Repository files navigation

A curated list of awesome radio resources. Inspired by awesome-*.

I recently pulled out my CB radio and installed it in my truck. This inspired meto create an open source repository of all the radio related resources I foundhelpful and my notes on the subject.

This project is aimed at hackers who enjoy all aspects of radio communication.While a lot of this technology isn't usable by citizens and is heavily regulatedby the FCC, just knowing anything about it is special. I've been interested inlearning the ins and outs of radio, as well as hearing stories, new and old.

• Radio (wikipedia)
• Radio Spectrum (wikipedia)
• Skywave (skip) (wikipedia)
• Mystery signal from ahelicopter
• Portable SDR
• N0NBH's Solar-Terrestrial Data - Currentsolar-terrestrial data, with explanation of their influence on HF propagationand propagation forecast.

Citizens band radio, or CB, is a two way radio spectrum dedicated to open use byanyone for almost any purpose. In the US and many other countries, itdoes not require a license to operate. CB consists of 40 channels between 26.965MHz and 27.405 MHz with channel 09 being dedicated to emergencies.

CB is more popular among truckers and radio enthusiasts, but its usefulnessdoes not stop there. It's great for long distance travel on popular truckingroutes. You can tune to channel 19 (an unofficial trucker's channel) and getreal time traffic updates, alternate routes and accident warnings.

Given a good antenna that's properly tuned, a typical range to expect out ofyour CB is about 2 - 5 miles (3.2 - 8 kilometers).

I've found a lot of my information on Jeep and trucker forums. From my ownexperience, it seems about half the CB transmission I hear include a handle ofsome kind. I also hear a lot of swearing, so I wouldn't sweat accidentallyletting a "fuck" or a "shit" go.

CB is public. Very public. That seems like a "no shit" kind of thing, but withthe current generation pretty much only using cell phones, it's easy to forgetthat using something as "primitive" as a CB radio is essentiallybroadcast tothe world.

Truckers tend to use channel 19. This is a good channel to monitor for trafficconditions.

Channel 9 is for emergencies only. No general chatter on this channel. If youare broke down, or your car catches fire, besides calling 911, this is a goodchannel to transmit on for help.

Around Portland, I hear a lot of chatter on channels 6, 17 and 28. These aregood channels for entertaining conversation.

SWR, or Standing Wave Ratiois a measurement of efficiency when connecting your antenna to your radio.

Optimum ratio is 1:1, although you'll probably end up with 1.3:1 or so. Anythinghigher than 2:1 should be considered a no-no since it can damage your radio andgive poor transmission. Read up onhow to tuneSWR.

Installing your CB right is key to A) not damaging your radio hardware and B)getting good range and quality on both the receiving and transmitting ends.

Following the advice in the following articles will ensure you have a qualitysetup.

• Right Channel Radios - Good online shopfor parts, radios, antennas and mounts.
• CB Slang - mostly humorous, but kinda helpful.
• CB Slang (wikipedia)
• CB Talk and etiquette
• Skip
• Silly CB Handles
• CB FAQ
• Frequency Table

Software Defined Radio is a way to define components that are typicallyhardware, such as filters and amplifiers, as software. It has been around for awhile, but with the cost of digital electronics needed to run SDR becomingincreasingly cheaper, we are seeing a rise in hacker folk playing and buildingwith SDR.

I would like contributors for this section.

• Gqrx
• sdrsharp on .NET

• Recommended starter hardware On the low end,RTL-SDR is a super-cheap usbdongle, around which a thriving community has been founded.
• On the other side of the cost spectrum,pervicesmakes some really high-throughput, PCIe devices for when you need to log allthe traffic ever. The software and community support for this is less good,though (for which you can blame @outofculture).
• You can also browse through thebiglist of allcompatible hardware.
• Antennas are their own body of options and tradeoffs, about which I knownothing.

Depending on the hardware you're using, it may ship with some demo software toplay around with. This is great for just getting a chance to see some waves andstart to get an idea of what's possible. Otherwise,GNURadio is going to where you'll spend your time.It's mainly just a library, but it also has a supporting gui for combiningprocessing blocks that then outputs python. Once you're more comfortable, youcan also just use GNURadio to do any device tuning, setup and i/o, and then usenumpy for the signal manipulation math.

Just visualizing and manually inspecting a signal is a valuable part of learninghow to work with them.Baudline is a janky oldthing, but it's the best there is. Be forewarned that learning the UI won't comeeasily to anyone.

The hobby of Amateur Radio has a long and proud tradition. The very first radioamateurs were true pioneers of radio technology. Amateurs 'invented' and refinedmuch of the early radio technology and were the first to transmit music, radioplays, and information to the handful of people who had the new fangled radioreceivers.

After World War II the hobby of amateur radio flourished. Radio clubs sprang upin schools all over the world and kids went home each night to build some newcontraption, or have a chat with someone over the wireless. These young peoplebecame the mainstay of the technical professions and developed much of themodern technology we use today.(WIA)

What is Ham Radio?

• American Radio Relay League -ARRL
• The Wireless Institute of AustraliaWIA
• Radio Society of Great Britain -RSGB
• Pakistan Amateur Radio Society -PARS
• The International Amateur Radio Union
• Japanese asteroid mission
• Slow-scan Television

I would like contributors for this section.

• In theUS there are three licenseclasses—Technician, General and Extra.
• The Foundation Licence inAustralia.
• [Foundation Licence](http://rsgb.org/main/clubs-training/for-students/foundation/) in the UK.
• InPakistanfirst you apply for SWL (Short Wave Listener) membership and then you areeligible toapply for the HAMLicense.

Police and fire in the United States typically communicate over trunked radio.This makes it hard to scan using normal reciever without trunk trackingabilities. See more in thetrunking section.

While not strictly specific to public health and safety, it is usually the firstthing that comes to mind when talking about trunked radio.

Trunked radio is a form of digital-two-way communication where multipleorganizations can share a small spectrum of real frequencies without hearinganother organizations conversations. A user can choose a logical channel orgroup and the base station will find an empty frequency to transmit on.

• Project 25
• Project 25 wikipedia
• Trunked Radio wikipedia