I needed to create a simple antenna selector as possible. I was fine with the idea if the selector itself leaks some of the signal, or has a bad impedance – I just wanted to be able to select between two antennas and one receiver – remotely. As AirSpy R1 and AirSpy Mini has a…

While waiting the Lattepanda Delta to arrive I decided to do a similar “Spring cleaning” to my home system as I did to the main remote site earlier this year. I like so much to tinker with these systems that I use 90% of my hobby time for modifications 🙂 Tech in this installation: Odroid…

I had to re-recycle the Dell Laptop PC that I used for the main remote site and decided to replace it with a Lattepanda Delta SbC. Because I ordered the Lattepanda Delta via Kickstarter I knew it will take a lot of time and I cannot wait it to arrive before I need to get…

This was done to see if it is a good idea to have only active MiniWhip for HF and VLF band and recycle the parts from HamItUp converter based implementation to another project. Based on the test I did just that – I was able to receive VLF signals that I did not know even…

Good grounding is essential for good reception, especially when using active MiniWhip antennas for HF and VLF. In my system there are two grounding points, located opposite sides of the building. One is installed horizontal about 50cm (19,7″) below the surface. The total amount of copper pipe buried is around 10 meters (32,8f). The other…

Decent reception of WeFax transmitted from Germany via HF using 7880Khz. Used for this: MiniWhip Active antenna, NooElec RTL-Dongle with Direct Sample Mod, SDR# and MultiPSK.

Summer 2015 I was finally able to take all my knowledge, my systems and my ideas to the main remote site (my parents house far away from the city interference) and build a remote site with as much possibilities to learn even more about what one can do with these 20USD dongles. A space has…

2015 I found site called http://rtl-sdr.com that had very interesting article about how to receive telemetry from airplanes and display real time location of planes with a easy to use software and computer. It took me one weekend to come up with my own hardware solution, this is by the way still in use at…

For this extension of my systems I built a dual radio enclosure that is powered by RaspberryPi 2b. It is used for both, ADS-B data feed to Flightradar24 and listening to the radio communications between the air traffic control and aircrafts. This has been on 24/7 since summer 2015 located outside and it seems this…

2014 was mainly a ‘Time of Tinkering’. I built several different combinations from RTL-SDR dongles, LNA’s, computers and controllers to learn how well these dongles, antennas, LNA’s and RaspberryPi’s can work together – main idea was still to use as small amount of money as possible but still create a powerfull SDR system.