Mike / WG5EEK gave a cool presentation on the use of SDR's. The barrier to entry is very low. You will need a SDR dongle around $30 and a PC (Mac's with up to date OS will be more challenging). The software is free and some dongles come with antennas. Once set up you can listen to all Ham Radio frequencies, aircraft frequencies and even turn it into the cheapest police scanner you can buy. This will work on most monderen trunking police frequencies. What are some RTL-SDR Radio Scanner Applications? The RTL-SDR can be used as a wide band radio scanner. Applications include: Use as a police radio scanner. Listening to EMS/Ambulance/Fire communications. Listening to aircraft traffic control conversations. Tracking aircraft positions like a radar with ADSB decoding. Decoding aircraft ACARS short messages. Scanning trunking radio conversations. Decoding unencrypted digital voice transmissions such as P25/DMR/D-STAR. Tracking maritime boat positions like a radar with AIS decoding. Decoding POCSAG/FLEX pager traffic. Scanning for cordless phones and baby monitors. Tracking and receiving meteorological agency launched weather balloon data. Tracking your own self launched high altitude balloon for payload recovery. Receiving wireless temperature sensors and wireless power meter sensors. Listening to VHF amateur radio. Decoding ham radio APRS packets. Watching analogue broadcast TV. Sniffing GSM signals. Using rtl-sdr on your Android device as a portable radio scanner. Receiving GPS signals and decoding them. Using rtl-sdr as a spectrum analyzer. Receiving NOAA weather satellite images. Listening to satellites and the ISS. Radio astronomy. Monitoring meteor scatter. Listening to FM radio, and decoding RDS information. Listening to DAB broadcast radio. Listening to and decoding HD-Radio (NRSC5). Use rtl-sdr as a panadapter for your traditional hardware radio. Decoding taxi mobile data terminal signals. Use rtl-sdr as a high quality entropy source for random number generation. Use rtl-sdr as a noise figure indicator. Reverse engineering unknown protocols. Triangulating the source of a signal. Searching for RF noise sources. Characterizing RF filters and measuring antenna SWR. Decoding Inmarsat STD-C EGC geosynchronous satellites. Listening to the ISS
Yep, he's hit the nail on the head, lots of uses. One more: if you are into FTA satellite, hook the dongle to your STB's loopout (if equipped) and look at the transponders for different satellites, and optimize the signal. Another: use it to look for OTA TV band openings. And...with the right software you can determine CTCSS codes.
