Build a homebrew radio telescope american radio relay. Mark spencer, wa8sme figure 1 radio telescope system based on tv dish antenna. The icom icpcr computercontrolled radio receiver used to be a stalwart of radio astronomy a few years ago here is a link to a zip folder containing a range of resources for this receiver. This note describes one method of using the low cost software defined radio rtl dongle to make quantitative measurements of radio signal strengths in the context of amateur radio and amateur radio astronomy. It is written using the qt sdk and is available for linux, windows and mac os x. We are making an integrated observatory for radio and optical observations, using a variety of hardware. I have used it on a number of computers including some quite old not very powerful machines and with different software applications primarily the sdrradio and hdsdr suites. In 2011 david described the equipment configuration and software involved in setting to work a small 3m diameter amateur radio telescope using the funcube dongle pro software defined radio receiver. Beginners tab society of amateur radio astronomers. All the software has been built and tested both on raspberry pi 2 and 3. In the paper dr david morgan of the british astronomical association radio astronomy group baarag describes how he used the funcube dongle as the heart of a radio telescope.
Thought this might be of interest to the readers of this part of the forum, it is a software defined radio in a usb dongle that receives from 64mhz to 1. The center frequency of the funcube dongle can be set by software. Beginners tab purchasing a radio telescope isnt like buying an optical telescope. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading software defined radio. David morgan 2w0cxv has released several papers covering the use of the rtlsdr dongle in radio astronomy. The yellow band in the bottom blue spectrogram window is the 6 db rise in signal strength as the radio dish is moved across the sun. A very short time after the launch from yasny in russia and within a few minutes from deployment, the very first frame of data from the low power transmitter on board, was detected and decoded by zs1ls in. Radio astronomy software defined radio rasdr society of. It supports the educational science, technology, engineering and math stem initiatives. Sep 12, 2012 ever since i got my funcube dongle pro last christmas it has been the main focus of my radio experimentation. Funcube dongle pro plus rosliston astronomy group blog. March is not noted for any major shower and the months count is made up of sporadics and contributions from minor showers. Gqrx is a software defined radio receiver for funcube dongle fcd, rtl2832ubased dvbt devices rtlsdr, universal software radio peripherals usrp and osmo sdr devices. For this reason, some users tend to run all dashboards simultaneously using the same funcube dongle.
The results were so good that they also brought their gold standard racal ra3791 to the game, and the results are surprising. Groups amsatuk funcube satellites and the original funcube dongle fcd software defined radio sdr softwaredefined radio software. Hdsdr is a freeware software defined radio sdr program for microsoft windows 2000xpvista7. These modes can also be received with the rtlsdr and an upconverter such as the nooelec hamitup upconverter. Listening to and looking at dab broadcast radio signals. In order to get one you had to be quick off the mark on ebay. Welcome to the funcube group which caters for the amsatuk funcube satellites and the original funcube dongle fcd software defined radio sdr. Be sure you use the following parameters then go to the funcube tab and enter the frequency. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets.
Today, november 21st 2019, marks the sixth birthday of our very first cubesat mission, funcube1. Recently, the funcube1 satellite was successfully launched. It was a little fiddly to initially set up but i have been impressed with its performance, it has opened my. This is the third article in a series dealing with the use of the rtl sdr dongle. The radio astronomy software defined receiver rasdr is a system that provides a versatile software defined receiver sdr that is optimized for radio astronomy. The radio astronomy software defined receiver rasdr is an open hardware project undertaken by members of the society of amateur radio astronomerssara to develop a low cost, high performance software defined receiver for use by sara members. Amateur radio hobbyist n4jtcs has shared on his blog his experiences with receiving the funcube1s telemetry using his rtlsdr dongle. Feb 04, 2020 back in 2016, we wrote one of our most popular posts covering 12 popular software defined radios or sdrs. Mine works flawlessly and receives dozens of two meter repeaters 100 miles away. There was a lot of excitement about this project a couple of years ago when it started. Funcube1 is a complete educational single unit cubesat satellite with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. Software defined radio is an implementation of a radio communication system where components that have normally been implemented in hardware e. Funcube is an educational cubesat project with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. The quadrature sampling rate is at 96 khz with 80 khz useable.
