Just got a hack RF, had something working, now it's not

[weller01]

Hey everyone,

I just received a Hack RF in the mail today. I took it over to my brothers house to play around with it, and got it working in SDR Sharp playing some FM radio stations.

I took it back to my house and started messing around with some settings and then wanted to go back and tune into some FM frequencies again and couldn't get it to work...

Attached is a screenshot with my settings, am I missing something? I thought this is exactly how I had it when I did have it working. I guess it could just be that I don't get the signal with the RF at my house, but every other small/simple radio that I have seems to get it. I'm trying to tune into FM 96.7.

I want to note that at one point in the night, I accidently held down the DFU button when I thought it was the reset button. Not sure if that would have messed it up or not... But could you guys give me a little help?

One thing that I also noticed is earlier when I was playing with it, when I'd tune, there wasn't always a spike right in the center like there is in the screenshot. Whenever I move it around or tune somewhere else (all I get is noise or nothing right now....) there's always a spike right dead center where I tune, it's like it never moves.

If you need to see any other configuration windows, let me know...

Thanks!

[bored369]

That spike is a DC spike from your USB output from your computer, you can use the offset tuning so that you can tune outside of that spike. You want to be careful with the AMP setting make sure the hackRF isn't running that when you have that set and disconnect the antenna, that can cause hardware problems with your hackRF. Different areas and the antenna type can make a huge difference on what you can receive, the hackRF is known to be a little deaf as far as receiving but you can get different antennas to improve that and line amps and things like that. You can really break it with any of the buttons or settings going through windows really.

I would highly recommend checking out the lessons Mike has on greatscottgadgets.com they will really help you understand what you have and are working with there.

I just barely understand any of it and have only been playing with it for a couple months on and off as a hobby. There is a ton to learn and that's the best place to start, as well as just watching as many videos and reading as much as you can about sdr in general.

I know that's all kinda rambled but hopefully it helped give you a direction.