About this notes¶
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Post to the USKA academy workshop (https://www.uska.ch/2018/02/06/uska-academy-2018/ ) around GNU Radio, a few peers reached out to me with questions about how to get started, without the LiveUSB system used in the workshop in Lucerne.
This tutorial might help - might give some directions how to setup a SDR-Linux environment. Please feel free to edit or pullrequest my Markdown notes on my [GitHub repository](https://github.com/krippendorf/sdr-setup-notes).
All steps are tested with best effort only for Linux mint 18.3 - no Support!
Goals¶
- Option 1) Create a VM to explore some SDR stuff under Linux (start here: Setup VM )
- Option 2) Install SDR stuff on a bare metal PC (start here: Setup requirements)
- Get some tools around RTL-SDR Dongles
- Get a up-to-date GNU Radio installation - from Source, not Distro packages
- Target Hardware UHD, RTL based sticks, PlutoSDR, HackRF One
Drawbacks¶
- GNU Radio setup can be a pain. It’ll cost a bit time to install manually. Installation from source has some good advantages. This tutorial is about installation from source and not using a distribution’s package manager.
- Performance in a VM is not as good as a native Linux install on bare metal. Cool graphic stuff might not work and do not expect super-high data rates when routing USB devices from the HOST to the GUEST.
- The setup takes some time, but gives you some good practice with linux setup procedures
- I can not give any support if anything goes wrong
What else to explore?¶
A curated list of some cool, SDR related tools to discover
Devices used in this Tutorial¶
- https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/
- https://www.rtl-sdr.com/product/rtl-sdr-blog-v3-r820t2-rtl2832u-1ppm-tcxo-sma-software-defined-radio-dongle-only/
- http://www.analog.com/en/design-center/evaluation-hardware-and-software/evaluation-boards-kits/adalm-pluto.html
- https://www.ettus.com/product/details/USRP-B200mini-i