Although not shown on your video you can also mute the birdies on the bottom display. Select the birdie that is causing an issue and the blue bar will turn red. You may need to zoom in to easily select the troublesome frequency. Great channel and information videos.
Any idea why I have no SCAN button? My radio works fine and I can do everything you show, but I have no SCAN button (it's grayed out). Strange. Thanks!
Do you have a video on the Frequency Scanner Analyser you had on the bottom? I have no clue how it works. I played around with it and lost my band with of scanning. What do the up/down arrows on the left & right side do? Thanks...Rich
I have the latest version of that software with my air spy, and I I have all those plug-ins, but nothing within the plug-ins that you say to disable show up on mine I have frequency scanner I also don’t have a delete button on mine so I cannot delete nuance frequencies.
I've been having a problem where it takes a couple runs through the frequency range before it stops on a frequency that has been active for the last 10 seconds or so (verified with another radio). In other words, it can miss transmissions that last longer than the scan time. Are there any settings I need to adjust?
I can't figure out what the green adjustment arrows on the lower right do within the Frequency Scanner plug-in. I figured out that the red adjustment arrows on the lower left seem to be the "squelch" or signal strength threshold, but can't figure out what the other green one is for. Anyone know?
Same problem here, many questions. my SDR# has 5(!) scan related plugins with icons that seems to be different or change over time after updates. It's hard to find any good tutorials for many plugins.
Would you be able to add any insight on the scan speed if this were used with a mobile device with less computing power than a computer (such as a cell phone). I would like to have a handheld sdr setup since I move it from vehicle to vehicle when going to watch the jets. As of now I use a Uniden BC365CRS and a Quansheng UV-K6. Which works, but scanning the whole milair band in under 3 seconds, or even 10 seconds would be a massive improvement! Thanks!
I don't know if it would be possible. Perhaps a Windows laptop running in tablet mode could do it, but I don't have that kind of hardware to test. I really haven't done any tests with Android or iOS devices. But if you give it a try, come back and let us know how it worked!
will you be doing a more in depth video on how to use the scanner , ie what the bottom arrows actually do and some other set up functions ? ,also my scanner doesnt always re start i have to click on the bottom arrow ,
I'm totally new to SDR, and my only interests are (Civil & Military Air bands) what I could start with is …"Airspy R2" + "SDR#" + "Frequency Scanner Plugin", (am I correct so far ?) ...... initially I will be going for an antenna that I can put outside a window (on a shelf) I need some recommendations for that...TIA.
Hi Brian. Yes, an R2 and SDR# would be a great start into the hobby. SDR# has a lot of functionality, especially with the plugins. Another great SDR to get you going would be the SDRPlay RSP1A. It has some great features, including built in scan modes. I don't think it can scan the entire military Airband in 2 seconds though, as it cannot be used with SDR#. A simple RTL-SDR v3 / NooElec SMART v4 is also a great way to start if you are on a more limited budget.
Great video. If I want to change frequency I have to stop the Airspy software , change the hZ and push the play button again. Most other functions also require this procedure, using SDR Sharp with Airspy.Also cannot hear FM stations , they show up on the waterfall but the hiss goes away when I click on the frequency. SDR Sharp Studio V1.0.0.1830 win 10
Great video, have now managed to set up my Airspy to work as such. Is there any way to get an output of frequencies found other than by copy/paste of the list window? Looking for a realtime output.
Good to hear you have it up and running Paul. I haven't looked at outputting the data in other ways, I've only used the method you described. Although mostly I was typing the discovered frequencies into a scanner for verification / identification.
Hi! Could you, please, help me cancel all locked out frequencies (I mean to how to unlock frequencies that have been locked out) on the newer version of this scanner plug-in. I don't know how to do it. Many thanks in advance for your insight.
Great video. I live just north of London and can pick up the ATIS information voice audio from RAF Northolt on 299.8mhz. It seems to continually broadcast in daylight hours, so it's useful if you can get an antenna up high enough and you are within 50 miles of that point so that you can tell that your system is set up and working OK for these frequencies. There may well be UHF ATIS broadcasts for other bases around the country. I imagine Brize Norton must have one and for people in East Anglia and Lincolnshire, there seem to be a lot of bases in those areas. The latest antenna I made for this frequency involved some short strips of wire bound around an empty drinks bottle, stuck on top of a length of bamboo rods, bound together with gaffer tape. You can definitely have a lot of frugal fun! You may want to consider experimenting with TV /Sat antenna amps, both in-line amplifiers and masthead amps. Often the cheaper the better, as they have no strong bandpass filtering and you get great amplification up to ADSB frequencies and beyond. I've received the Inmarsat for our part of the world like this. My antenna for that was 12 small pieces of linked copper foil with a copper foil ground plane.
