Description

The RTL-SDR devices (V3 and V4) have gained popularity among radio amateurs because of their very low cost and rich features. A basic system may consist of a USB based RTL-SDR device (dongle) with a suitable antenna, a Raspberry Pi 5 computer, a USB based external audio input-output adapter, and software installed on the Raspberry Pi 5 computer. With such a modest setup, it is possible to receive signals from around 24 MHz to over 1.7 GHz.

This book is aimed at amateur radio enthusiasts and electronic engineering students, as well as at anyone interested in learning to use the Raspberry Pi 5 to build electronic projects. The book is suitable for both beginners through experienced readers. Some knowledge of the Python programming language is required to understand and eventually modify the projects given in the book. A block diagram, a circuit diagram, and a complete Python program listing is given for each project, alongside a comprehensive description.

The following popular RTL-SDR programs are discussed in detail, aided by step-by-step installation guides for practical use on a Raspberry Pi 5:

SimpleFM
GQRX
SDR++
CubicSDR
RTL-SDR Server
Dump1090
FLDIGI
Quick
RTL_433
aldo
xcwcp
GPredict
TWCLOCK
CQRLOG
klog
Morse2Ascii
PyQSO
Welle.io
Ham Clock
CHIRP
xastir
qsstv
flrig
XyGrib
FreeDV
Qtel (EchoLink)
XDX (DX-Cluster)
WSJT-X

The application of the Python programming language on the latest Raspberry Pi 5 platform precludes the use of the programs in the book from working on older versions of Raspberry Pi computers.