av8tor
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Posts posted by av8tor
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What Cooper said was basically correct with a slight correction, 6GHz is the top range of the HackRF, that's if you're cpu can keep up with the sampling but I think most should.
Regarding encryption. Most Public Safety comms (here in the US) aren't encrypted however more and more cities are moving to encrypting some of their radio comms. But due to the high costs of radio systems this has been slow and some agencies are getting considerable backlash for encrypting comms.
Regarding military comms, 99% of what I hear is NOT encrypted. I hear endless military comms, both real-world and training missions and its rare they're encrypted. And the funny thing is that when do try to go encrypted it doesn't work and they'll come back non-encrypted. I have even heard NORAD fighters scrambling to intercept possible hi-jacked aircraft from Cuba, Not encrypted. AWACS directing fighters to targets, again not encrypted. Customs Board Patrol surveilling / chasing drug smuggling boats & airplanes, here it's about 50/50 encrypted or not. UHF military satellites, here nearly all are encrypted but at times you'll catch someone in the clear. All of this can be received on the HackRF, or any of the RTL-SDR dongles as well as most standard police scanners as long as they cover the 225 to 400 MHz range & can receive in AM mode.
Here is a link to tons of Military communications I've received and recorded all of which can be received on a basic scanner, dongle, or HackRF: http://milaircomms.com/audio_library.html
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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I just ordered 1 yesterday. Can't wait to get it. You never can have too many radios!
George
www.MilAirComms.com <-- NSA listens to me, I listen back.
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I just wonder how many people tired to use GNU and gave up...I almost did and I Live, Sleep, & Drink radio stuff all day! (here is my "office": http://www.milaircomms.com/shack.html
But after several days of trial & error and many times where I reinstalled Ubuntu in order to have a totally fresh system to work from I had success!
I typed up a step by step list of each command you need to type assuming you have a freshly installed Ubuntu system, I posted it to another message, here is the link:
I wish you luck
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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Are the HackRF's shipping yet? If no when weill they be shipping. I want to order one but it looks like the Hackshop is only taking "pre" orders.
Thanks
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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I've spent countless hours trying to get GNURadio-Companion to install along with the needed "source blocks" to make an RTL-SDR Dongle work.
Online documention on this is very poor.
But I've got it to work, and just for fun I did it twice!
This How-To assumes you're running a freshly installed Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS & assumes you're sort of a newbie to Linux as I am.
Below are the commands you type, do not include the quote signs.
1) Log into a desktop terminal
2) Make sure you're in your home directory by typing "cd ~"
3) Type "sudo apt-get install git-core"
4) Type "sudo apt-get install cmake"
5) Type "sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev"
6) Type "sudo apt-get install build-essential"
7) Type "git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git"
8) Type "cd rtl-sdr"
9) Type "mkdir build"
10) Type "cd build"
11) Type "cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON"
12) Type "make"
13) Type "sudo make install"
14) Type "sudo ldconfig" If everything worked up to this point you should not see any messages after typing the sudo ldconfig command.
15) Type "cd ~"
16) Type "sudo cp ./rtl-sdr/rtl-sdr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d"
17) Type "sudo reboot" <-- not sure if a reboot is needed at this time, but I seen it listed on a partial list of how-to's, so I did it and my system worked!
Once your system reboots log back into a terminal window as before.
18) Type "cd /etc/modprobe.d"
19) Type "sudo nano no-rtl.conf" This will start your editor and put you into a blank file called no-rtl.conf. While you are in the editor type the following 3 lines:
blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
blacklist rtl2832
blacklist rtl2830
That is it, just those 3 lines, nothing more! To save the file hold the CTRL key and hit the "O" (oh, not zero), next it enter. Your file is now saved. To exit out of the nano editor type CTRL X.
20) Type "sudo reboot" <-- this reboot is needed!
Once your system reboots log back into a terminal window as before.
Plug your RTL-SDR into a USB port if you already hadn't.
