[Scan-DC] Scanner School SDR Beginner's Course

[Joseph M. Durnal]

I am sure many of us have heard about Scanner School and Phil, W2LIE.  He’s
put out a free beginner’s software defined radio course for those
interested in using an SDR for scanning or monitoring.  I thought I'd write
a review, so here it is:


The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Software Defined Radios is a good guide
for those who have never used an RTL based SDR before and those who have
not used them to create a usable alternative to a standalone scanner.  It
covers SDR# for analog monitoring and setting up DSD+ start to finish to
monitor a DMR trunked system.  You will get the most out of the course if
you have a Windows computer and two RTL SDR receivers.


The course opens with about 45 minutes of what you need to have and do to
follow along with the course.  This is for the beginner and not all is
necessary depending on how much experimenting you have already done with
the SDR.  If you want to follow along step by step in later modules though,
the setup is recommended.  There are some helpful Windows tips in this
module as well.


The next 45 minutes or so are all about SDR# which is the basic tool for
making sure your dongles are working.  SDR# is also used as a basic analog
receiver in this module and makes the connection between software and
radio.  It touches various adjustments that will be familiar to some, new
to others, as well as plug-ins that extend the basic functionality of the
base SDR# application.


The final set of modules cover how to set up a digital trunking scanner on
a DMR Capacity Plus digital trunked system with multiple sites using the
free version of DSD+.  There is a lot of manual configuration in this
module, but you will really learn a lot about what goes on under the hood.
It starts by using one dongle where you get familiar with how to configure
a receiver and how to start receiving information from the control
channel.  There is a lot of lead up to the final module where you use two
dongles to monitor the control channel to control the second receiver to
decode the voice channel.


The beginners course focuses on what you can do for just the cost of a few
$30 RTL SDR dongles and a computer you probably already have utilizing free
software.  The beginners course has a lot of substance, but it is also a
little bit of an advertisement for the advanced course.  More expensive
SDRs and paid software is mentioned a few times as material that will be
covered in the advanced course.  I have already registered for the Advanced
Software Defined Radio online course and I am looking forward to learning a
few more things.


The course can be found at https://courses.scannerschool.com


73 de Joe NE3R