Using hdsdr with the funcube dongle page 3 in the files section of the funcube yahoo. Simon browns sdrradio worked as well, and with equal ease, though as luck would have it i tried it on the very day that the free licence key for the program expired. The funcube is a cubesat a low cost miniature 10cm cube sized satellite which is intended mainly for educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics, but has also piqued the interest of amateur radio hobbyists amateur radio hobbyist n4jtcs has shared on his blog his experiences with receiving the funcube1. Jun 22, 20 ive been spending a few hours playing around with a funcube dongle pro. Ao73funcube1 funcube1 dashboard v1044 funcube2 no longer operational eseo funcube4 not yet operational eseo dashboard v1177 eo88nayif1 funcube5 nayif1 dashboard v1040 jo97jy1sat funcube6 jy1sat dashboard v1189 updated january 2019 the guidance notes can be downloaded from here. Recommended by the british astronomical association radio astronomy group at least in 2014, baa rag for radio astronomy, this small, portable software defined radio is cheaper, more sensitive and efficient than older radios such as the r7000. In fact, at least one funcube dongle has even found its way into space itself on board a satellite. Gqrx is a software defined radio receiver powered by gnu radio and the qt gui toolkit. The funcube dongle also has a sma antenna connector on the other end. Sara is dedicated to the exploration of radio astronomy at the amateur level. The current release of the software and firmware is version 1.
Funcube1 ao73 is a complete educational 1u cubesat with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. The big advantage of spectravue compared to other sdr software is that its simple in use and it has very good possibilities in showing extreme weak signals. Groups amsatuk funcube satellites and the original funcube dongle fcd software defined radio sdr software defined radio software. It runs well also on a debian jessie virtual machine. It covers lf, mf, hf, vhf, uhf and l band coverage is. It describes one method of using the low cost software defined radio rtl dongle to make quantitative measurements of radio noise signal strengths in the context of amateur radio and amateur radio astronomy. This is an rtlsdr software defined radio receiver with rtl2832u adc chip, 1ppm tcxo, sma f connector, r820t2 tuner and aluminium case with passive cooling.
The difference in the 2017 and 2018 counts could reflect the different densities of the dust trails caused by the variations in the parent comets emissions. The secret to success using howard longs original funcube dongle pro is using free sdrdx software, a preamp, and a par notch filter to eliminate adjacent channel pager interference. Funcube dongle pro sdr radio astronomy and spectroscopy. I am happy to publish articles on linux uses in funcube and amsat projects so feel free to submit them to give your good work a wider audience.
Dr morgan uses his funcube dongle with the spectrumlab windows software, which is a specialized audio analyzer. Individual dashboard installers for each mission can be downloaded here. With a standard lnb and spectravue software it is possible to measure sun noise and cold sky noise. Also included is a program that writes fcdpp sample data to its standard output stdout port. Funcube 1 ao73 is a small cube shaped satellite launched into earths orbit on nov 21st in 20. I have used it on a number of computers including some quite old not very powerful machines and with different software applications primarily the sdr radio and hdsdr suites. Device drivers are already included in your operating system windows, linux or mac osx, 32 or 64 bit. An introduction to the funcube dongle setting up spectravue with the funcube dongle firmware update guide updated. Insert the funcube dongle into the usbport from your computer. In the paper dr david morgan of the british astronomical association radio astronomy group baarag describes how he used the funcube dongle as the heart of a radio telescope operating on 1420 mhz. Starbase is open source gpl distributed by the uk radio astronomy association ukraa, in conjunction with the british astronomical association. Hydrogen line receiver using funcube or rtl2832u usb dongles. It is part of a program which aims to launch more of these educational cubesats.
