Navigation: Celestial, Sextant, Equipment
Introduction The RTL-SDR receiver is a simple but very useful device. It can receive signals from 25MHz to about 1700MHz. It can be used to scan the aircraft VHF AM voice band from 118 to 137MHz and then the Marine VHF FM band from 156 to 164MHz. VHF Air AM Voice Frequency Band The VHF […]
Introduction In a previous post, I discussed how to use the Friis equation to determine the free space loss and receive level between a transmitter and receiver (Ref.1). Let’s consider an example that I saw in a recent sailing forum. The discussion was around the range of a typical marine VHF transmitter using a quality […]
Introduction EPIRB or Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon Station is an emergency transmitting device that blue water sailors or explorers can use in case of distress. They have proven their worth over the years and are absolutely essential for anyone wanting to wander off the grid (Ref.1). At least 2000 people have been saved every […]
Introduction In my previous post (Ref.1) I examined how the RTL-SDR with the up converter can be used to receive the LF/MF/HF bands. Low power radio navigation beacons are located in the LF band and can be received by the RTL-SDR. Figure 1 shows a table of LF radio navigation beacons located in the Toronto […]
Introduction The standard RTL-SDR receives from 25 – 1725MHz, which does not include the LF band from 30-300KHz, the MF band from 300KHz – 3MHz and the HF band from 3 – 30MHz. However with the use of an up-converter, these bands can be received (100KHz – 65MHz). Fig.1 shows the 1st version of the […]