Setup:RTLSDR Linux - 2020-UQ-Communication-Systems/public GitHub Wiki

(Based on Install Gnuradio Guide ).

For Linux, the following instructions are best suited when installing on your own Linux system. If you are wanting to use the pre-configured Virtual Machine, then it might seem a little convoluted to do this. Although, as a bit of trivia, these are the steps used to set up the pre-configured Virtual Machine.

For Linux, RTL SDR is most easily installed by getting the build-gnuradio script from SBRAC.

$ wget http://www.sbrac.org/files/build-gnuradio && chmod a+x ./build-gnuradio && ./build-gnuradio

NOTE: The build gnuradio script takes a significant time to download and build all the required packages. The documentation says it might take several hours to complete! It is known to work on basically all versions of Ubuntu and Fedora (and more!).

1. Open Terminal, and type rtl_test -t
2. Output should be as follows

  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.

3. Capture some samples: rtl_sdr -s 2e6 -f 110.9e6 -n 2e6 dump.bin
4. The capture samples example will capture 2 million samples (-n = number), at a sample rate of 2 megasamples/second (-s) and with a centre frequency of 110.9 MHz (-f). The samples will be stored in dump.bin.

You can also use GQRX to listen to tune into certain stations, there are two ways to do this. If GQRX just bounces around, it has hanged, and it needs to be forced quit.

To install GQRX under Linux, follow the GQRX Download Page. For Ubuntu there is a PPA that lets you install it easily. For others, you probably will need to compile from source.

Please let us know if there are any problems.