21) Type "rtl-test -t" You should then see the name of your RTL device as well as some other info. The last line will say "No E4000 tuner found, aborting" Don't worry about this as your RTL-SDR dongle probably has the R820 tuner and not the E4000. If you want to receive ADS-B / Mode-S data you do NOT want the E4000 tuner as it will not tune 1090 MHz.
22) Type "cd ~"
23) Type "git clone git://github.com/pybombs/pybombs"
24) Type "cd /pybombs"
25) Type "./pybombs install uhd gnuradio hackrf" You will be asked a series of questions, simply hit the enter key after each question. It will run for a short time then ask for your sudo password, this actually might happen a couple times during the build process, each time enter your sudo password (same as your user password). You also might be asked to hit the "Y" key a couple times, sometimes I was and sometimes I wasn't. Most of what I've seen online says this process will take 1 1/2 to 2 hours. On my machine (2 Meg Ram & 1.5 GHz processor) it was much closer to 3 hours.
26) When the above build is done there is one last thing to install, this will bring in the "source" and "sink" blocks, something that is missing from every online set of instructions I've seen. Without the "source" block you have no way to use the RTL dongle! So now type "./pybombs install gr-osmosdr" this will take several minutes to run.
27) Type "./pybombs env"
28) Type "source /home/av8tor/target/setup_env.sh" Replace the word av8tor with your username you use to log into Ubuntu, just happens my username is av8tor.
29) Type "gnuradio-companion" now you're HOME FREE!!!
One last thing to remember is that everytime you reboot Ubuntu, you'll have to type the "source /home/av8tor/target/setup_env.sh" command or gnuradio-companion will NOT work.
I hope this helps other that have had a hardtime getting gnuradio to work.
George
www.MilAirComms.com -
This morning I did get it to work.
Actually the total number of steps isn't a lot, even when you compile for source. The real problem is that all the only installation instructions are written assuming you are both an A+ Linux expert AND a GNU expert who has written most of the code.
I tried 7 or 8 how-to guides to get GNC w/RTL support, all of which failed. It took a ton of trial-and-error to get it to work, but now I got it...
When I get a change I'll write up a simpler How-To
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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I can't find info on Mode-S Hexcode D4CDAB however I can offer some insight to ADSB / Mode-S callsigns.
Callsigns are entered into the transponder / flight management computer by the pilot AND its not a requirement to enter any or even the correct callsign at this time (that might change in the future).
Sometimes pilots weill enter something funny in the computer just as a joke. Some strange ones I've seen are NOSOUP4U, FAASUCKS, and recently here in the United States there have been bunch of military C-130 pilots flying around with the callsign set to BEERME.
Also all of the military TACAMO (TakeChargeAndMoveOut - doomsday) E-6 aircraft fly with their callsigns set to GOTO FMS. The reason is a bit funny. When they installed new Flight Managment Systems in the E-6s the pilots kept asking the electronic techs "where do I put the callsign in these new things". The Electronic techs got tired of telling the plots "it goes into the Flight Management System" so the techs decided to set ALL of the E-6 FMS system callsign to "GOTO FMS" hoping the pilots would see it on the display and remember...the pilots revolted and said I ain't changing that thing, it can just say set to GOTO FM.... To this day anytime you see a GOTO FMS callsign either on your ADSB or on one of the online tracking maps you can bet that its an E-6 TACAMO aircraft out of Tinker Air Force Base.
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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Don't laugh but that computer only has 512 M of memory. I said it was an old computer...it had XP on it, I tried installing Ubuntu which install fine but ran very slow. So that's why I installed Lubuntu on it. Actually it runs Lubuntu very nicely..I was just trying to find a use for that machine.... but you might be correct on the ram problem with the compiler...
Back to compiling on one of my real computers....just here in mission control listening to E-3B AWACS controlling F-15 fighers during dog fight off my coast....
Thanks
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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I've spent days trying to get gnuradio-companion to work.
On a fresh Ubuntu install I did an "sudo apt-get install gnuradio"
I then type "gnuradio-companion" I get the gnuradio-companion gui up just fine. However in all the videos I've seen the 1st block you choose is "SOURCE" then choose eithr RTL-SDR or OSMOCOM as that is what is needed to talk to your RTL-SDR dongle.
