Category Archives: Radio

Project: Extracting & Geographically Plotting DTRS Site Information

Posted on September 13, 2014 by lui_gough

As a radio enthusiast, and highly observant public transport user, I’ve made many notes about the deployment of the new Digital Train Radio System (DTRS) sites. This new system is based upon GSM-R in the 1800Mhz band, and is intended … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio, Telecommunications, Travel | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

JJC/9VF Kyodo News Radio Fax (August 2014)

Posted on August 3, 2014 by lui_gough

Wenlock commented on my initial post about JJC/9VF Kyodo on 25th July claiming that it appears Kyodo is now QRT. Knowing that radiofax services are dwindling, due to high cost of maintenance, problems sourcing parts for repair and mariners having … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Random Post: Railcorp GSM-R Rollout, Opal Stuff, and other observations

Posted on March 23, 2014 by lui_gough

It’s been another busy week, but this time around, there hasn’t been that much “random” action to note. Part of the reason is the fact that I’ve been spending increasing amounts of time inside the microbiology lab where I’m doing … Continue reading →

Posted in Obituary, Opinion, Radio | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Teardown, Recordings: 1 by One Wireless Door Chime R/X QH-0031 (Quhwa QH-09D)

Posted on December 22, 2013 by lui_gough

This post will probably make me seem like a crazy nutter, but oh well. I cannot deny the fact that I can do some very strange things from time to time. I needed a wireless doorbell to alert me to … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

RTL-SDR: 433.92Mhz ASK/OOK Decoding of Various Devices with rtl_433

Posted on December 20, 2013 by lui_gough

Since I got into the rtl-sdr craze, one thing I’ve always been interested in doing is decoding various sensors and remote controls which operate using RF. In order to do this, you must first acquire the signal, understand its modulation … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio | Tagged , , , | 32 Comments

More RTL2832U Tuners: Full-Size FC0013, Mid-Size R820T

Posted on December 12, 2013 by lui_gough

Since I got into rtl-sdr, there really hasn’t ever been enough tuners for me to play around on a given day. Now that I have a substantial tuner collection (three E4000’s, three R820T’s just for experimentation), I always feel the … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Freeview Sydney: New Digital DVB-T Carrier at 184.500Mhz (Ch 7)

Posted on December 3, 2013 by lui_gough

Gosh things move FAST! Just this morning, Analog TV was turned off, and VHF channel 7 was vacated. While playing with rtl-sdr, I realize that there’s an OFDM signal in 184.500Mhz. I don’t remember seeing it right after the 9am … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio | Tagged | 2 Comments

Obituary: Analog TV in Sydney (1956(ABC,ATN,TCN)/1964(TEN)/1980(SBS) – 3 Dec 2013)

Posted on December 3, 2013 by lui_gough

We all knew it was coming. The government did a good job of warning us, and today the day has arrived. As I write this, I feel some sort of sadness that a technology which has served us, incrementally improved … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Obituary, Radio | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Random Post: Ankle, Aldi Mobile “Unlimited”, Xmas Post, Device Updates, Pennytel, etc.

Posted on November 26, 2013 by lui_gough

Hello guys! I’m back, but unfortunately, my body isn’t. I’ve spent a bit of time, in bits, collecting some thoughts which I should have posted about but haven’t had the motivation or time. Hopefully that keeps my readers a little … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Opinion, Photography, Radio, Raspberry Pi, Telecommunications, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Analyzing the Efergy HM01 Air Data Format

Posted on November 18, 2013 by lui_gough

Isn’t it funny how having the Efergy HM01 power meter sitting on my desk, looking all “sad” from not being used makes me suddenly want to make an effort to try and reverse engineer the air interface? I suppose part … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Review, Teardown: Efergy HM01 Electricity Display Device

Posted on November 18, 2013 by lui_gough

When you’re onto a good thing, I suppose it’s natural to just keep going. Knowing that my Efergy Elite 1.0 can be decoded using RTL-SDR, and knowing the e2 (presumably that is, the e2 classic that Nathaniel has) can also … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Opinion, Radio | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Random: Arrgh, my ankle! Energy Monitor Fun – tracing “vampire loads”

Posted on November 17, 2013 by lui_gough

Another week goes by, and strangely, my ankle is still busted. As a result, life has been about being content with being bedridden most of the time and trying my best not to walk at all, in order to avoid … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sharing the Data: Efergy Wireless Energy Monitor

Posted on November 16, 2013 by lui_gough

Regular followers can already tell that I’ve been making progress in tinkering with the EfergyRPI_001 code by Nathaniel Elijah, having impressed myself with getting it working on Windows and logging data happily for days on my Chromebook. But now it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Efergy Wireless Energy Monitor decoding now in Windows!

