KD6W

I am running winderz 7 on two laptops and with no other apps running other than SDR#, build 1318... 1.) a relatively new ASUS X750J (Intel i7) showing 1 of the 8 cores running at 50% while all the other cores are chilling at near nothing. 2.) an old Dell Latitude D600 with a Pentium M running flat out can't keep up with audio decoding let alone any spectrogram/waterfall updates with task manager open, poor thing.

I have the same board and mine is relatively deaf so I'm not surprised. My measurements show the conversion works at about 0.05mV@1.8MHz to make both 126.8MHz and the image at -77dBm which is about 3 dB up off the noise floor according to my HP8590E. The fix is this cool little preamp http://kitsandparts.com/rfamp1.1.php which will easily boost the low band sensitivity well into -97dBm range which will put this card on par with most common receivers. Additionally, the HackRF is also deaf as a door knob so an IF gain stage will also greatly help boost the performance of the whole setup well into the super receiver territory but you will want to place a high pass filter after the IF amp to hack off everything below 126MHz. Bare bones (no preamp or IF gain stage it takes a solid 0.5mV@1.8MHz (yes, a 450mV jump to make it work!) to just barely get the carrier up out of the noise floor on the HackRF display (yikes!). My SDR# spectrograph shows the noise floor at -65 (and I measured the signal of interest at -63dBm on the spectrum analyzer so that jives!) and the frequency readout indicates 127.42MHz (of the original 1.8MHz) which indicates 500kHz high which is consistent with all my other observations. REMEBER - BEFORE YOU TURN YOUR SDR INTO A SDT, YOU NEED TO BYPASS ALL OF THIS STUFF OR YOU WILL LET THE MAGIC SMOKE OUT. Fortunately, there is a very convenient RF bias output option which can be enabled on TX into the antenna connector to trigger the appropriate switching circuit. KD6W

Check this out... physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjt.html and then look down the list of coding schemes for "JT65 or JT4 - for EME ..." where the acronym "EME" stands for Earth Moon Earth meaning, playing pool with the planets using RF. If you are closer to the Aurora belt then you can use JT6M coding. What I'm looking to do is to build these same coding schemes as modules inside GNU Radio and learn how to morph the various transforms and produce a new tool to provide an infinite range of coding terms to adapt to ANY type of condition just by changing some software variables. KD6W

As the name would imply, you (homo sapien) define the functions or logical blocks to build up the properties you wish to define in software. If you re-arrange the blocks you can change the design to do something different like switch between AM to FM and so on. If you read through the specifications here ... https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/ you can see the highlights of it's capabilities and as you can guess these are based on the silicon choices they made when they designed the unit, the rest is in the CPU you already own and your imagination. But UNLIKE a CPU the higher you go in radio frequency has no relationship with processing requirements to receive or transmit as the tuned frequency (from 10 MHz to 6 GHz in this case) is like the tuning knob on your car radio. To change the frequency, you change the Local Oscillator or more accurately, the Variable Frequency Oscillator. The amount of BANDWIDTH which can be moved through the USB interface to feed the CPU speed and to be processed will dictate where the design will choke. Since the design is rated at 20 Million samples per second using 8 bit samples for I and Q (Cosine and Sine) the device is spewing up to 320 Megabits/second or 320 Mb/s into the CPU. Any recent quad core or the new i7 can handle that without breaking a sweat. The theoretical transfer rate of USB 2.0 is 480 Mb/s so this device isn't going to over run the interface. The Ettus B210 can run twice the symbol rate of the HackRF1 but uses USB 3.0 to transfer at those rates. How fast do you need to go? Depends on how wide you are trying to capture and process or transmit. To answer the question about DDOS - Not with a single device, but if you buy a shit load of these things and spread them around your intended target you might gain the same effect. This is about physics, not pure packets and logic and programming, it's more about wave forms and the conversion of symbols into a bit stream which are then turned into some human formed components that we can understand from transmitting AM radio to burst communication spread spectrum. Think about what a distributed denial of service attack does, now imagine how the same form would be represented using a bunch of transmitters. It's really apples and oranges. On the other hand, one guy with a powerful radio can be very disruptive to licensed services like taxi and tow companies or worse police and fire. But you must ask yourself what is the psychosis of the fucked up scum bag who would do such a thing. Seriously. Go get a Chicken Band radio and a big ass linear amp and please go knock yourself out if jamming gives you a thrill. I understand why the military uses it and its for a damn good reason, but why anybody would purposefully interfere with the people who are there to save lives just makes no sense to me. Second, who has time for this? Third, don't we have bigger problems to deal with? If you want a REAL challenge, go outside on a night with a full moon. While looking at it, imagine if you could generate a signal strong enough and direct it at the moon and have the signal bounce off to allow YOU or somebody on the other side of the planet hear it, 2 seconds later. I will have more to follow on this subject later but I hope many of you here to get your receivers ready to do this and many more cool things (there are many folks to show you how) to point up on a night with a full moon and listen for the carriers of distant transmitters. Don't worry, the receiver is the easy part! Lots more to follow, please stay tuned. Pun intended KD6W