Thanks for the comments Alan. Definitely true about being able to make frugal antennas. I'm currently using a home-made bow-tie for Civ & MilAir. I like the sound of some of your setups though!
It's been a while since I used this plug-in, so can't quite remember! I'm thinking they are for setting the threshold for signals, but you'll have to experiment to see!!!
This is cool and all but I can't get it to stop on frequencies consistently. It just runs past them most times even on constant signals like NOAA weather.
Hi.. Watched this tutorial which showed me how to set up the scan function on my Airspy R2. Is there any expantion as to what the yellow and red height adjustable bars do and is there any particular level for them to be set at? Is there anyway to scan saved memories too, like you can with SDR Uno? Thanks
I don't think so. This was more a simple demonstration of the possibilities of searching with an SDR rather than a scanner with a decent search rate. I didn't get in to the configuration side on my videos.
Yes, this method provides an incredibly fast search, however traditional scanners are faster and monitoring a group of frequencies if they are spaced out more than the bandwidth of your SDR. So an Airspy R2 like this can actually monitor quite a few frequencies simultaneously, provided they are within 8 MHz of each other. That can be quite useful sometimes.
ive set it up as per your video some of the options you mention dont pop up on the menu screen , how come i dont get the bottom part with the X and the arrows ?
Might be down to different versions of SDR#. The plugins usually look the same though, regardless of service, so I'm unsure why yours would look different.
I'm just setting up my Airspy R2 and this was an extremely helpful video. I see a SNR meter and what looks like a bandwidth meter on your demo. I installed the Community Package with Plugins but I'm not seeing anyway to show those on my display. Any help?
Hi! The SNR meter is found in the Accessibility Control plugin. I can't remember the exact name off hand, but you check a box to enable a feature, then select SNR meter from the dropdown. Hope that helps!
I was looking for those as well, but if I have pieced together what has happened, I think the developer took them out of the plug-ins for SDR# due to the poor comments he received back from the community. I think he stated he will no longer be making plug-ins for SDR#, and will only make plug-ins for the SDRUno. Too bad.
I must have pieced together the information wrong, because the author of the frequency scanner is still posting updates at Radio Reference?! I tried to find the website where I saw that news, and I can't seem to find it again. Well...good thing I am not a detective for a living, because I would be out of a job! :-)
For analog, I use my trusty BCT15x scanners - amzn.to/31Y2F4F The digital ones you could see were the BCD996P2 (and older model 996XT) - amzn.to/32Tn4XL
Why are u stopping at 380? Milair uhf needs upto 399.975 your mudding 20 mhz ok sone tetra there too in uk nit many uhf airband, along with 137 to 155.975 am 25 kHz
Great video as a very long time radio nut inc'g amateur in Aust who due to life ( work, family etc) getting in the road has had many years away from the hobby & so just about to go out & spend some $$ on an SDR. So question, based on your 225 to 380 search can you go and leave it to its own devices ( unattended) and it log any finds whilst you are gone for you to review upon your return. Also you were saying to enter the frequency search useing ( commas) 225,000,000 but tue display showed full stops 225.000.000 Just after clarifaction. Thx Rgs Wayne.
Welcome back to the hobby Wayne! Yes, you can run the plugin unintended. It might be worth testing with it first, and blocking the frequencies you already know. And yes, commas are required, and the GUI will do it's own thing!
One thing I have noticed with both the NESDR Smart and the RTL-SDR.com V3 dongles. They get extreemly hot when scanning. I am thinking of bolting them to a large heatsink and fit a fan. As I cant see them lasting long at such high temperatures. Does the AirSpy R2 get very hot when scanning?
These devices do run hot, and the cases are basically designed to be heatsinks. Some owners have taken measures to move great away from them. However they don't seem to suffer too much until you're in the GHz range. As for the R2, I use it mostly for short term projects, unlike the RTL-SDR v3s that run 24/7. So I'm actually unsure how hot it gets over time. Perhaps I'll set one up for decoding over a 24hr period this weekend and compare the temperatures.
