you my $.02 Option 1) http://www.mtcradio.com/kenwood-tm-281a-144-mhz-mobile-with-free-shipping/ http://www.mtcradio.com/mfj-30-amp-switching-power-supply/ http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Band-VHF-UHF-Ham-Commercial-MURS-and-GMRS-versions-Base-Station-Antenna-/121340978770?pt=US_Radio_Comm_Antennas&hash=item1c407c6652 and add coax cable Option 2) Use a handy talky like a Yeasu FT-60 and an external 50w amp (can be found used for less than $100) I would still recomend the same antenna as above. There is a chance you might come across a used HF radio localy that fits your budget, you will just have to keep your eyes open. I too recomend joining a local group to find out the ins and outs of your area.

You have a couple options http://kmkeen.com/rtl-demod-guide/ rtl_fm -M fm -f 154.42M -f 154.75M -f 154.82M -f 154.89M -s 12k -g 50 -l 70 rtl_fm -M am -f 118M:137M:25k -s 12k -g 50 -l 280 Then pipe either of those commands into your favorite player or to a file. The link above has some good info.

Are you still having this problem? It looks like your driver is already in use. You might try adding these to your blacklist. nano /etc/modprobe.d/rtl-sdr-blacklist.conf blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu blacklist e4000 blacklist rtl2832 That is given you are using a rtl with a 2838 chip.

Hey James sorry for the late reply. Use NFM and start with a wide filter. If your marine antenna is in the 162 MHz range it will work fine. Most repeaters are on towers or tall buildings so they usually have a pretty good signal.

Don't get me wrong jobdone or W7PP (nice station) I don't think a jpole is the end all be all. Just throwing something out there. I think it would be cool to see them team up with Ben Heck to make a phased vertical ground plane that rotates and then if you select a flight number it would track that flight. Pretty much like sats but no need for an elevation rotor. I did this project a few years ago and had good results http://files.bluecrow.net/Amateur%20Radio/Antennas/2m-phased-array-ant.pdf

http://www.tgc-ares.org/DBJ-2%20Roll%20up.pdf Mr Fong goes into some good detail on the effects of PVC. The DBJ 1 and 2 are both great antennas. If you look at the take off angle from the eznec models it has a take off angle of about 45 degrees. That would give you the farthest reach. I like colliners but at VHF they are getting pretty big with lots of points to have a failure. No matter what antenna you go with it beats the pants off the stock one! P;us at the size you are messing with for ADSB you can make a whole lot of antennas with not too many supplies. I would like to see Darren to stick his antenna on a VNA and get some specs.

There sure are. http://www.irts.ie/cgi/repeater.cgi If you see ones listed as "Echolink" or "IRLP" that means they take the RF signal and pipe it over the interwebz and out someplace else. There is a good chance you can hear someone from the states or Japan on those repeaters.

Chances are there isn't a lot of traffic at once but usually around drive time or rush hour you will hear people on them. The topics can range from what happened at the office to very in depth technical discussions. Look here for a list of frequencies in your area. http://k5ehx.net/

I would have used something like a J pole antenna so that way you get a lower take off angle. There are plans online that mirror the Arrow Antennas J pole. It would IMO be eaiser to build and perform better than the colliner. The PVC had to effect the resonence of the antenna.