Last week, I wrote this post that reflected concerns first identified and written-up by M0AWS.
By now, my own Radioberry kit has arrived direct from China (my particular e-bay seller was t-mall2013, costing a not-insignificant £150) and, whilst some cold, windy and wet weather blows by, I assembled the few parts to make a functioning SDR.
First signals with my Radioberry (the antenna was not matched to the band, so the signals are weaker than they should be) |
The assembly is very easy and anything like which way up the screen's ribbon cable goes is quickly cleared-up with an internet search. The ribbon cable is, of course, way too long and rather gets in the way of the antenna connection, especially if you use a SMA to SO239 adapter, as many inevitably will.
I was pleased to find that the SD card, should you use one, can - just - be installed and removed on the Pi board once everything has been mounted, though you'll need some fine forceps to manage it. A cheap, low-capacity SSD is probably a better long-term option, especially if you are going to mount the unit in a housing, as many do.
The whole thing was pretty painless and powering-up led to instant and successful operation of the SDR, the software already being installed alongside the Pi OS. The screen is small at just five inches, but presents a fair bit of information in a very clear way. You could easily install some other form of screen, of course.
The blue tabs on the screen ribbon cable go this way around (screen at bottom). |
Another seemingly good news story with this unit was that the SDR software supplied is that developed by G0ORX. I contacted him to find out if he knew of the data scraping by PA3GWS - which he didn't - and whether his software, if it was some modification of the former's efforts, might do the same. I'm glad to report that the response was that it does NOT send any data.
I also got a response from a Dutch operator whose name and locator appeared earlier this year on the PA3GWS site. He knew of the problem and was actively following the story. He had an email address for PA3GWS and so I'll try to see if he can fix this problem, which really shouldn't ever have been implemented, especially when there's no opt-out available.
UPDATE: I've now received a detailed response from PA3GWS and I'll write about this later this week. Also the Radioberry works really well. I'm controlling it via VNC and sound via bluetooth to a receiver on my hi-fi amplifier. Very impressed!
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