following on from the ADS-B on a TV tuner dongle, I have taken the next logical step and used the TV tuner as part of an SDR receiver. As I already had the hardware connected and the software driver installed, it was just a case of finding a software package. My first port of call was SDR# (SDR sharp) which is where the ADS-B decoder software came from. [all written in Microsoft's C-sharp language]
On his web page you can either down load the packages your self and fumble through getting it to go (I tried and failed) or using a script from one of the WIKI sites that does it ALL for you (works like a treat)
The parent web site where it all starts is here: http://sdrsharp.com/ and is worth a look to see what he has on offer.
Community web site about using the RTL series of TV tuners is here: [url]http://rtlsdr.org Help on installing SDR# is here: [url ... arewindows
In this doco it refers you back to a ZIP file on the main site http://sdrsharp.com/downloads/sdr-install.zip, this ZIP contains a small batch file and two utilities which do all the hard work for you. (worked first time for me, when my earlier attempts all failed)
While some of the concepts in the package take a few moments to get to terms with, a bit of old fashioned "fiddling to see what I can break" soon showed that it is a quite capable software package and worthy of more time.Automated Installer
Download sdr-install.zip and unzip it. Double click on the install.bat file in the newly created sdr-install directory to have the script download everything you need including Zadig.
Once the script has completed it will have downloaded the latest SDR#, the latest RTL driver from Osmocom (and enabled use of RTL-USB) and Zadig and put them in a new sdrsharp directory.
If you haven't already run Zadig to set up your RTLSDR dongle for use with SDR# for the first time follow the Zadig instructions above (skipping the step to download Zadig) to configure the correct USB driver.
Once the the WinUSB driver is installed you are ready to run SDR# with the RTL-SDR/USB input device.
If others have suggestions on other software packages that might work with the TV tuner, I would be happy to hear from you.
In a nutshell, I have not had this much fun in one week for ages, thankyou to Silicon Chip magazine for publishing the series on using these USB TV tuners.
Regards,
Peter Sumner, vk5pj