@@FrugalRadio Yes I have an nesdr smart running 24/7 for ADS-B on 1090 MHz and yes it is quite warm. However when scanning, my two other devices are REALLY HOT as in it burns your hand hot. So I just thought I would mention it for others benefit. I think for continuous scanning some form of cooling may be required. maybe a small fan etc. Just a heads up as last thing we want it to kill our beloved SDR's as they are not as cheap as they used to be.
I love this video, could you recommend a good AirSpy R2 antenna? I'm mostly interested in VHF and UHF bands so would want something to cover that. Thank you
The best antennas are tuned to the frequencies you want to receive. Discones give respectable VHF & UHF performance. You can see a typical discone at amzn.to/3jNPHx0
Just tried this and no luck. Software is totally different layout wise. I’m also using a NooElec Smartee v2 and I can’t see it listed. Any help is very welcome.
Hi Pete. There have been quite a few updates of the SDR# software, so this plug-in may not work now. I don't run the newer versions of SDR# as they made my old laptop crash too frequently, so I still use the old version. Your single choice is fine though, just select RTL-USB from the menu in SDR#, and as long as you have the Zadig drivers installed, you should be able to receive just fine.
You can't officially download the older versions now, however there is an unofficial set of downloads at www.iz3mez.it/software/SDRSharp/ You might want to check out the NooElec Install Guide as well at support.nooelec.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005298053-NESDR-Installation-Guide
@@FrugalRadio okay so drivers now installed. I use the latest version and it scanned but the number range doesn’t match yours at all. I’ll try the matching version tomorrow. Gutted it’s this difficulty
Very good video! Because of this I went ahead and purchased an Airspy R2 (I already have the Airspy HF+, but realized it doesn’t cover UHF). Because it scans the band so quickly, and aviation comms are so brief, do you know if there is a good recording app/program that will automatically record the audio, when the squelch is broken, then stop recording once the transmission stops? I am trying to avoid missed manually recorded audio due slow reactions, and also avoid long audio clips of silence punctuated by brief 5 second recordings. Thanks much, love the channel!👍😊
I expect there would be an SDR# plug-in that would do so, while recording the frequency as well, but I haven't done that myself. I have made use of the free Audacity software to do this though. It has a voice activated type mode, so only records the transmissions that break squelch.
Thanks...I will look at the SDR# for a plug-in, and take another look at Audacity as well as I did not know it has a voice activated mode. Thanks much!
I had another question for you on how you use the SDR: Do you only use the SDR to identify the active frequencies, then plug them into your Bearcat scanner(s), and search these frequencies? Or, do you just use the SDR for identification and listening, and the Bearcat scanners never come into play?
I use them in multiple ways. Mostly I use the wide bandwidth SDRs for signal searches and working out unpublished trunk network frequencies. The lower bandwidth SDRs are used to monitor Control Channels of digital networks (P25, DMR, NXDN). Another PC is used for voice following networks, and sometimes uses a cheap SDR, other times a high bandwidth one depending on the frequency span of the system. Several other SDRs are used for aviation data decoding (ACARS, VDL2 & CPDLC). It is much easier to do these with SDRs than scanners. I have a bank of traditional scanners that monitor known local aviation frequencies. One for Ground / Clearance, one for Tower, one for Departures & Arrivals & Terminal (usually the same controller working 3 positions. Then I have a UHF two way radio programmed for the local air ambulance repeater. That leaves 3 Bearcats. 1 does the 2 nearest ARTCC sectors, one does P25 & DMR reception, and one does mixed duties - sometimes railroad channels, other times airport company frequencies, airline staff channels, de-icing crews etc. The Bearcats get switched around a bit, as do the SDRs. The bank of aviation scanners usually stays the same.
Thanks for your complete and interesting reply. It is good to learn the workflow of different hobbyists, and you certainly have your workflow worked out well! My Airspy R2 arrives tomorrow, so perhaps I will apply a little of your workflow with my SDR and traditional scanners.
You'd certainly miss briefer calls. But when those jumps are allowing you to cover the entire range in 2 seconds, you're only going to miss the shortest transmissions. By using 2 x R2 SDRs you'd get that down to 1 second. 4 x R2s and you'd capture any transmission lasting more than 0.5 second (each R2 searching 1/4 of the mil air band). The whole UHF mil band in that amount of time is pretty amazing, and faster than 36 scanners! You'd probably want a device covering 137-144 MHz as well, so you didn't miss any of the mil air activity in that band as well. You could easily cover that well with a standard RTL-SDR or NooElec dongle.
