Radio

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General

See also Audio streams, Streaming, Electronics

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Spectrum

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum - the part of the electromagnetic spectrum from 3 Hz to 3000 GHz (3 THz). Electromagnetic waves in this frequency range, called radio waves, are extremely widely used in modern technology, particularly in telecommunication. To prevent interference between different users, the generation and transmission of radio waves is strictly regulated by national laws, coordinated by an international body, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Different parts of the radio spectrum are appointed by the ITU for different radio transmission technologies and applications; some 40 radiocommunication services are defined in the ITU's Radio Regulations (RR). In some cases, parts of the radio spectrum are sold or licensed to operators of private radio transmission services (for example, cellular telephone operators or broadcast television stations). Ranges of allocated frequencies are often referred to by their provisioned use (for example, cellular spectrum or television spectrum).


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_low_frequency - electromagnetic radiation (radio waves) with frequencies from 3 to 30 Hz, and corresponding wavelengths of 100,000 to 10,000 kilometers, respectively. In atmospheric science, an alternative definition is usually given, from 3 Hz to 3 kHz. In the related magnetosphere science, the lower frequency electromagnetic oscillations (pulsations occurring below ~3 Hz) are considered to lie in the ULF range, which is thus also defined differently from the ITU radio bands.

ELF radio waves are generated by lightning and natural disturbances in Earth's magnetic field, so they are a subject of research by atmospheric scientists. Because of the difficulty of building antennas that can radiate such long waves, ELF frequencies have been used in only a very few human-made communication systems. ELF waves can penetrate seawater, which makes them useful in communication with submarines. The US, Russia, and India are the only nations known to have constructed ELF communication facilities. The U.S. facilities were used between 1985 and 2004 but are now decommissioned. ELF waves can also penetrate significant distances into earth or rock, and "through-the-earth" underground mine communication systems use frequencies of 300 to 3000 Hz. The frequency of alternating current flowing in electric power grids, 50 or 60 Hz, also falls within the ELF band, making power grids an unintentional source of ELF radiation.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_low_frequency - frequency range between 30 hertz and 300 hertz. They have corresponding wavelengths of 10,000 to 1,000 kilometers. This frequency range includes the frequencies of AC power grids (50 hertz and 60 hertz). Another conflicting designation which includes this frequency range is Extremely Low Frequency (ELF), which in some contexts refers to all frequencies up to 300 hertz.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_low_frequency - frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 hertz and 3 kilohertz. In magnetosphere science and seismology, alternative definitions are usually given, including ranges from 1 mHz to 100 Hz, 1 mHz to 1 Hz, 10 mHz to 10 Hz. Frequencies above 3 Hz in atmosphere science are usually assigned to the ELF range.



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_frequency - LF is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 30 kHz–300 kHz. As its wavelengths range from ten kilometres to one kilometre, respectively, it is also known as the kilometre band or kilometre wave. LF radio waves exhibit low signal attenuation, making them suitable for long-distance communications. In Europe and areas of Northern Africa and Asia, part of the LF spectrum is used for AM broadcasting as the "longwave" band. In the western hemisphere, its main use is for aircraft beacon, navigation (LORAN), information, and weather systems. A number of time signal broadcasts are also broadcast in this band.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwave - also written as long wave (in British and American parlance) or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with relatively long wavelengths. The term is an historic one, dating from the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered to consist of long (LW), medium (MW) and short (SW) radio wavelengths. Most modern radio systems and devices use wavelengths which would then have been considered 'ultra-short'.

In contemporary usage, the term longwave is not defined precisely, and its meaning varies across the world. Most commonly, it refers to radio wavelengths longer than 1000 metres; frequencies less than 300 kilohertz (kHz), including the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU's) low frequency (LF) (30–300 kHz) and very low frequency (VLF) (3–30 kHz) bands. Sometimes, part of the medium frequency (MF) band (300–3000 kHz) is included.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_wave - the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz, using channels spaced every 9 kHz, and in North America an extended MW broadcast band goes from 535 kHz to 1705 kHz, using 10 kHz spaced channels.


Radio waves in this band can be reflected or refracted from a layer of electrically charged atoms in the atmosphere called the ionosphere. Therefore short waves directed at an angle into the sky can be reflected back to Earth at great distances, beyond the horizon. This is called skywave or skip propagation. Thus shortwave radio can be used for very long distance communication, in contrast to radio waves of higher frequency which travel in straight lines (line-of-sight propagation) and are limited by the visual horizon, about 40 miles. Shortwave radio is used for broadcasting of voice and music to shortwave listeners over very large areas; sometimes entire continents or beyond. It is also used for military over-the-horizon radar, diplomatic communication, and two-way international communication by amateur radio enthusiasts for hobby, educational and emergency purposes.





