1 MHz to 6 GHz, transmit and receive
HackRF One
Wide enough for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, drone Remote ID, television and 5.8 GHz video, and the cheapest way to get a transmitter into the same flow graph.
The HackRF is half duplex and 8 bit, and neither of those matters much for this work. What matters is 20 MS/s of span, which is the difference between reading a Wi-Fi channel and not, and coverage up to 6 GHz, which is what puts FPV video on 5.8 GHz within reach.
It transmits, so a channel here can be a microphone, a tone, a recorded capture, a Flipper .sub file, a POCSAG page, an APRS beacon, an SSTV picture or a whole DVB-T multiplex built from anything ffmpeg can open.
The bias tee feeds a mast head amplifier from the coax, which is the difference between a working 1090 MHz setup and a disappointing one.
It also works from a browser: app.waveshark.io opens a HackRF over WebUSB and transmits from the page.
What it reaches
- Everything an RTL-SDR reaches, on one radio
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4 at 2.4 GHz
- Drone Remote ID and DJI DroneID
- DVB-T television, DVB-S2 off an LNB up to about 15 Msym/s, and 5.8 GHz video
- LTE cells in full, network and tracking area included, and GSM at 1800 MHz
- Transmitting: voice, captures, .sub files and six decoded protocols
What it will not do
- Half duplex: it transmits or receives, not both
- 8 bit sampling, so a strong signal beside a weak one is harder work
- No full duplex repeater work
Setup
No driver dance on Linux beyond the usual udev rules. The bias tee and the gain settings are in the radio dialog, and both are remembered across a span change.
Which radio for which job?
The use cases say what each one is for, from a device survey on a dongle to drone Remote ID on a HackRF.
Read the use cases