Funcube Dongle support now built into GNU Radio

Funcube Dongle close-up

I am happy to inform all users of the Funcube Dongle and GNU Radio, that the gr-fcd driver is now included in the GNU Radio source tree. You can read the announcement here.

This change will be available in the next GNU Radio release, which I think will be 3.5.3, however, if you pull the code from the GNU Radio git repository the changes are already in your tree. Before you upgrade please remove any earlier installations of gr-fcd to avoid conflicting versions of the library.

My repository on Github will no longer be maintained and any future development of gr-fcd will be done within the scope of the GNU Radio project. I hope this will ensure better integration, more maintainers, more testing and easier installation process.

GQRX C++ Edition

About a week ago I resumed working on GQRX – an experimental AM/FM/SSB software receiver powered by GNU Radio and using Qt for user interface. This time, however, I am not going to continue working on the Python receiver but create a new receiver from scratch written in C++. It will support Funcube Dongle and USRP/UHD devices.

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Satellite receptions with the Funcube Dongle

This page collects various amateur radio satellite and cubesat receptions carried out using the Funcube Dongle. The Funcube Dongle is a small USB-flashdisk sized software defined radio receiver for 67 MHz – 1.7 GHz intended to be the ground receiver for the FUNcube satellite by AMSAT UK. It is well suited as a ground receiver for low cost space communications.

The purpose with this page is to demonstrate on the air performance of the Funcube Dongle under similar conditions that are expected for the reception of the FUNcube satellite. This page will be update regularly until complete.

The receptions below were carried out using an Arrow II hand-held satellite antenna in RF quiet areas (outside big cities).

Satellite Transmitter Recordings
CUTE-1.7 + APD II 437.275 MHz, 100 mW CW Video
SEEDS-II 437.485 MHz, 90 mW CW Video
SWISSCUBE 437.505 MHz, 100 mW CW / 1W FSK Video
ITUPSAT-1 437.325 MHz, 100 mW FM CW Video
BEESAT 436.000 MHz, 100 mW CW / 500 mW GMSK Nothing heard so far.
KKS-1 437.385 MHz, ??? mW CW Video
PRISM 437.250 MHz, 80 mW CW Video
FO-29 435.795 MHz, 100 mW CW Video
VO-52 145.860 MHz, 1W SSB/CW
HO-68 435.790 MHz, 200mW CW Video
AO-51 435.150 and 435.300 MHz, FM

Other receptions carried out using standard VHF/UHF stationary beam antennas.

To be added…

Funcube Dongle on the air tests at OZ7SAT

On Tuesday I took my Funcube Dongle to our weekly meeting at OZ7SAT for testing it on the air using some bigger antennas than my Arrow antenna. We were listening for amateur radio satellites and cubesat on the 70 cm band and we were using a standard Wimo X-yagi (8 elements I think). For SDR receiver application we used modified Quisk SDR running on Ubuntu Linux.

Continue reading “Funcube Dongle on the air tests at OZ7SAT”