{phew..} I'm not the only one. You should try installing GNU SDR on Winderz, it's way worse... those Windows compiled binaries they talk about come with a huge disclaimer and they aren't kidding. Now I'm working on building up a virtualization so I can run both so I can avoid the restrictions and limitations between both. Ugh. Anybody got a rusty spoon I can gouge my eyes out with?

George, The backers just got their boards and my guess is the factory hasn't ramped production enough to support the huge demand. The backers (I was one) were delayed over 6 months. I was expecting in Jan and took delivery when I got home from DEFCON. I have already pre-ordered my second but not holding my breath either. I did order an Ettus and it showed up (via Hungary, go figure) and that took 2 weeks. Albiet, it costs more but it has way better specifications so to me, well worth the dollars. KD6W

I own both, USRP and now HackRF1. I have been using the USRP B200 for my work in DTV testing/simulation for months and also playing around with ham radio. I'm more of a blue hat tester, iow - nothing to do with pen testing. I'll have more input on the HackRF later, as I'm busy on other fronts.

Here are 4 easy to follow steps to get a Mk 5 Pineapple WiFi safely home and through a US TSA screening... 1. Remove the antennas - put them in some compartment other than where you put the appliance 2. Remove any cables - put them with your other cords/cables as they all look the same 3. Remove the MicroSD memory card - put it in a safe place, I put mine in my wallet 4. Pack the appliance with all your other dongles and 4TB hard drives and accessories If they specifically pull it out and ask you what it is (which I highly doubt), it is your "wireless access device". It conforms to the rules and is not on the list of restricted travel items. The rest of the steps and just handy ideas. I'm A List on Southwest, Gold on United and I frequently get TSA Precheck, but not everytime. I travel with a laptop, iPad, Cell phone, 2 way ham radio, dongles, USB sticks, various cables/adapters and now a Mk5PW!

I like the NTIA chart because it's so colorful and chocked full of data. I deal with broadcast engineers regularly so I present them with data so they can collate it on their own. "SCIENCE!" he said with great affirmation and conviction.

Nice picture. The stock antenna is actually pretty good for ADS-B operation and best when stuck on something metallic like your light fixture or the top of your refrigerator. J pole antennas are easy to make, omnidirection folded dipoles designed to easily match the impedance at a specific frequency to a transmitter. That said, a half wave length hunk of wire sticking straight up in the air will have the same receive gain compared to a j pole. For really good gain, you need a really good gain antenna like a YAGI but those are directional and why most folks simply use co-linear antennas including high power broadcasters. The simple vertical antenna gain can be greatly improved by simply putting a back plate ground plane behind it but then the pattern would become cardioid in shape. 200km readings are fairly common when the aircraft are at cruising altitude.

It depends on where you live but here in the US, we have the good old NTIA and they produce this huge chart to show where people are allowed to be licensed to operate. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/2003-allochrt.pdf - Not exactly suitable as a pin-up but you can stare at this thing all day, well, at least I can. I like how barry used all the terms from Wiki and put them in clickable form. Good show old chap!