  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave - with wavelengths ranging from one meter to one millimeter; with frequencies between 300 MHz (100 cm) and 300 GHz (0.1 cm). This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF (millimeter waves), and various sources use different boundaries. In all cases, microwave includes the entire SHF band (3 to 30 GHz, or 10 to 1 cm) at minimum, with RF engineering often restricting the range between 1 and 100 GHz (300 and 3 mm).

The prefix micro- in microwave is not meant to suggest a wavelength in the micrometer range. It indicates that microwaves are "small", compared to waves used in typical radio broadcasting, in that they have shorter wavelengths. The boundaries between far infrared, terahertz radiation, microwaves, and ultra-high-frequency radio waves are fairly arbitrary and are used variously between different fields of study.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_high_frequency - EHF, from 30 to 300 gigahertz. It lies between the super high frequency band, and the far infrared band which is also referred to as the terahertz gap. Radio waves in this band have wavelengths from ten to one millimetre, giving it the name millimetre band or millimetre wave, sometimes abbreviated MMW or mmW. Millimetre-length electromagnetic waves were first investigated in the 1890s by Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz_radiation - also known as submillimeter radiation, terahertz waves, tremendously high frequency, T-rays, T-waves, T-light, T-lux or THz – consists of electromagnetic waves within the ITU-designated band of frequencies from 0.3 to 3 terahertz (THz; 1 THz = 1012 Hz). Wavelengths of radiation in the terahertz band correspondingly range from 1 mm to 0.1 mm (or 100 μm). Because terahertz radiation begins at a wavelength of one millimeter and proceeds into shorter wavelengths, it is sometimes known as the submillimeter band, and its radiation as submillimeter waves, especially in astronomy.

Terahertz radiation occupies a middle ground between microwaves and infrared light waves known as the terahertz gap, where technology for its generation and manipulation is in its infancy. It represents the region in the electromagnetic spectrum where the frequency of electromagnetic radiation becomes too high to be measured digitally via electronic counters, so must be measured by proxy using the properties of wavelength and energy. Similarly, the generation and modulation of coherent electromagnetic signals in this frequency range ceases to be possible by the conventional electronic devices used to generate radio waves and microwaves, requiring the development of new devices and techniques. Photon energy in THz regime is less than band-gap of nonmetallic materials and thus THz beam can traverse through such materials. The transmitted THz beam is used for material characterization, layer inspection and developing transmission images.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz_gap - an engineering term for a band of frequencies in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum between radio waves and infrared light for which practical technologies for generating and detecting the radiation do not exist. It is defined as 0.1 to 10 THz (wavelengths of 3 mm to 30 µm). Currently, at frequencies within this range, useful power generation and receiver technologies are inefficient and impractical.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_infrared - often defined as any radiation with a wavelength of 15 micrometers (µm) to 1 mm (corresponding to a range of about 20 THz to 300 GHz), which places far infrared radiation within the CIE IR-B and IR-C bands. Different sources use different boundaries for the far infrared spectrum; for example, astronomers sometimes define far infrared as wavelengths between 25 µm and 350 µm. Visible light includes radiation with wavelengths between 400 nm and 700 nm, meaning that far infrared photons have less energy than visible light photons.




  • http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Signal_Identification_Guide - wiki intended to help identify radio signals through example sounds and waterfall images. Most signals are received and recorded using a software defined radio such as the RTL-SDR, Airspy, SDRPlay, HackRF, BladeRF, Funcube Dongle, USRP or others. [1]

Broadcasting











Formats

AM

AM radio ranges from 535 to 1705 kilohertz, stations are possible every 10 kHz.


FM

FM radio ranges in a higher spectrum from 88 to 108 megahertz, stations are possible every 200 kHz.

Digital


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_broadcasting - DAB standard was initiated as a European research project in the 1980s. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) launched the first DAB channel in the world on 1 June 1995 (NRK Klassisk), and the BBC and Swedish Radio (SR) launched their first DAB digital radio broadcasts in September 1995. DAB receivers have been available in many countries since the end of the 1990s.

Audio quality varies depending on the bitrate used and audio material. Most stations use a bit rate of 128 kbit/s or less with the MP2 audio codec, which requires 160 kbit/s to achieve perceived FM quality. 128 kbit/s gives better dynamic range or signal-to-noise ratio than FM radio, but a more smeared stereo image, and an upper cut-off frequency of 14 kHz, corresponding to 15 kHz of FM radio. However, "CD quality" sound with MP2 is possible "with 256…192 kbps".

An upgraded version of the system was released in February 2007, which is called DAB+. DAB is not forward compatible with DAB+, which means that DAB-only receivers are not able to receive DAB+ broadcasts. However, broadcasters can mix DAB and DAB+ programs inside the same transmission and so make a progressive transition to DAB+. DAB+ is approximately twice as efficient as DAB, and more robust.


