[HH] software defined radio (SDR) tutorial series

[Tom Metro]

The Hak5 show is currently doing a seres of episodes on software defined
radio (SDR), centered around the GNURadio Companion GUI front-end. I
sampled this episode:

https://hak5.org/episodes/hak5-1602

on decoding an FM subcarrier. This episode skipped over what hardware
they were using to receive the signal, but presumably that's covered in
the prior episodes in the series.

Prior episodes can be found here at
http://hak5.org/category/episodes/season-15, such as:

Hak5 1524 - Free Software + $20 USB Dongle = Software Defined Radio
http://hak5.org/episodes/hak5-1524

Hak5 1525 - Track Aircraft with a $20 Software Defined Radio
http://hak5.org/episodes/hak5-1525

Hak5 1526 - Building Software Radios With A Little Bit Of Python
http://hak5.org/episodes/hak5-1526

(I tend to access them through YouTube, via an XBMC plug-in, which seems
to work better than their in-browser player.)


If anyone is proficient with SDR, it could make for a good BLU talk with
potentially wide appeal. We all make use of wireless devices, but few
understand what is going on down at the radio signal level. An SDR demo
would be a way to both explain that and visualize what's happening.


Hak5 has covered a bunch of other RF related topics like:

Hak5 1511 - Tracking Cars Wirelessly And Intercepting Femtocell Traffic
Hak5 1515 - Legally build a 60 Watt WiFi Link - 2.4 GHz and EIRP
Hak5 1517 - Point-to-Point WiFi Nodes - OpenWRT Config and Threema -
"Secure" messaging for iOS and Android?


Overall I'd give the show a mixed review. It uses a blend if "lean back"
(overview) and "lean forward" (detailed tutorial) content. I'd rather
they stick to the "lean back" aspect and trim the 20 minute episodes
down to 10 minutes, and link to written detailed tutorials. (Unless you
are watching the show on your computer and entering the commands,
watching someone type stuff in a terminal window gets dull fast.) As a
result, although I subscribe to this show, only rarely do I invest the
20 minutes to sit through an episode.

 -Tom