[ <- back-issue archive · live wire · issue #29 · RF 24H · 2026-11-15 01:47 UTC ]
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> /var/archive/digest/29.intel :: [ 2026-11-15 01:47 UTC ]
  • KrakenSDR V2 suite rewritten in C++ -- The 5-channel coherent RTL-SDR direction finder shed its Python layer entirely: real-time spectrum and audio demod now run concurrently with MUSIC DoA estimation, with a Mode selector carving up tuner usage. Big claimed speedups on Pi 4/5 mean a battery-powered passive DF rig just got lighter [@krakenrf].
  • PortaPack Mayhem firmware hardens TX/RX clocking -- Stale audio spectrum during modulation changes got fixed, PRALINE TX/RX clock sync now extends to the HackRF Pro's internal 25 MHz TCXO, and SD card corruption was killed by switching to single-beat SDIO IDMAC transfers. Cleaner carrier for anyone transmitting off the H1/H2/H4 [@portapack-mayhem].
  • Turk Telekom/Calnex GNSS holdover measurements -- ITSF 2026 field data shows what happens when GNSS drops at a base station: holdover runs out, timing/sync degrades silently, and there is no re-sync grace period. GNSS loss is a hard operational failure, not a nuisance -- which is exactly why spoofing a single reference receiver is so cheap [RNT Foundation].
  • FCC comments on 2.4/5.8 GHz satellite use -- AMSAT ANS-319 covers proposed amateur satellite allocations in the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz ISM bands -- the same spectrum your Wi-Fi deauth frames and LoRa backhaul live in. UNNE-1B/HADES-L picked up OSCAR designations SO-131/SO-132, and OSCAR Watch Tracker v1.1.7 adds SSTV handling over Earth view [AMSAT].
  • rtl_433 cleans up SDR reopen and buffer sizing -- Recent commits fix getopt reset/%z on newlib/ESP-IDF, shrink MAXIMAL_BUF_LENGTH, reopen the SDR cleanly, and silence connection handlers before mg_mgr_free(). The ESP-IDF fix means the ISM-band decoder now behaves on ESP32 targets, not just dongles [@merbanan].
  • WiGLE wardriving client 2.112 fixes IMS wedge -- The Android wardriving client stops wedging IMS when toggling Wi-Fi and adds a filter icon showing display/logging/alert state. Small fix, but anyone who has lost a capture run to a radio toggle knows it matters [@wiglenet].
  • LimeSDR Micro VSPA adds scheduled stream start -- Firmware now supports starting a stream at a specific scheduled time, Rx DFT bin measurement with Hann windowing, and refactored common code. Scheduled TX start is the primitive you want for time-aligned TDOA or burst-jamming experiments [@myriadrf].
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> /var/archive/digest/29.possibilities :: [ 34 sources ]
  • Bench the C++ MUSIC DoA against the old Python pipeline -- Pull the suite onto a Pi 5, feed a known 433 MHz or 1090 MHz emitter from a fixed bearing, and diff DoA estimates between the C++ MUSIC path and the legacy Python kraken. The Mode selector splitting tuner usage is worth probing for coherent-channel leakage when demod and DoA run concurrently [inspired by krakenrf/krakensdr_suite].
  • Measure GNSS holdover decay on your own bench -- Take a u-blox or GPSDO-equipped SDR front end, log 1PPS phase drift after killing antenna power, and chart how long holdover stays inside 1.5 us before silent slip. Then replay a mild spoofed GNSS signal and see if the receiver flags anything before sync walks off [inspired by RNT Foundation].
  • Hunt 2.4/5.8 GHz satellite downlinks from your Wi-Fi gear -- With FCC comments floating around amateur satellite use of 2.4 and 5.8 GHz, point a HackRF or RTL-SDR at SO-131/SO-132 passes, capture Doppler-corrected downlinks, and check how much ISM-band Wi-Fi traffic lands inside the proposed satellite passbands. Overlap means interference both ways [inspired by AMSAT].
  • Port rtl_433 onto ESP32 and fuzz the reopen path -- The newlib/ESP-IDF getopt fix plus the clean SDR reopen commit suggest hot-plug and reconfigure paths were flaky. Build for ESP32-S3 with an SX127x or via Wi-Fi RX, yank the radio mid-decode, and hammer the reopen/restart state machine for hangs [inspired by merbanan/rtl_433].
  • Abuse scheduled stream start for TDOA calibration -- Two LimeSDR Micros, both armed with the new scheduled-start primitive and GPS-disciplined clocks, transmitting a known chirp at an agreed epoch. Measure arrival skew across receivers and validate your own TDOA baseline before trusting it on real emitters [inspired by myriadrf/LimeSDR-Micro_VSPA].
  • Verify the PortaPack TCXO sync fix on air -- Flash the latest Mayhem build, transmit a fixed carrier at 433.92 MHz, and measure frequency error against a GPSDO-referenced counter before and after the PRALINE 25 MHz TCXO sync change. Then stress the SDIO single-beat path by logging during rapid modulation switches [inspired by portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware].
  • Baseline aircraft/ships in Kismet for passive radar fodder -- The new baseline-transport rules that track aircraft and ships for the current run pair nicely with an ADS-B-capable SDR. Run Kismet alongside tar1090 and cross-correlate Wi-Fi channel activity timestamps with aircraft transponder bursts to look for cheap passive-radar-style bistatic reflections [inspired by kismetwireless/kismet].
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> /var/archive/digest/29.github :: [ code & repo tradecraft ]

Quiet night on the vendor blogs, so the wire desk spent it watching git pushes instead. The pattern was obvious within an hour: hardware-adjacent maintainers doing real engineering -- a coherent DF suite dropping Python for C++, PortaPack bolting TCXO sync into its clocking, LimeSDR Micro gaining scheduled stream starts -- while the wardriving and sniffing toolchains shipped small but annoying-bug fixes. No hype, no conferenceware; just firmware diffs and DSP refactors worth pulling before your next field run.

  • krakenrf/krakensdr_suite -- Full C++ rewrite of the 5-channel coherent RTL-SDR DoA suite: real-time spectrum and audio demod run alongside MUSIC direction finding, with a Mode selector for tuner allocation. If you DF on a Pi, this is the diff to read tonight.
  • portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware -- Stale audio spectrum on modulation change fixed, PRALINE TX/RX clock sync extended to the HackRF Pro internal 25 MHz TCXO, and SD corruption killed via single-beat SDIO IDMAC transfers. Clocking and storage fixes in one push -- both matter when you are transmitting.
  • merbanan/rtl_433 -- getopt reset/%z fixes for newlib/ESP-IDF, MAXIMAL_BUF_LENGTH shrunk, clean SDR reopen, and connection handlers silenced before mg_mgr_free(). The ESP-IDF work says embedded ISM decoding is a first-class target now.
  • myriadrf/LimeSDR-Micro_VSPA -- Scheduled stream start at a specific time, Rx DFT bin measurement with Hann windowing, and refactored common code. Scheduled start is the quiet star here -- time-aligned multi-radio experiments just got easier.
  • 7h30th3r0n3/Evil-M5Project -- ESP32-S3 Wi-Fi scan/monitor/interact toolkit for Cardputer, AtomS3, Fire and Core2, with fresh Evil-* payload binaries and a companion WebSerial one-flash app (Evil-Flasher Tab5 v1.5.8) embedding C6 firmware with SDIO auto-update. Pocketable 802.11 mischief, fully self-contained.