HackRF, an open source SDR platform

For people interested in other SDR options, I believe these guys were YC funded: Per Vices, <a href="http://www.pervices.com/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pervices.com&#x2F;</a><p>Their hardware is significantly meatier, supporting frequencies from 100kHz to 4GHz with a bandwith of 250MHz. The HackRF only has a bandwith of 20MHz, and bottoms out at 30MHz.<p>I haven&#x27;t heard much from them, or discussion about them, but they are out there.

Any thoughts on how this could be used as a low cost surveying tool to find sources of WiFi interference?<p>We&#x27;ve been considering getting one of these: <a href="http://www.metageek.net/products/wi-spy/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.metageek.net&#x2F;products&#x2F;wi-spy&#x2F;</a><p>It would be great to instead have a bit of kit that could be repurposed like HackRF.

So, it&#x27;s literally a piece of hardware allowing me to take any radio signal from 30MHz to 6GHz, transfer them into digital data and read them out with my Computer? (Or other device)

Are there any existing reliable alternatives?

<i>Man</i> it&#x27;d be nice if this (or BladeRF) went down to DC like the USRP, so you could also use it as an oscilloscope. It&#x27;s easier on the USRP because of its motherboard&#x2F;daughterboard architecture, which adds some cost and complexity, but the cost adder should be pretty small relative to the several-hundred-dollars these things cost.

Would this be able to say...oh, idk...spoof and overpower digital TV channels in a localized area? I need to know...for science.

The spec from HackRF github wiki:<p><a href="https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/wiki/Jawbreaker" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mossmann&#x2F;hackrf&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Jawbreaker</a><p>* half-duplex transceiver<p>* operating freq: 30 MHz to 6 GHz<p>* supported sample rates: 8 Msps to 20 Msps (quadrature)<p>* resolution: 8 bits<p>* interface: High Speed USB 2.0 (with USB Micro-B connector)<p>* power supply: USB bus power

This is like Nvidia&#x2F;Icera&#x27;s i500 modem, right?<p><a href="http://www.nvidia.com/docs/IO/116757/NVIDIA_i500_whitepaper_FINALv3.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nvidia.com&#x2F;docs&#x2F;IO&#x2F;116757&#x2F;NVIDIA_i500_whitepaper_...</a>

What would be the typical range for something like this or BladeRF?

This is great. I met briefly with a company developing software radio products that led me to believe such devices are illegal or require special licensing. Is my impression wrong or has this changed recently?<p>Second, can this do GSM, receive at least? Frequency band works, but maybe it doesn&#x27;t have the bandwidth?

What cool projects could someone build with this besides scan radio waves?

Looks like it&#x27;s essentially a Bus Pirate for RF... Which is awesome!

One interesting observation, I have no idea if this can be turned into a startup idea, is you can usually tell within the first two lines of comments in a &quot;SDR&quot; type story who is coming from an analog EE RF background and who&#x27;s coming from a programmer digital background. And there&#x27;s very few in between, as a percentage.<p>I donno if the startup idea is an online course for CS to understand EE or EE to understand CS or both or ... ?

Can&#x27;t you use this to capture car-key signals and replicate them later? Sounds like the perfect tool for that.

Yeah, the lack of &lt; 30 Mhz means this would be a pass for me.