Installing RTL SDR in Windows - 2013-UQ-Communication-Systems/public GitHub Wiki

(This guide is based on this page from rtlsdr.org. If there are any ambiguities, please check the original source)

Steps to install

  1. Download the Windows SDR Software Package from AirSpy's site.
  2. Run install-rtlsdr.bat after extracting.
  3. After plugging in the USB tuner, open "zadig" to configure the USB tuner.

RTLSDR Driver Windows

Now, to get the command line utilities you can get the "pre-built" windows RTL-SDR files

  1. Get prebuilt binaries: here.
  2. Extract the files and open it in the command line (Start > Run > CMD).

The files inside the x32/x64 directories are as follows:

libusb-1.0.dll
pthreadVC2-w64.dll
rtl_adsb.exe
rtl_eeprom.exe
rtl_fm.exe
rtl_sdr.exe
rtl_tcp.exe
rtl_test.exe
rtlsdr.dll
rtlsdr.lib
rtlsdr_static.lib

Testing the RTL-SDR Device

  1. Test the tuner with the following command:

rtl_test -t 

Found 1 device(s):   0:  ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle
Using device 0: ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9  25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
No E4000 tuner found, aborting.

Capturing Data (Standalone)

  1. Capture some samples (to a file): rtl_sdr -s 2e6 -f 110.9e6 -n 2e6 dump.bin
  2. Selected examples will capture 2 million samples (-n = number), at a sample rate of 2 megasamples/second (-s) and with a center frequency of 110.9 MHz (-f). Samples will be captured into dump.bin

Capturing and Displaying Data

Before capturing data for your assignment, it is a good idea to have some real-time information about the signal. This is where the tool SDRSharp comes in - it can show the spectrum in two ways - a spectral density as well as a waterfall map.

In SDRSharp there are two main ways to connect to your tuner stick, via a "Spectrum Server" (aka RTL-SDR TCP), or directly - RTL-SDR USB. If you want to use the spectrum server, in the command line run rtl_tcp, and then connect to the spectrum server in SDRSharp. Otherwise just use the USB version.

Next to listen / decode data use the "Play" button in the top left hand corner of the screen. The spectrum and water-fall plot will begin changing. If all of the spectrum is flat, you might need to increase the gain of the device (otherwise you are just receiving noise!).

FM radio is known as "wide band FM", other forms of frequency modulation may be for walkie-talkies etc, which will be "narrow band FM".

After you have identified a signal in SDRSharp, you can then "stop" SDRSharp and record this using rtl_sdr- as shown in the previous section. Substitute the appropriate centre frequency and sampling rate (which depends on the bandwidth). The RTL-SDR device will adjust its filter bandwidth relative to the sampling rate (to some degree).

References

  1. rtlsdr.org/softwarewindows.
  2. sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr

Troubleshooting

  • For Windows 7/8, the Zadig software (which installs the USB Driver - WinUSB) needs to be run as "Administrator". More Windows7/8 Hints are available here
  • If the device seems to fail, it often helps to get Windows to not "auto-load" the driver for this device.
  • If you are getting no signals in SDRSharp, adjust the gain (even use auto gain).
  • If you are getting bad signals, you may need to adjust the antenna. It is good to put the magnet of that antenna on a large metal object, and generally closer to a window/outside will give you better signals. (Some parts of the lab in 50-S202 have very poor signal quality).
  • If one of the rtl_* programs needs to be stopped you can stop it with Ctrl-C
  • Getting an error message like "usb_open error -3, Fix the device permissions" usually means that you already have one program using RTL-SDR. You need to close the other program (or at least 'stop' it if it is something like SDRSharp).