hackrf VS SigDigger

Another example: the HackRF SDR board was done in KiCAD

https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf

keep and eye out for this issue: https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf/issues/668

I have read about this issue on github (have been some reddit posts over the years as well), originally in #541 which has now culminated in an ongoing investigation #974.

HackRF would be my next choice... https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/

However, unlike your sensitivity issues, i dont get any birdies. i have a TCXO though. (https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf/issues/216). it seems its related to clock drift calibration without one. However this is something most SDR's suffer from, as a cost saving measure. Most RTL_SDR's suffer from this as well ("rtl sdr blog v3" comes with a stable TCXO, resolving the issue.).

I assume this is the case since I found a GitHub issue talking about blown TX: https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf/issues/1051 And I followed the recommendation of using hackrf_transfer -c with both -a 0 and -a 1. With a separate RTL SDR tuned to the output frequency I can see a very low power CW signal with -a 0. With -a 1 there is no output. This seems to match the results in the issue.

If you're talking about building attachments to work with a phone, you're almost all the way there to a standalone device anyway. You might want to look into HackRF and pwnagotchi for inspiration.

If you get a HackRF there's a utility called hackrf_transfer which can record a block of spectrum and then play it back.

Local playback? SigDigger is highly recommended: https://batchdrake.github.io/SigDigger/ – it also supports different data modes.

SigDigger is good for a playback of prerecorded full-spectrum files (also called IQ files). Has the time slider, so if you missed anything you can rewind. https://batchdrake.github.io/SigDigger/

For just playing back the wideband recordings SigDigger is a good option.

There is good software for identifying the type of modulation used, and demodulating it, for example SigDigger

SigDigger: https://batchdrake.github.io/SigDigger/ The best thing is that it can move through time and frequency, so you can go back / forward if you need to.

I'd like to add to the answers a fantastic yet relatively unknown piece of software called SigDigger. It is a GUI for suscan. You can run a suscan device server at the raspi and run a remote SigDigger instance. Network bandwidth is minimal because only the FFT and demodulated signal is sent. https://github.com/BatchDrake/SigDigger

https://batchdrake.github.io/SigDigger/

> people downloading telemetry data from space probes

Monitoring JWST transmissions, if doable, might be the next milestone for Ham Radio.

SigDigger

Hi, you can use Sigdigger to perform this task, using FSK inspector. After some tweaking you will be able to display Wefax image. You'll perhaps need to perform line alignment at start. example : https://twitter.com/BatchDrake/status/1216072630698156033?s=20 SigDigger sources As note I can add the purpose of SigDigger is not to decode Wefax, and there are many features ! Hope this can help