It can happen where the track of the plane may have been on a path that had "enhancement" and during this time of the year it can readily happen if you are in the northern latitudes (summer). We call this effect "ducting" and this happens when the atmosphere stratifies into temperature layers or bands where the air temperature changes very little through several thousand feet and then all of a sudden drops 50 degrees in just a few hundred feet. The radio waves up at those frequencies will hit this barrier and either reflect down or refract up to space depending on the specific air density, humidity, etc. Another phenomena is E Layer or E skip or "sporadic E" which is a hoot and regularly enhances frequencies from the TV band, FM band all the way up through L band (1 GHz) but is more rare as the frequency goes up. Can you imagine being on the west coast and talking on a frequency near TV channel 2, with another person on the east coast or Europe! It happens, I have done it and they were clear as a normal phone call! In ham radio circles we call it DXing and have known about it for a looooong time. This is the mind blowing part about our atmosphere. - KD6W

Scotch - with ONE big ass ice cube! http://servicesjohnniewalker.com/recipes/images/img_content_redlabel_2.png

This annual event always starts on the 4th full weekend in June (tomorrow) at 1800Z and runs for 24 hours. Us wacky ham radio geeks are living large on the airwaves but doing so in grand style, in the field of course just as the name implies. Look around the area where you live for really big antennas in places where you don't normally see them. Bring your SDR, or your drones with Pineapple WiFi and cameras or just come out and check it out. To help you find a site near you, click this link... http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator I build/maintain and operate the VHF/UHF and Satellite station and host the computer network and logging database for PAARA, call sign W6ARA. If you do come to the park to visit and stop by my station, I will autograph a QSL card just for stopping by. If you hear "W6ARA" any where in the world on one of the amateur radio bands, send us a postcard or an email listing the time, frequency and the town where you live and we will send you a rather stylish confirmation card (QSL card) in a couple weeks - KD6W W6ARA PAARA (Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association) Bedwell Bayfront Park Menlo Park, CA GOTA: YES (if you have never operated a radio, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE! NO LICENSE REQUIRED!) Talk-in: Freq: 145.23 MHz Shift: -600 KHz PL:100Hz (only good in the San Francisco Bay Area) Contact: Doug Teter - KG6LWE / Joel Wilhite - KD6W dteter@wcwi.com / kd6w@arrl.net http://www.paara.org/

Meanwhile - (6 years later) Why is a "myspace popup" video insert just start showing up in the corner of certain web pages I visit with Chrome, or is it just me? I searched the web and see others have seen this for several months now and mine only just started and then I remembered. I just changed my virus scanner. Without going into deep details, I "removed" one and launched another and this shit showed up...

With all that said, I couldn't agree more. The day our TV's is smarter than us, we are all screwed. I want my TV to be a display, you can keep the Ethernet port and built in WiFi. - KD6W

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2014/06/06/red-button-flaw-exposes-major-vulnerability-in-millions-of-smart-tvs/ DRONES+TV's with internet connections = printers spewing coupons? Ok, but they missed a small little detail that I'm sure can be worked out or around but think about the power needed to transmit a signal strong enough to swamp the TV front end to over come the original signal to replace it with the pseudo signal, not impossible but it's not easy easy either. That much sophistication and all for as little as $200 dollars? They are very optimistic to say the least, and a drone for anonymity, yeah I suppose? But a rooftop (like the one in the video) can be a great place to put an antenna for 5 or ten minutes and wow, no flying required... (duh). (note to self) - when you buy that sexy new-fangled uber expensive TV, remember to turn the "smart" features off. Just say thanks, but no thanks. I don;t know about you but I like watching my TV programs WITHOUT the extra attachments. What are your thoughts? - KD6W

Yep. That will work. And now that I'm looking for them they are all over the place. Check this out...Adafruit has them for 2.95! My local electronics store has them for $9.95. E-gads! What a rip off...