BladeRF, PlutoSDR, USRP B210, etc. Can do 56MHz bandwidth, basically almost 6x that of the airspy, the bladeRF even has a mode where it can view over 100MHz at a time...
It looks like a great SDR. I've yet to use one, so thanks for the report. Is there a way it can search the mil air band quickly, like this plug-in for SDR#?
These frequencies, including all military, are great for "pirate" comm's since FCC and their ilk, don't bother these frequency users unless official users complain.
Yes, mil air goes up to 399.975, but in Ireland & UK, there's also a national trunked Tetra network from 380-395. That's why I excluded it in this video.
But most of the freqs we know anyway so we search ocassionaly but have freqs programmed I use sds 200 and 100 loaded with 1500 freqs in use often at vhf mil and uhf mil
In many situations the lower cost dongles perform just as well as the more expensive AirSpy receivers, but the higher priced SDRs come into their own when you need them. e.g. if you are after the higher bandwidth, or you need the extra filtering, you'll want an AirSpy or SDRPlay.
Great video! Thanks for your educational material. I’m binge watching your content.
Great. Thanks for your comment. Enjoy the episodes!
Although not shown on your video you can also mute the birdies on the bottom display. Select the birdie that is causing an issue and the blue bar will turn red. You may need to zoom in to easily select the troublesome frequency. Great channel and information videos.
Thanks for sharing that tip Evan!
mine is not saving the frequency, where i can enable it ?
Fantastically helpful. Just what I was looking for. Thank you!
Glad it has been of use Perry!
Any idea why I have no SCAN button? My radio works fine and I can do everything you show, but I have no SCAN button (it's grayed out). Strange. Thanks!
Hmm. I don't know why at all in afraid. I haven't encountered that.
Do you have a video on the Frequency Scanner Analyser you had on the bottom? I have no clue how it works. I played around with it and lost my band with of scanning. What do the up/down arrows on the left & right side do? Thanks...Rich
Why is your scanning so fast compared to mine is it that fft thing?
Great information. Please keep doing the videos.
Will do John. Thanks for joining in the fun!
Will do John. Thanks for joining in the fun!
What version of SDR sharp are you running? I cannot get this to work on Windows 10 and the latest version thank you.
This was made a few years ago. I don't recall the version I was using at the time.
Ok sir thank you.
I have the latest version of that software with my air spy, and I I have all those plug-ins, but nothing within the plug-ins that you say to disable show up on mine I have frequency scanner I also don’t have a delete button on mine so I cannot delete nuance frequencies.
Ah, okay. I haven't done this for a while, and the video was made 4 years ago, so some things have changed since then.
I've been having a problem where it takes a couple runs through the frequency range before it stops on a frequency that has been active for the last 10 seconds or so (verified with another radio). In other words, it can miss transmissions that last longer than the scan time. Are there any settings I need to adjust?
I can't figure out what the green adjustment arrows on the lower right do within the Frequency Scanner plug-in. I figured out that the red adjustment arrows on the lower left seem to be the "squelch" or signal strength threshold, but can't figure out what the other green one is for. Anyone know?
Same problem here, many questions. my SDR# has 5(!) scan related plugins with icons that seems to be different or change over time after updates. It's hard to find any good tutorials for many plugins.
Would you be able to add any insight on the scan speed if this were used with a mobile device with less computing power than a computer (such as a cell phone). I would like to have a handheld sdr setup since I move it from vehicle to vehicle when going to watch the jets. As of now I use a Uniden BC365CRS and a Quansheng UV-K6. Which works, but scanning the whole milair band in under 3 seconds, or even 10 seconds would be a massive improvement! Thanks!
I don't know if it would be possible. Perhaps a Windows laptop running in tablet mode could do it, but I don't have that kind of hardware to test. I really haven't done any tests with Android or iOS devices. But if you give it a try, come back and let us know how it worked!
