rtl_power1
Wideband spectrum monitor utility
Overview
Uses a re-purposed DVB-T receiver as a software defined radio to receive signals in I/Q data form. Written for and incorporated in the osmocom rtl-sdr project.
Usage
rtl_power, a simple FFT logger for RTL2832 based DVB-T receivers
This tool gathers signal data over a very wide area of the frequency spectrum, and then that data can be used to find active areas of the spectrum.
Use: rtl_power -f freq_range [-options] [filename]
-f lower:upper:bin_size [Hz]
-
(bin size is a maximum, smaller more convenient bins
- will be used.
-
valid range 1Hz - 2.8MHz)
-
[-i integration_interval (default: 10 seconds)]
-
(buggy if a full sweep takes longer than the interval)
-
[-1 enables single-shot mode (default: off)] [-e exit_timer (default: off/0)] [-d device_index (default: 0)] [-g tuner_gain (default: automatic)] [-p ppm_error (default: 0)] filename (a '-' dumps samples to stdout)
-
(omitting the filename also uses stdout)
Experimental options:
-
[-w window (default: rectangle)]
-
(hamming, blackman, blackman-harris, hann-poisson, bartlett, youssef)
-
[-c crop_percent (default: 0%, recommended: 20%-50%)]
-
(discards data at the edges, 100% discards everything) (has no effect for bins larger than 1MHz)
-
[-F fir_size (default: disabled)]
-
(enables low-leakage downsample filter,
- fir_size can be 0 or 9.
-
0 has bad roll off,
-
try with '-c 50%')
-
[-P enables peak hold (default: off)] [-D enable direct sampling (default: off)] [-O enable offset tuning (default: off)]
CSV FFT output columns:
-
date, time, Hz low, Hz high, Hz step, samples, dbm, dbm, ...
Examples
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(creates 160 bins across the FM band, |
|
|
individual stations should be visible) |
|
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(a five minute low res scan of nearly everything) |
|
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(integrate for 15 minutes and exit afterwards) |
|
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(collect data for one hour and compress it on the fly) |
Convert CSV to a waterfall graphic with:
-
http://kmkeen.com/tmp/heatmap.py.txt
rtl_power, a simple FFT logger for RTL2832 based DVB-T receivers
Use: rtl_power -f freq_range [-options] [filename]
-f lower:upper:bin_size [Hz]
-
(bin size is a maximum, smaller more convenient bins
- will be used.
-
valid range 1Hz - 2.8MHz)
-
[-i integration_interval (default: 10 seconds)]
-
(buggy if a full sweep takes longer than the interval)
-
[-1 enables single-shot mode (default: off)] [-e exit_timer (default: off/0)] [-d device_index (default: 0)] [-g tuner_gain (default: automatic)] [-p ppm_error (default: 0)] filename (a '-' dumps samples to stdout)
-
(omitting the filename also uses stdout)
Experimental options:
-
[-w window (default: rectangle)]
-
(hamming, blackman, blackman-harris, hann-poisson, bartlett, youssef)
-
[-c crop_percent (default: 0%, recommended: 20%-50%)]
-
(discards data at the edges, 100% discards everything) (has no effect for bins larger than 1MHz)
-
[-F fir_size (default: disabled)]
-
(enables low-leakage downsample filter,
- fir_size can be 0 or 9.
-
0 has bad roll off,
-
try with '-c 50%')
-
[-P enables peak hold (default: off)] [-D enable direct sampling (default: off)] [-O enable offset tuning (default: off)]
CSV FFT output columns:
|
date, time, Hz low, Hz high, Hz step, samples, dbm, dbm, ... |
|
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(creates 160 bins across the FM band, |
|
|
individual stations should be visible) |
|
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(a five minute low res scan of nearly everything) |
|
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(integrate for 15 minutes and exit afterwards) |
|
|
rtl_power |
|
|
(collect data for one hour and compress it on the fly) |
Convert CSV to a waterfall graphic with:
-
http://kmkeen.com/tmp/heatmap.py.txt
Releases
Unchanged in 7 releases since Debian 8 (Jessie).