The radio I spoke of earlier was the Baofeng and now that I have had some time to use it, it's OK. BUT, although it works, it has it's issues too as one should expect for a radio that doesn't cost hardly anything. The old saying is true, you get what you pay for. But I concur with the range of comments from the other forum (G0HCP and OH8GAD) the bang for buck and your first experience will be based tempered on the band and the people around you on those bands. I live in the Bay Area, not far from the HAK5 World Headquarters. I just scanned the 2m band from my QTH (location) and there are a few stations on the air, some analog and some digital (DMR and DStar). If you live farther away from metropolitan areas, there will be less. When I scan a popular part of 80 meter band, there are six or more QSO's (conversations) and they are all over the western United States. Mind you, none of them are talking about anything worth listening too. Again - a fool and his money are easily parted but who am I to tell you how to spend it. Did you take your license test yet? - KD6W

A TCXO device has an enclosed package (usually a metal box - see below) and has several features, but most notably uses one of a number of heaters to raise the temperature in close proximity to the crystal. Why would you do that? If the outside temperature moves around, the temperature around the crystal area will only move very slightly, if at all. A (quartz) crystal is affected by several factors, one is temperature. If you can minimize the temperature excursion of the crystal, you can minimize the frequency drift. Another type of oscillator is called an OCXO or "ovenized" compensated crystal oscillator and specifically heats the crystal to a very specific temperature (like 60C) before it is at it's operational frequency. Those oscillators have even less drift than a TCXO but draw more current to stay hot and cost WAY more than a TCXO. So, why is having a crystal frequency oscillator so stable important? When you set the frequency on the radio dial to tune in a signal of interest, if the local oscillator drifts around you will be forced to re-tune the receiver. Here is a collection of various oscillators. The ruler at the bottom is six inches long. Starting at the far left going right, is a Temperature Controlled Coaxial Resonant Oscillator {TCCRO} (~5 GHz), next to it in black is a "brick" power oscillator (949.2227979 MHz), up in front of it is a Phase Locked Dielectric Resonant Oscillator {PLDRO} (4.3 GHz), behind it, in the middle is a double oven crystal oscillator {DOCXO} (5.000000 MHz), and behind it is a Verticom YIG oscillator (11-12.7 GHz programmable tuning), next to it in the back is a Ball Efratom Rubidium Oscillator (10,000,000.000,00 Hz - yes that is 5 places past the decimal point as in tens of microHertz of accuracy). Next to it is another PLDRO (11 GHz), and all the way to the right is a Variable Frequency Oscillator {VFO} for tuning R-390 military radios (WWII). The green board is a synthesized PLL oscillator (~1550 MHz), in front of it is a high stability TCXO (100 MHz), to the right of it is a Gunn Diode Oscillator (~50 GHz), note the tiny little output aperture. The little devices scattered around in front are various discreet crystals and the little round one with two legs sticking up is a high temperature rated crystal usually fitted into the brick oscillator (the black one). The most common crystal is the one right in the middle and is used in all kinds of circuits from radios to computers to clocks. Some of the really flat devices are programmed once at the factory but can operate at wide ranges from 1 MHz to 50 MHz while other devices are very low cost and stomped out in the millions and designed to only make one frequency. There are many more designs and shapes but these were the ones floating around in my shack. - KD6W

Or ...http://aa9pw.com/radio/ For those with an account on QRZ.com, they too have the tests and it lets you check the answers as you go.

Do you have a link to the construction article? Nice picture!

hmmm, nothing here...

Great question, but is this to survey a range of occupied frequencies or to look for a characteristic signal on more than one frequency? If the criteria is to simply look for RF energy of an amplitude that coincides with the receiver tuned frequency (just like a scanner) then there are some simple programs for analysis that hook into radios with computer interfaces. The radio is programmed to sweep and when the threshold is met the radio stops, and the computer logs the frequency. The primarily usage is for surveys and is best performed with multiple receivers and in multiple locations. But if what you are trying to do is find a specific carrier that jumps all over the place, well then, now we need to talk! The big issue is identifying the suspect (on the fly) in a short dwell time and this is a huge topic in the "sig-int" world. To get over the huge processing requirements, they tend to narrow their search range and record the whole band of interest and then crunch the numbers off-line to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. The best of both worlds is a smart algorithmic search that starts off as a simple sweep but triggers new search ranges as the characteristic of the desired carriers change or doesn't as the case may be. All of this is improved IF you know what you are looking for and IF you know where it is coming from. You my friend just might have a bright future in the worderful world of being a spook! -KD6W

There is ALWAYS Pasternak - http://www.pasternack.com/sma-female-sma-male-straight-adapter-pe9533-p.aspx Not cheap but at least they have them in stock