Will do. Thanks
will you be doing a more in depth video on how to use the scanner , ie what the bottom arrows actually do and some other set up functions ? ,also my scanner doesnt always re start i have to click on the bottom arrow ,
I'm totally new to SDR, and my only interests are (Civil & Military Air bands) what I could start with is …"Airspy R2" + "SDR#" + "Frequency Scanner Plugin", (am I correct so far ?) ...... initially I will be going for an antenna that I can put outside a window (on a shelf) I need some recommendations for that...TIA.
Hi Brian.
Yes, an R2 and SDR# would be a great start into the hobby. SDR# has a lot of functionality, especially with the plugins.
Another great SDR to get you going would be the SDRPlay RSP1A. It has some great features, including built in scan modes. I don't think it can scan the entire military Airband in 2 seconds though, as it cannot be used with SDR#.
A simple RTL-SDR v3 / NooElec SMART v4 is also a great way to start if you are on a more limited budget.
Great video. If I want to change frequency I have to stop the Airspy software , change the hZ and push the play button again.
Most other functions also require this procedure, using SDR Sharp with Airspy.Also cannot hear FM stations , they show up on the waterfall but the hiss goes away when I click on the frequency. SDR Sharp Studio V1.0.0.1830 win 10
Great video, have now managed to set up my Airspy to work as such. Is there any way to get an output of frequencies found other than by copy/paste of the list window? Looking for a realtime output.
Good to hear you have it up and running Paul. I haven't looked at outputting the data in other ways, I've only used the method you described. Although mostly I was typing the discovered frequencies into a scanner for verification / identification.
Hi! Could you, please, help me cancel all locked out frequencies (I mean to how to unlock frequencies that have been locked out) on the newer version of this scanner plug-in. I don't know how to do it. Many thanks in advance for your insight.
Hi Arthur. I haven't actually used this plug in for a long time, so I don't remember the ins and outs of lockouts in afraid!
It's under the scanner configuration menu. Last tab.
Great video. I live just north of London and can pick up the ATIS information voice audio from RAF Northolt on 299.8mhz. It seems to continually broadcast in daylight hours, so it's useful if you can get an antenna up high enough and you are within 50 miles of that point so that you can tell that your system is set up and working OK for these frequencies. There may well be UHF ATIS broadcasts for other bases around the country. I imagine Brize Norton must have one and for people in East Anglia and Lincolnshire, there seem to be a lot of bases in those areas. The latest antenna I made for this frequency involved some short strips of wire bound around an empty drinks bottle, stuck on top of a length of bamboo rods, bound together with gaffer tape. You can definitely have a lot of frugal fun! You may want to consider experimenting with TV /Sat antenna amps, both in-line amplifiers and masthead amps. Often the cheaper the better, as they have no strong bandpass filtering and you get great amplification up to ADSB frequencies and beyond. I've received the Inmarsat for our part of the world like this. My antenna for that was 12 small pieces of linked copper foil with a copper foil ground plane.
Thanks for the comments Alan. Definitely true about being able to make frugal antennas. I'm currently using a home-made bow-tie for Civ & MilAir. I like the sound of some of your setups though!
This helped a lot, I can get mine to scan the mil band but also it does ham, fm, marine, air band etc, how do I turn those other areas off?
Doesn’t give me an option
What are the red & yellow up/down arrows for on the bottom? Thanks.
It's been a while since I used this plug-in, so can't quite remember! I'm thinking they are for setting the threshold for signals, but you'll have to experiment to see!!!
This is cool and all but I can't get it to stop on frequencies consistently. It just runs past them most times even on constant signals like NOAA weather.
Make sure you've set the correct step size for your search, and adjusted the threshold (the bar that acts as a squelch) to an appropriate setting.
Hi.. Watched this tutorial which showed me how to set up the scan function on my Airspy R2. Is there any expantion as to what the yellow and red height adjustable bars do and is there any particular level for them to be set at?
Is there anyway to scan saved memories too, like you can with SDR Uno? Thanks
Do you have a vid I may have overlooked, doing the configuration/settings of the scanner?
I don't think so. This was more a simple demonstration of the possibilities of searching with an SDR rather than a scanner with a decent search rate. I didn't get in to the configuration side on my videos.
@@FrugalRadio Ok, Thank you.
So am I right in saying this is quicker at searching but slower at scanning saved channels compared to a scanner?
Yes, this method provides an incredibly fast search, however traditional scanners are faster and monitoring a group of frequencies if they are spaced out more than the bandwidth of your SDR.
