So, I noticed that my rooftop CHIP+passive antenna+SDRx is no longer connecting to anything. Came here for answers and found that I spent money on this for a few months of really neat outernet.
Since I don’t have $160USD to just toss at a fancy new reciever, I’m left with an SDRx and an antenna. What can I do with this? I’ve checked through the forums but the amount of words I don’t understand was immeasurable.
So can I use this thing for any other content or am I just going to salvage the CHIP for retro games and bin the SDRx and antenna?
It’s nice. It has a really nice LNA on board that the off-the shelf RTL-SDRs don’t have. However, it still has a SAW filter in it for the L-Band that may need to be bypassed for general purpose use. A little guide that shows you what all needs to come out and bridged is on my Outernet to do list.
I actually love the L band SDRX, both the full board version, and the stand alone - it’s the most stable of all SDRs I’ve used in that band. HackRF, and many of the other pricey SDRs don’t come anywhere near it for sensitivity and stability.
It’s a great SDR to use for quite a bit of action on the L band, esp with the onboard LNA. I use mine to play around with a few sats in the band. Whilst I can’t list the specific software (as border to border, laws are different) - there’s some fantastic software about for various things you can do with it. Examples -
There is a myriad of free software for decoding the open-to-all SDR ECG messages. Marine warnings and alerts are plotted live on maps, interfaces are great with most decoder software titles.
Emails sent via some…cough satellites on the L band (not to name any) and the various Telcos on multiple channels are not encrypted, and some of the software packages will literally just beep as your (or someone else’s) inbox fills up.
AERO messages (JAERO software) appear swiftly, and the software triggers a search of the database to find which aircraft type/company is sending the message. The program interprets various code, and is quite interesting to watch.
Freight companies, shipping, aircraft, emails, warnings, SOS, Military exercise warnings, the list goes on. That L band SDRX receiver is brilliant - I love mine.
You don’t have a useless bit of hardware, you’ve got a very stable and sensitive L band receiver, which can be easily modified to be a fantastic wide band SDR.
Considering that every single one of your replies may as well have been in Chinese, Yeah, I’d say I do have useless junk that I cannot use.
Sigh. I love throwing money away.
I fully understand that you as a “lay person” and not a hacker or Radio hobbyist, who bought a satellite receiver to be a “satellite receiver” then 3 or 4 months of service is not enough.
I’m interested in removing/changing/replacing the saw filter under the first cover and using them for other bands. There are not many RTL-SDRs that have a nice, shielded LNA on board. @Abhishek I would love to see a schematic.
1…
Hello Team… given the investment many of us have made (DC-2, -3, SDRX, moRFeus etc) could we be extended the courtesy of receiving schematics diagrams for the “bricks” in our collection ?
best regards
Luigi M