Pseudonymous YouTuber “Prime DNG” has demonstrated how a Raspberry Pi 5 and an RTL-SDR software-defined radio dongle could be become a radio scanner for digital radio transmissions, together with these utilized by emergency companies — duplicating the performance of $600 off-the-shelf {hardware} at a far decrease price.
“The digital P25 radio from Uniden is possibly 600 bucks,” Prime DNG explains, “and I do not actually care to pay that a lot for that. So, to choose up these sort of indicators on a budget you get one in every of these dongles: the RTL-SDR. These are, like, 30 bucks, however after all the issue with these is that they want one thing to plug into, and you might want to run some software program — it isn’t all contained in right here, that is simply the dongle.”
The answer, to be used on-the-go at the very least, is to attach the RTL-SDR dongle — a low-cost receive-only software program outlined radio — to a single-board pc. In Prime DNG’s case that is the brand new Raspberry Pi 5, launched late final 12 months as essentially the most highly effective Raspberry Pi by far and simply as much as the duty of driving the RTL-SDR dongle and decoding the transmissions it receives.
“I do know some folks have tried to do that earlier than with Raspberry Pi 4s,” Prime DNG explains, “they usually simply weren’t highly effective sufficient. So with the [Raspberry Pi] 5 we’re unlocking this [type of] transportable scanner [functionality] on a budget.”
The Raspberry Pi 5 connects to the RTL-SDR over USB, whereas an HDMI touchscreen show offers a person interface. Audio system constructed into the monitor imply the decoded transmissions could be heard — a trickier process on the Raspberry Pi 5 than earlier fashions, because it’s the primary to drop the analog audio/video (AV) jack — and a USB Sort-C energy provide will get the whole lot up and working.
The machine boots instantly into the SDR software program, with a touchscreen as its main person interface. (📷: Prime DNG)
“We’re working the [Raspberry] Pi in headless mode and solely launching the SDR software program, so there is not any different desktop stuff occurring,” Prime DNG notes of the the person expertise. “I’ve configured this factor with the LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] channels, and I recommend doing that in your pc and simply loading within the XML file which defines, mainly, how this entire software program operates when it comes to what you are recording.”
The complete video is offered embedded above and on Prime DNG’s YouTube channel.