Raspberry Pi 4 - Software defined radio - SDR Install guide - 2022

How to install and setup a Software defined radio on the Raspberry Pi 4 / Pi 400. This is a step by step SDR installation guide for the Pi operating system and a first look at the SDR software. Recommended minimum amount of RAM 4GB but preferred is 8GB.
SDR Software used is Cubic SDR which can be found here:
cubicsdr.com/
Hardware used in this video:
Bingfu Antenna -
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
RTL-SDR Dongle -
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
Coaxial Antenna Connectors -
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
Geekworm Raspberry Pi 4 case -
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
Raspberry Pi 4b 8GB -
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
I hope you find this video useful and thanks for watching and for supporting my channel.
If you would like to buy me a coffee and help support the channel then please follow this link www.buymeacoffee.com/nlkmedia Your support is greatly appreciated, thank you so much.

[@kc7ou]

Thanks! Worked great on my pi4. Will be using this as a panadapter (spectrum Analyzer ) on my Ham Transceiver.

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Glad you found the video useful. Thanks for commenting, all the best

[@bern047]

Thanks for this excellent video tutorial, this is really good for beginers to follow, your step by step aproach was easy to follow not any quick prsesses and hidden commands you get from exprienced users, got my Raspberry Pi up and running and enjoying listening to some interesting radio signals, I didn't get the ariel you mentioned but got a small 1:9 balun from Amazon and just a long wire out of the window and tried different lengths of wire, amazing what you can pick up

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Thank you Bernard for your kind and helpful feedback, its great to know that these videos are helping viewers out and are of use. It is incredible what you can pick up with a bit of wire hanging out of a window and a mag longwire balun. All the best and thanks for taking the time to comment. 73's MJ7NLK

[@stocksj]

Yes it does work, It was much easier than trying to install gqrx on the Pi3b which error-ed out. Thanks

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Glad I could help

[@MrMesospheric]

Very good. Just sent the video to Svalbard to guide scientists in setting-up a WSPR receiver there! Thanks!

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Thanks John, glad you enjoyed the content, all the best

[@panoshountis1516]

Great video. Any idea if I can use the same raspberry pi with 2 SDR dongles, one feeding Cubic SDR as you presented here and another one picking up ADS-B signal?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Panos, thanks for the feedback. I think the Pi would struggle with two devices at the same time. It's not a very powerful machine but worth a try to see how you get on. I suspect it will lag but you never know. The Pi 5 is expected in Q4 2022 or Q1 2023 (not official but expected) so might be worth waiting for that as more power and I.O. will make it even more useful. If you experiment with dual devices, then please do feedback how you got on. All the best and thanks for watching

[@malevolentbeing]

Did you ever test this to see if its possible? I'm interested as well.

[@panoshountis1516]

@@malevolentbeing have not tried it, to be hoenst. However on the Nooelec site, one of the product photos for their NESDR SMArt v5 dongle shows it on a paired configuration on a Pi 3, if I am not mistaken, so it suggests that this is something feasible.

[@overhead18]

I have three SDR connected to one Pi 4B. They are all feeding multiple ATC channels to liveatc, seems to work no issue. It is using a stripped down version of the OS with no GUI and is not really designed to have someone actively listening, it is specifically for feeding to the internet. I can say the device can support the three SDR, but I am not sure how it would do running Cubic and ADS-B. I have a different Pi set up for ADS-B, never tried to plug them all into the same Pi.

[@atomauro]

amazing bro thanks, how can i get the MER for each channel with an script in python? i have to call the SDR api somewhay? thanks

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Mauricio, I am unable to answer your question but Cubic SDR is open source and can be downloaded from GitHub so you could download and see what you can find. All the best and thanks for watching github.com/cjcliffe/CubicSDR/tree/0.2.4

[@boostermcblast2197]

I use a Windows Laptop with SDR Sharp at the moment. I like the idea of using a Raspberry 4 or 400. Do we have a better user experience now? Is it better than a year ago?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

I havent used the Pi since making the video so am not sure what imporvements they have made. It worked pretty well at the time and was fun to play with. All the best and thanks for watching

[@federicomilano5272]

Thank you for your video! I have only 1 question: is it possible in CubicSDR set a range scan? Example a scan form frequency xx to frequency yy and then from begin (a loop)? Thank you very much.