However there is not block called SOURCE.
What didn't I do or install?
Thanks
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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I've been trying to compile GNU on an old computer (8 years old!) which is running Lubuntu
However when it gets about 30% done it stops with the following error:
"g++: internal compiler error: Killed (program cc1plus)"
On my Ubuntu machine I don't get this error.
What might I be missing on Lubuntu (which is a waterdown version of Ubuntu to run on less powerful pc's).
Thanks
George - Daytona Beach
www.MilAirComms.com
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Oh the cable pics would be too ugly...I don't have any good tricks for that. But just for the scanners, each scanner has 3 wires (Power, Antenna, Speaker) so that is 12 * 3 = 36 total cables and that's just for the Military Monitoring Scanners. Then the Ham Radio stuff is a whole different story...
Here on YouTube I have some videos of the scanners in operation complete with audio. Also some of the Military Digital signals can be seen on an RTL-SDR w/SDR#
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFcFWwA8-xrLefQL0Mix48A
Enjoy
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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Just looked at the shack pic... Duuuuude! I love you already.
Thanks, it keeps changing and changing...keep buying more radios therefore I need to re-arrange things... just think of all the cabling, that is what is a nightmare!
George
www.MilAirComms.com
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I've enjoyed the Hak5 shows relating to SDR & ADSB data. I just wanted to add a couple items.
The Hak5 shows were only talking about and showing aircraft that broadcast full ADSB data (that means ADSB data which includes Lat/Long). However for every aircraft you see on the "map" there are at least 10 others which are broadcasting ADSB data without sending their Lat/Long. Most aircraft do not send lat/long as part of the ADSB information. These include all types of aircraft such as commerical, private, and military aircraft.
Being my main hobby is monitoring radio communciations from Military Aircraft in the UHF band (225 MHz - 400 MHz) my primary ADSB interest also are military aircraft.
I've created software that runs on the Raspberry Pi computer (a Linux operating system) and on Windows which tunes the RTL-SDR dongle to 1090 MHz, and only listens for Military Aircraft. When it finds a military aircraft it then sends the data to my website. While there is no lat/long, you can watch the altitude in realtime on a graph. Its neat as you can watch aircraft landing in realtime or doing various missions.
Here is an example of a US Coast Guard Helo working a rescue mission off the coast of Daytona Beach not long ago:
http://www.milaircomms.com/hex_code_profile.php?hex_logger_id=322035
Here an example of the E-4 Doomsday aircraft flying over my area and then landed at Patrick AFB:
http://milaircomms.com/hex_code_profile.php?hex_logger_id=327079
I currently have about 30 people around the world using my software to feed ADSB (Mode-S) data into the website, here you can see the real-time data & graphs of the military and government aircraft flying:
the graphs on this page update every 30 seconds.
I also do a ton of listening on the Military Bands using 12+ scanners to search the bands, heres a pic:
http://milaircomms.com/shack.html
If you're interested in what you can really hear (rarely does the miltiary encrypt during training missions) here's a liberary of audio I've recorded from my local area: http://www.milaircomms.com/audio_library.html I've got some pretty funny stuff recorded such as an F-15 pilot loosing his contact lens in flight, F-15 pilot opening a can of Coke in flight (you actually can hear it!) to training missions of AWACS directing fighters to targets.
I just thought I'd share what I've been doing with Mode-S / ADSB since there's been a lot of shows on the subject.
Enjoy,
George - Daytona Beach, FL
www.MilAirComms.com
Helicopters?
in SDR - Software Defined Radio
Posted
This sites tracks any Military or Goverment registered aircraft or helicopter. If you noticed, you'll see many police helos, Dept. of Homeland Security helos and US Coast Guard Helos if you keep watching. This site displays the Mode-S data regardless if there is lat/long info with it:
http://www.milaircomms.com/mil_air_modes_logger.html?receiver_location=ALL
Helos & Aircraft use the very same transponder.
George
www.MilAirComms.com