OpenBTS-UMTS VS gqrx

- Literally building a mini cellphone network with something like OpenBTS or updated variant. I don't even know if this is legal and would probably electrocute myself or crash planes, but the idea of software defined radio is interesting. I remember reading a comment somewhere from a developer building an analog phone to cell convertor. They said if you could convert analog signal to cellphone/vice versa, it's theoretically possible to convert it to anything you want.

There's an issue open for this: https://github.com/gqrx-sdr/gqrx/issues/1104

I could really use some help from a software build expert. Gqrx and all its dependencies would need to be built in CI with Apple silicon support, and I don't know how to do that.

If you don't need the web interface and your usual desktop SDR software supports rtl-sdr tcp mode, you can easily set up a small board that calls rtl-sdr with the appropriate parameters so that it will wait for a remote connection from the above software, not unlike what happens with WebSDR, but you would be using your usual desktop SDR application which would be native and much more snappy than a web browser. Here's an example using gqrx.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74jDcHuDCmE

https://gqrx.dk/

GQRX works pretty well for me. There is also CubicSDR and SDRAngel afaik - you might just want to play around with them and see which you are most comfortable with.

SSB/CW (also (W/N)FM/AM/Raw) using GQRX

For most signals (including analog AM and FM modes) you can use a laptop with an RTL-SDR USB dongle (fairly cheap), or another SDR, and a reasonably tuned antenna. Various RTL-SDR models can tune from around 500 kHz up to 1.75 GHz with 3 mhz of bandwdith, and works with free software like SDR# for Windows and GQRX for Linux. It works with lots of other software, too, for ham modes, digital modes, etc.

Some of the Crossfire modules have a rudimentary spectrum analyzer function on them that might help you identify if there are other devices operating in the 900MHz band around that area, but I'm not sure the nano TX is one of them. I have a couple RTL-SDR dongles or equivalent I'd use with GQRX as a cheap spectrum analyzer if possible.

Good old GQRX for me https://gqrx.dk/

There is loads of software that will work such as SDR++, GQRX, CubicSDR, and SDRangel just to name a few. For HD radio reception, there is nrsc5. Nrsc5 only works with an rtl-sdr, so you will need one if you want to receive HD radio.