SDR — HackRF, bladeRF, RTL-SDR, KrakenSDR
Software defined radio: from a €25 dongle that receives, to full-duplex transceivers and coherent direction finding.
Software defined radio is the single highest-leverage skill in hardware hacking, because almost everything is a radio now. Start with an RTL-SDR — receive-only, cheap enough to be disposable, and enough to learn on. HackRF One covers 1 MHz to 6 GHz half-duplex and can transmit, which makes it the usual step up. bladeRF adds full duplex and a bigger FPGA for the work that needs it. KrakenSDR is the specialist: five coherent receivers for direction finding and passive radar. Transmitting on licensed spectrum without a licence is illegal in Denmark and most places — receive freely, transmit carefully.
Tags
sdr
rf
gnuradio
direction-finding
Links
- HackRF (Great Scott Gadgets) — greatscottgadgets.com
- bladeRF (Nuand) — www.nuand.com
- RTL-SDR.com — www.rtl-sdr.com
- NooElec — www.nooelec.com
- KrakenSDR — www.krakenrf.com