SDR Beacon Build
Edit on GitHubAdding an SDR dongle as a permanent monitoring receiver for the beacon: setup, antennas, and turning a phone or laptop into a beacon listener.
SDR Beacon Build
An RTL-SDR dongle plus a phone or laptop turns any location into a beacon monitoring station. It is the receiver side of the beacon, and it costs about $25.
The kit
| Part | Role |
|---|---|
| RTL-SDR dongle | The receiver |
| 433 MHz antenna | Matching the band |
| Phone or laptop | The software |
| USB OTG adapter | Connecting on a phone |
Software
| Platform | App |
|---|---|
| Windows / Linux | SDR#, Gqrx, SDRangel |
| macOS | Gqrx, CubicSDR |
| Android | SDR Touch, RTL-SDR apps |
The SDR Listening Guide covers tuning to the beacon’s channel and identifying the Morse bursts.
Placement
- The antenna goes high and clear, like any receiver (see Antenna Height Matters).
- Keep the dongle away from the phone’s antenna; the dongle’s tuner is easily overloaded by nearby transmitters.
- A USB extension cable between dongle and phone reduces USB noise pickup.
The monitoring setup
- Tune to the beacon’s frequency.
- Set the bandwidth to 12.5 kHz (the beacon’s channel spacing).
- Watch for the burst pattern on the waterfall.
- Decode the Morse by ear or with software (see Morse Decoder Tools).
The base-station build
Permanent monitoring (a hut, a base camp, a home): mount the antenna outdoors, run low-loss coax (see Coax Loss Tables), and leave the dongle running. The beacon’s repeating bursts make this a true continuous watch: any burst that stops is itself an event.
Related pages
- SDR Listening Guide for the tuning procedure
- Receiver Compatibility for what can hear the beacon
- Spectrum Analyzers for using the dongle as a test tool