Only a few decades ago, doing hobby radio meant very special hardware, and making changes to your settings to work on different frequencies was not very easy. As software-defined radio (SDR) came on the scene in an accessible way for most of us, this barrier to entry was significantly reduced and facilitated the process of broadcasting. It goes without saying that some software is required, but [Aaron]’s the latest project makes even obtaining this software extremely easy.
What he did was create a custom Debian-based Linux distribution called DragonOS, with the full set of SDR programs needed to run and run. Outside the box, it supports RTL-SDR, HackRF and LimeSDR packages and even includes other fun tools you need like Kismet. There are several video demonstrations of its distribution, including the use of RTL-SDR to accept ADS-B, and also shows several custom implementations of the operating system in different scenarios of his YouTube channel. The video linked below also shows you how to set up distribution in a virtual machine so that you can run it, even if you don’t have a computer dedicated to SDR.
Getting into the SDR has never been easier, and the chances of having something to carry in the trash can that you can use to get started are quite high. The process is extremely streamlined with [Aaron]software package. If you miss the hardware a bit, there is no better place to start than the classics TV tuner hack to SDR from a few years ago.
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