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Frederico, I am not aware of a scanner mode for CubicSDR that enables a scanning range. You could add a suggestion on the github page but I suspect that the SDR dongle wouldn't be up to the job of fast scanning through frequencies. All the best and thanks for watching

[@nathanbieber2840]

i think i/q is for direct sampling. thank you for the video!, do you have to have the packages on the sdcard prior to installing it or does it find it online? 73 w0nlb

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Just the steps on the video and everything needed is installed. It was quick and easy with Linux to get it working. All the best and thanks for watching 73 MJ7NLK

[@brocky436]

Hello hope you don’t mind a question from someone who really hasn’t a clue!? I have followed your great step by step guide and yes got the software on my rspi 400 😅. Snag is nothing appears to happen not even a drop of movement in the waterfall. I have to admit I’m only using an AliExpress RSP1 Msi2500 Msi001 SDR Reciver 10kHz-1GHz /10kHz-2GHz As a way of a first venture into the hobby so although I wasn’t expecting a lot I thought I’d at least hear some static hiss! One difference between your own setup and mine is that im running the 64bit version of the pi’s OS. I know you don’t have a lot to go on but any thoughts where I might be going wrong 😂 Oh I have flower pot antenna aiming at the aircraft band in the loft which does work reasonably well with a hand hel scanner I have. Anyway cheers and thanks for any help you could offer.

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Brocky, you should try to look at your configuration settings to ensure the software is set to use the SDR dongle and that its also set to output audio to the sound card. Picking the correct input and output devices is essential as they are not always set automatically. I have not tried the RSP1 MSI2500 so am not sure what the USB driver situation is like so also check to ensure your using the latest drivers as well. Thanks for watching and please do let me know how you get on. All the best

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Maybe something here might help revspace.nl/Msi2500SDR Some driver related info for Linux which might be of use

[@brocky436]

Thanks for your reply mmm yes having read up the info you point me towards it’s made me realise I understand so much less than I thought I did🥳 But I be since found and installed rpi image which includes a cubicsdr build and it works! Well I say works I have got the waterfall flowing and getting lots of lovely static noises through my speakers. There are lots of tall pointy signals there to be seen but no intelligible broadcasts! Antenna works fine with my handheld scanner but nothing but white noise through the sdr. So sorry but any thoughts where my new problem might be!? Anyway thanks again 😅

[@mjstratford]

Hi all, great vieo, I would liek to know if anyone can help. I am looking at making a raspi that can be installed within my loft, and then monitoring the Radio from downstairs using Windows via the same network. is this something that can be done?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

You could make things easier and just put the antenna in the loft and run that back to your setup. Having everything local to your machine generally makes things easier and more flexible. All the best and thanks for watching

[@reedschrichte800]

RTL-SDR v. 4 requires drivers (installed). Pi 4 with 4gb and Cubicsdr: it finds the RTL-SDR. Push the start button and everything goes away. Maybe 8gb Pi is necessary?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

I have not tried running on a 4GB Pi, I only have the 8GB version. I had no issues at all when running on Pi OS, it worked a treat. Windows was a no-go due to the lack of arm USB support at the time but have not tried again on any newer builds. All the best and thanks for watching MJ7NLK

[@ChristianNally]

What would it take to write software that would enable your setup to function as a AIS broadcast system for boats?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Christian, I am sorry but I dont know the answer to that one. Would depend on range I guess. Thanks for watching. All the best

[@JohnBaxendale]

It'd be impossible, the RTL SDR dongle is receive only and cannot broadcast. There's lots of AIS receive software available, but broadcast isn't possible.

[@ChristianNally]

@@JohnBaxendale Thanks for the clarification!

