[GCARC] Free online PDF book on SDR #

[Jon Pearce]

Software defined radios are the "swiss army knife" of radio reception - they allow reception of almost "DC to light" frequencies along with a large variety of decoders that allow receiving many types of digitally-encoded messages. Airspy has released a free PDF download<https://airspy.com/downloads/SDRsharp_Big_Book_2024.pdf> of their 250-page book on their SDR Sharp program for the Airspy and other SDR receivers (this works with the very inexpensive RTL-SDR<https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-RTL2832U-Software-Defined/dp/B0CD745394/ref=sr_1_3?crid=14V3L00AL4PWT&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.sfbFJPG624K7g9NEHFje-VR12urW7PR8_DoFUjFh_J7yQX8cQgHa5ON6EM0iFGw1JVl7eBOLglMllG3J9aFaGVzY2Eb56uxkjsupugzvcphEcNWCXUaE7k75sjW30t_BcICzmYnjg6257DYHu4bcCo_5OT-p-5nIxEblRwf3QyaskAB_LRZG-lhPj4RwX6CaMy0IuNHnpZbIsTZ54-h758AYwwRylQUwPnjuMEn2_lI.0Tz6NffqV91rLAm6UonqB7ijRsC04yXvZxmGxhWwDEQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=rtl-sdr+v4&qid=1722011216&sprefix=rtl-sdr%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-3> dongle). It describes in detail each of the controls for the radio and also contains an extensive list of software plug-ins that allow decoding many types of messages such as APRS, CTSS frequencies, AIS ship tracking and ADS-B aircraft tracking.

For any interested in exploring all types of radio reception an SDR radio is an invaluable tool and this book should answer most of your questions. We'll be running a Tech Saturday session on SDR radios in the fall, so getting a radio and starting to work thru this book would give you a great start on an interesting area of the ham radio hobby.  Check it out.

73 de Jon WB2MNF