The SDR revolution brought many opportunities for radio amateurs to experiment, but with it came a sometimes confusing set of software for which even installation can be a difficult prospect for an SDR beginner. If you are excited about all this, then help can be at hand with kind assistance [Luigi Cruz], Who has pack a package of ready-to-run popular SDR software into an image of the Raspberry Pi OS.
On board a Raspbian OS-based image are SDR Angel, Soapy Remote, GQRX, GNURadio, LimeUtil and LimeVNA. In terms of hardware, RTL-SDR is supported, along with LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, Airspy and Airspy HF. They are all fully operational and even have desktop shortcuts, so if the CLI scares you, you can still dive in and play. More importantly, it is designed for use with SDR transmitters as well as receivers, so the barrier to full SDR operation for radio amateurs has also become significantly lower.
This year marks the seventh anniversary of the RTL-SDR hacking, which probably did the most to accelerate the use of SDR in our community. Our colleague [Tom Nardi] wrote a retrospective it’s worth looking at his review of some SDR tricks that have evolved during this time. In the meantime, if you don’t mind limiting your prospects to some extent, it’s possible turn the Raspberry Pi 3 into an SDR without any additional hardware.
Comments are closed.