bayang

Fun with radio and SDR

I recently started to play with an old SDR receiver I bought years ago to get my door bell rings.

This one : https://www.rtl-sdr.com/

And I tried to have a deeper look at what is possible with it.

It turns out the radio frequencies are still widely used.

I was able for example to receive pager messages (from a protocol called POCSAG).

There is a quick setup here if you want to try : https://www.talm.ai/decoding-pocsag-pagers/

I also discovered this site : https://priyom.org/ which lists numbers radio and also government transmissions.

I knew of numbers radio before but I wasn't aware it was still a thing.

I listened to a few one and after each one I always keep listening to the static noise for a while. There is a very specific feeling about hearing static noise I cannot explain. It reminds me of all nights I have spent when I was younger, listening to FM radio and hearing the imperfect sound from old tuners.

I'll most certainly keep on investigating a bit, there are still many fun stuff to try.