Posted on November 15, 2013 by lui_gough

If it seems I’ve been a little crazy with the posts lately, you’re not mistaken. I’ve been slightly busy trying different things, and now I have some good news – you can now decode your Efergy Wireless Energy Monitor from … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Improving RTL-SDR Decoding of the Efergy Wireless Energy Monitor

Posted on November 15, 2013 by lui_gough

In all of my excitement after discovering that Efergy Wireless Energy Monitors could be decoded using the data from an RTL-SDR dongle and a program written by Nathaniel Elijah, there were still several investigations I needed to conduct to determine … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Efergy Energy Monitor Decoding with RTL-SDR

Posted on November 14, 2013 by lui_gough

In a very cool development, Nathaniel Elijah of RTL-SDR Projects had posted about the decoding of the Efergy E2 Classic FSK data transmissions using RTL-SDR and a Raspberry Pi. I just so happened to stumble upon his page, and knowing … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , , | 66 Comments

RTL-SDR: A tool for Visualizing Broadcast Satellite Signals

Posted on November 10, 2013 by lui_gough

For people who chase broadcast satellite signals, we know that the vast majority of them are DVB-S/DVB-S2 signals, which can easily be scoped out with any CrazyScan capable tuner, such as the TBS6925. Even a regular blind-scan card gives you … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio, Satellite | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

RTL-SDR: Elonics E4000 Tuners are Elusive!

Posted on October 23, 2013 by lui_gough

I think that most will have already realized that it is old news that Elonics had folded and supplies of the E4000 tuner ICs were getting short. But for some applications, the Elonics E4000 is still the preferred tuner, owing … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Random Post: Rail Stuff, Win 8.1 Upgrade, Bushfires, Scanning NSW-GRN

Posted on October 18, 2013 by lui_gough

The PhD has kept me busy all week, but that’s no reason for me not to blog. The random post comes a bit earlier this week – it’s been a bit of a bumper week already with some rail changes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Photography, Radio, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Analysis: Foxtel Satellite DVB-S/DVB-S2 Services

Posted on October 7, 2013 by lui_gough

Some readers may be familiar with my recent look at freeview, but for those who aren’t, I was basically interested in finding out how much data is in the air for digital TV, and how much data is dedicated for … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio, Satellite, Telecommunications | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Analysis: DVB-T Freeview in Sydney, NSW, Australia

Posted on October 2, 2013 by lui_gough

It’s probably been clear from my “new year’s” piece that I’m not too much a fan of the free-to-air TV in Sydney (or Australia) at the moment. Ultimately, it delivers quantity but not quality. As I noticed the recent “launching” … Continue reading →

Posted in Opinion, Radio, Telecommunications | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

QSL Card: Radio Taiwan International

Posted on September 8, 2013 by lui_gough

Another delight awaited me in the post box this week – a very generous package from Radio Taiwan International (a major international broadcaster). It is a very traditional set of documents and sheds light on how things were done prior … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio | Tagged | 1 Comment

Gough’s Take on “What would Wi-Fi look like if we could see it?”

Posted on July 30, 2013 by lui_gough

Earlier this week, an article titled Here’s What Wi-Fi Would Look Like If We Could See It got Slashdotted. This got my attention because, as a radio enthusiast that has been playing around with Wi-Fi “before it was cool”, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Opinion, Radio, Telecommunications | Tagged | Leave a comment

Increasing ADS-B Reach with dump1090

Posted on July 16, 2013 by lui_gough

I think it’s fairly clear from my last project of ADSBpi, my main interest is to improve the reach of my ADS-B reception and plotting. Unfortunately, most of my monitoring areas are compromises due to building construction, shadowing and sub-optimal … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

RTL2832U+R820T Full Size USB TV Tuner

Posted on July 14, 2013 by lui_gough

A quick recap – RTL2832U based TV tuners are great for software defined radio work. They’re inexpensive, and can be used to receive and demodulate a fair number of different signals. I’ve even written a few articles about what they … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Radio | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

QSL Card: Voice of Russia

Posted on July 14, 2013 by lui_gough

Amongst all the gloom of having relatively poor restricted internet access comes an interesting piece of mail – a QSL Card I tried to claim from Voice of Russia a while back. I totally forgot about it, so it was … Continue reading →

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SDR# – My favourite SDR program for the RTL2832U dongles

Posted on July 9, 2013 by lui_gough

When the RTL2832U “SDR surprise” was being unearthed, the software of choice was GNU Radio. While it’s a very powerful tool, it was also very cumbersome to use for the most basic of tasks, and required a lot of digital … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

ADSB# Range Testing with the RTL2832U+R820T Tuner

Posted on July 7, 2013 by lui_gough

I’ve covered ADSB# in one of my earlier articles, even going so far as to take my E4000 dongle to the airport for a spin. But as we now know, Elonics (the guys behind the E4000 front end) have gone … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

RTL2832 (ISDB Mini) ADS-B Reception Field Test

Posted on June 19, 2013 by lui_gough

After I realized that the RTL2832 TV dongles were capable of receiving and decoding ADS-B transmissions from aircraft using ADSB#, I really couldn’t resist testing it out further. It was a simple one-click (well, almost) procedure, unlike the early incarnations … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Radio | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Teardown: Kogan Pixie Digital Radio

Posted on June 7, 2013 by lui_gough

After covering my impressions about the Kogan Pixie Digital Radio in my previous post, I thought – why not be daring and take it apart just to see what’s inside? That’s exactly what I did! The rear shell is held … Continue reading →

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