SDR on the go!
SDR stands for software-defined radio, and a few years ago, I was passed down an SDR from my brother, who didn’t have the time for it after he got employed to do cyber security stuff elsewhere in the country. The SDR is a radio transmitter and receiver that is completely controlled by programs such as SDR++ and SDRAngel. It serves as an open platform to plug in any antenna you would like, and begin manipulating any frequency you would like. The HackRF One is the SDR I was passed down, and it is capable of operating from 1 MHz to 6 GHz. This means I can listen to shortwave broadcasts from Asia in the comfort of my own home, or I can capture and analyze WiFi/Bluetooth packets, depending on the antenna I plug in!
Now, I want to figure out a solution for my car where I can have a screen, and the SDR plugged in so I can listen to all type of frequencies on the go, and that requires me to have a spare computer in the car. I don’t really like x86 machines all too much, but was thinking about finding some cheap laptop hardware on Facebook marketplace to use, but then I remembered something I got on Aliexpress for cheap, that runs Linux on ARM!
Enter the Anbernic RG351MP. This is a small handheld device that is meant to emulate all sorts of consoles so that you can play retro video games wherever you are. The kicker is that the operating system that lives on the device is just a heavily modified version of Ubuntu!
Now, I have two goals I must achieve before I have this system working:
Get SDR software working through the command line that is provided. I haven’t even tried to do this on my laptop yet, so I don’t know how well it will work, and I certainly haven’t tried compiling to ARM to get it running on the Anbernic. There is no apt-get on the device, so it will be a lot of downloading build tools to the device and hoping they will run on the minimal interface provided.
3D print or otherwise construct a mounting solution to house the device and SDR in my car. I’m thinking of mounting it similar to how the laptop in a police vehicle mounts, where it sits within reach of both the driver and the front passenger, and can be moved around.
When I achieve these two goals, I plan to use the SDR to listen to local police and fire transmissions, and maybe even ATC if I’m driving near an ATC tower, when I’m on the go. Pretty cool, right?