The funcube dongle7 fcd using spectravue8 software. The total count for the month was 1497, with an average daily total of 48, with a maximum of 91 for the 14th march. Apr 23, 20 download qthid funcube dongle controller for free. Use rtlsdr as a panadapter for your traditional hardware radio. It is the first satellite with outreach as its primary mission. Feb 08, 2011 funcube dongle guides by david barber. Listening to fm radio, and decoding rds information. How to receive funcube satellite telemetry digital rust. Use rtlsdr as a high quality entropy source for random number generation.
Download icom icpcr zip folder containing manual, software, and other information. Spectravue has some useful options for collecting, outputting and processing radio astronomy data. David morgan 2w0cxv has released several papers covering the use of the rtlsdr dongle in radio astronomy in 2011 david described the equipment configuration and software involved in setting to work a small 3m diameter amateur radio telescope using the funcube dongle pro software defined radio receiver at the end of 2014 he published a paper dealing with the setting up and use of a rtlsdr. As you may know, although the funcube dongle was originally designed with receiving signals from space in mind, theres nothing special about extraterrestrial radio waves when compared to those on terra firma. This section describes some early experiments carried out in july 2011 to determine the performance of an amateur radio telescope employing a software defined radio. This software supports radios from many manufacturers, all shown on this page. Telemetry dashboards for all missions welcome to the. Rtlsdr blog r820t2 rtl2832u 1ppm tcxo sma software defined radio. While the previous post still holds some extremely valuable information, a lot has changed in 3 years.
Hydrogen line receiver using funcube or rtl2832u usb. Many amateurs are engaged in developing hardware, software, and methodologies to expand the. For 2 meter repeater reception, i use a funcube dongle with sdrdx software v. It covers lf, mf, hf, vhf, uhf and l band coverage is 150khz240mhz and 420mhz to 1. By using the rtlsdr to receive the telemetry beacon as the satellite passes overhead, he was able to use the funcube dashboard software to record and decode and view the satellites telemetry data.
Funcube sdr dongle overview and first impressions ham. With an sdr, many of the functions of a traditional hardwareonly radio are performed in software, such as demodulation, decoding and frequency conversion. At this time i would have to say that the funcube dongle fcd is more of. An out of the box test of the highly innovative funcubedongle sdr software defined radio. Rasdr2 is the current hardware that is in testing with a planned general release at this conference. Build a homebrew radio telescope explore the basics of radio astronomy with this easy to construct telescope.
Before getting this sdr dongle, i had used one of the cheapcheap rtl dongles, and thought that for its low price, that rtl was fun, if woefully inadequate from overload to filtering to noise floor to range deafness on a 90 grounded, unund random wire and then thought perhaps more money would garner a better. Programs are present to demodulate am, cw, fm and ssb usb, lsb streams. What should i consider when selecting an sdr dongle. A radio astronomy paper describes the use of the amsatuk funcube dongle software defined radio as part of a radio telescope. Ever since i got my funcube dongle pro last christmas it has been the main focus of my radio experimentation. David morgan 2w0cxv has released several papers covering the use of the rtlsdr dongle in radio astronomy in 2011 david described the equipment configuration and software involved in setting to work a small 3m diameter amateur radio telescope using the funcube dongle pro software defined radio receiver. Users should remember the that dashboard that was started last, is the one that will control the frequency settings applied to the funcube dongle. They are harder to find, and usually require assembly and software troubleshooting. The satellite carries a material science project and amongst other things has the capacity to transmit telemetry that.
1501 1298 1531 1082 531 1511 1229 1186 91 460 301 298 1260 288 465 62 1197 65 465 1125 1458 26 839 1237 1087 1354 1140 186 1178 40 24 581 998 230 1395 1565 406 338 1565 990 875 1158 69 613 1319 112 155