[@risat01]

This is like limeSDR? And can i use this to create opencellular without limeSDR use this?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Risat, I am not sure on that one but if you try and it does then please let me know as it might be helpful to other viewers. All the best and thanks for watching

[@macgyver5108]

7:42 In the terminal you can just hit the up arrow key to skip back to previously entered commands even after a reboot, faster than you can retype "sudo reboot"...

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi there MacGyver, thanks for pointing that out. I did not realise that terminal commands were persisted after reboots. Very useful info thanks. Thanks for watching, all the best.

[@EricLDC]

What if I wanted portable? Would a touch screen be expensive?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

No not really, just depends on what your after. You can get touch screens for $40 on Amazon. I have seen a tablet case which looked good. (RasPad 3 i think it was but more expensive). I have not purchased or tried any of these but searching for Raspberry Pi tablet case or similar should show up some interesting projects. All the best and thanks for watching

[@BozoBeagle]

Is GQRX any better than cubicsdr ?

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will take a look and see. All the best. MJ7NLK

[@madmax2069]

It runs better, but the UI is awful, you have to go through different tabs and windows to change things that should be easily accessible (aka located on the same screen). If you have a RTL-SDR you have to change the sampling modes depending on what frequency range you want to receive, and that requires opening up yet another window, and you have to change the sampling mode in the most confusing way possible instead of having just simple toggle. The way you adjust the waterfall is also pretty horrible, you have multiple sliders on a single bar instead of individual sliders next to the waterfall like the software in this video. Something like SDR++ is miles better for the UI alone.

[@frequencywatchers]

The Connector Is Actuaally Female Sma To Female Bnc, But Thats Nothing, Sorry To Mention It, I Just Cant Help Myself, I Know I Have Said So Much Wrong Things And Called Capacitors As Resistors And Stuff Like That, he He :) Really Cool Video By The Way

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi, thanks for commenting, its not a problem at all, always good to point things out. Glad you like the content and thanks for watching. All the best

[@graanschuur4267]

Mister! cubicsdr after install asks for update for missing 11mb..., Full of errors..!

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Graanschuur, sorry to hear you have had issues with CubicSDR. We didnt have any problems running this on a Pi4 8GB model. Maybe they released a version with issues subsequent to my video and if so may well have fixed it since. All the best and thanks for watching

[@ManuelPinner]

I have the Pie 4, 8 Gigs, 128 Gigs of Storage,

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Nice, very useful units and the Pi4 8GB is the better model to have. Pi5 units are still in short supply but hopefully will be becoming more available soon. Happy new year and all the best

[@madmax2069]

There's needs to be better SDR software specifically built for the RPi and low powered systems.

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Hi Mad Max, yes you are right the current software is laggy on low power devices. I am looking forward to the Pi5 when it finally gets released and hope to see the software come alive with slightly increased power and bandwidth. I might look at repeating my testing with a faster storage solution to see if this helps. The MicroSD cards, even the ultra ones, are just too slow, maybe that would help a little. Thanks for watching, all the best. MJ7NLK

[@madmax2069]

@@NLKMediaGroup most of the issues is that much of the software available for the RPi is ports from software that's designed to run on much more powerful hardware, we're basically dealing with hand me down software. If the software was built on and specifically for the RPi you probably wouldn't see the performance issues we see with the current SDR software. We wouldn't need a RPi 5 if people would start making software specifically designed to run on a RPi or low powered hardware

[@ryzerth]

lookup SDR++

[@NLKMediaGroup]

@@ryzerth will do thank you :-)

[@madmax2069]

@@ryzerth I know what SDR++ is, I use it on my windows PC. It doesn't run well on RPi as it was made with PC hardware in mind (PC hardware even from 2013 is far more powerful than the RPi is), it uses far too many resources to be a viable option for RPi. Seen quite a few videos on it "running" on a RPi, I tried it and it's pretty much unusable in it's current state, it completely pegs out the RPis CPU.

[@nathanbieber2840]

haha "bingfu"

[@NLKMediaGroup]

Its a funny old name and probably doesnt translate too well :-)