  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale - DRM, a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for analogue radio broadcasting including AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave, and FM broadcasting. DRM is more spectrally efficient than AM and FM, allowing more stations, at higher quality, into a given amount of bandwidth, using various MPEG-4 audio coding formats.




Trunked


  • https://github.com/robotastic/trunk-recorder - Trunk Recorder is able to record the calls on trunked and conventional radio systems. It uses 1 or more Software Defined Radios (SDRs) to do this. The SDRs capture large swatches of RF and then use software to process what was received. GNURadio is used to do this processing because it provides lots of convenient RF blocks that can be pieced together to allow for complex RF processing. The libraries from the amazing OP25 project are used for a lot of the P25 functionality. Multiple radio systems can be recorded at the same time.

Amateur radio

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio - also called ham radio, describes the use of radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communication. The term "amateur" is used to specify "a duly authorised person interested in radioelectric practice with a purely personal aim and without pecuniary interest;" (either direct monetary or other similar reward) and to differentiate it from commercial broadcasting, public safety (such as police and fire), or professional two-way radio services (such as maritime, aviation, taxis, etc.).

The amateur radio service (amateur service and amateur-satellite service) is established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) through the International Telecommunication Regulations. National governments regulate technical and operational characteristics of transmissions and issue individual stations licenses with an identifying call sign. Prospective amateur operators are tested for their understanding of key concepts in electronics and the host government's radio regulations. Radio amateurs use a variety of voice, text, image, and data communications modes and have access to frequency allocations throughout the RF spectrum to enable communication across a city, region, country, continent, the world, or even into space.



  • Guerrilla Radio - How some inmates hack, rewire, and retool their radios to create walkie-talkies. [3]






Antenna

Radio control

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_control - the use of radio signals to remotely control a device. Radio control is used for control of model vehicles from a hand-held radio transmitter. Industrial, military, and scientific research organizations make use of radio-controlled vehicles as well.



  • OpenSesame is a device that can wirelessly open virtually any fixed-code garage door in seconds, exploiting a new attack I've discovered on wireless fixed-pin devices. Using a child's toy from Mattel.

Data

See also Data, Streaming






  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datacasting - the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital television, but may also be applied to digital signals on analog TV or radio. It generally does not apply to data which is inherent to the medium, such as PSIP data which defines virtual channels for DTV or direct broadcast satellite systems; or to things like cable modem or satellite modem, which use a completely separate channel for data.



Mobile phone








SMS

4G


5G

Software-defined radio

Hardware



  • Myriad RF is a family of open source hardware and software projects for wireless communications, and a community that is working to make wireless innovation accessible to as many people as possible.





RTL chipset

  • http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr - RTL-SDR is a set of tools that enables DVB-T USB dongles based on the Realtek RTL2832U chipset to be used as cheap software defined radios, given that the chip allows transferring raw I/Q samples from the tuner straight to the host device.

The frequency range of the RTL2832U / E4000 is generally around 64MHZ to 1700MHz with a gap around 1100MHz to 1250MHz. The RTL2832U / R820T frequency range is 24MHZ to roughly 1850MHz with no gaps (found yet), and no DC offset spike.

RTL dongles have 2.4 MHz of useful bandwidth.





Software



running the "volk_profile" gnuradio utility will detect and enable processor specific optimisations and will in many cases give a significant performance boost.


  • LuaRadio is a lightweight, embeddable flow graph signal processing framework for software-defined radio. It provides a suite of source, sink, and processing blocks, with a simple API for defining flow graphs, running flow graphs, creating blocks, and creating data types. [15]


  • FreeDV - a Digital Voice mode for HF radio. You can run FreeDV using a free GUI application for Windows, Linux and OSX that allows any SSB radio to be used for low bit rate digital voice.



Other

  • Identification Guide - wiki intended to help identify radio signals through example sounds and waterfall images. Most signals are received and recorded using a software defined radio such as the RTL-SDR, Airspy, SDRPlay, HackRF, BladeRF, Funcube Dongle, USRP or others.



Telephony

  • http://openbts.org/
    • - OpenBTS is a Unix application that uses a software radio to present a GSM air interface to standard 2G GSM handset and uses a SIP softswitch or PBX to connect calls. (You might even say that OpenBTS is a simplified form of IMS that works with 2G feature-phone handsets.) The combination of the global-standard GSM air interface with low-cost VoIP backhaul forms the basis of a new type of cellular network that can be deployed and operated at substantially lower cost than existing technologies in many applications, including rural cellular deployments and private cellular networks in remote areas.


Web SDR

Podcasts









RFID

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