So an Airspy R2 like this can actually monitor quite a few frequencies simultaneously, provided they are within 8 MHz of each other. That can be quite useful sometimes.
Is there any way to scan presets with AirSpy?
Yes, just one of the frequency manager plugins with SDR#. Or SDR Console, SDR++ also allow saving frequency presets.
Informative video. Thumbs up.
Thanks. Hopefully it is helpful!
This just helped tremendously! Thanks!
Glad to be of assistance. Thanks for commenting!
Just got one myself you really don’t miss much when they run at those speeds.
With this plugin you can really examine a lot of spectrum quickly with an R2!
ive set it up as per your video some of the options you mention dont pop up on the menu screen , how come i dont get the bottom part with the X and the arrows ?
Might be down to different versions of SDR#. The plugins usually look the same though, regardless of service, so I'm unsure why yours would look different.
@@FrugalRadiothankyou for your reply , i got it com up but it filled the screen up,
Great!
@@FrugalRadio its shows up when you move the mouse cursor
I'm just setting up my Airspy R2 and this was an extremely helpful video.
I see a SNR meter and what looks like a bandwidth meter on your demo. I installed the Community Package with Plugins but I'm not seeing anyway to show those on my display. Any help?
Hi! The SNR meter is found in the Accessibility Control plugin. I can't remember the exact name off hand, but you check a box to enable a feature, then select SNR meter from the dropdown. Hope that helps!
@@FrugalRadio Strange place to put it, but that did it. Thanks.
I was looking for those as well, but if I have pieced together what has happened, I think the developer took them out of the plug-ins for SDR# due to the poor comments he received back from the community. I think he stated he will no longer be making plug-ins for SDR#, and will only make plug-ins for the SDRUno. Too bad.
I hadn't heard this. That's too bad. Thanks for the update though!
I must have pieced together the information wrong, because the author of the frequency scanner is still posting updates at Radio Reference?! I tried to find the website where I saw that news, and I can't seem to find it again. Well...good thing I am not a detective for a living, because I would be out of a job! :-)
How do you set up for windows 11?
The software has all been updated since the video was made. I'm not using Windows 11, but it should function more or less the same as Windows 10.
@ thank you
Clocked my Icom R30 scanning the band in 25 seconds
Thanks for the report. Sadly I don't own any ICOM scanners, so it's good to hear what it's capable of.
There are several frequency scanners and i am not sure witch one you was using.Could you supply a link to the scanner you was using thanks
For analog, I use my trusty BCT15x scanners - amzn.to/31Y2F4F
The digital ones you could see were the BCD996P2 (and older model 996XT) - amzn.to/32Tn4XL
Does it stop on a hit like a scanner does? If so, is there a way to keep it there for a second or does it move on again right away?
It can, but the hits are also recorded in a window within SDR# if I remember correctly.
Why are u stopping at 380? Milair uhf needs upto 399.975 your mudding 20 mhz ok sone tetra there too in uk nit many uhf airband, along with 137 to 155.975 am 25 kHz
Great video as a very long time radio nut inc'g amateur in Aust who due to life ( work, family etc) getting in the road has had many years away from the hobby & so just about to go out & spend some $$ on an SDR.
So question, based on your 225 to 380 search can you go and leave it to its own devices ( unattended) and it log any finds whilst you are gone for you to review upon your return.
Also you were saying to enter the frequency search useing ( commas) 225,000,000 but tue display showed full stops 225.000.000
Just after clarifaction.
Thx
Rgs Wayne.
Welcome back to the hobby Wayne!
Yes, you can run the plugin unintended. It might be worth testing with it first, and blocking the frequencies you already know.
And yes, commas are required, and the GUI will do it's own thing!
@@FrugalRadio thanks heaps for the prompt reply. 🤗 looking forward to your other videos, just gotto hurry up & get my SDR 😊
One thing I have noticed with both the NESDR Smart and the RTL-SDR.com V3 dongles.
They get extreemly hot when scanning.
I am thinking of bolting them to a large heatsink and fit a fan. As I cant see them lasting long at such high temperatures.
Does the AirSpy R2 get very hot when scanning?
These devices do run hot, and the cases are basically designed to be heatsinks. Some owners have taken measures to move great away from them. However they don't seem to suffer too much until you're in the GHz range.
As for the R2, I use it mostly for short term projects, unlike the RTL-SDR v3s that run 24/7. So I'm actually unsure how hot it gets over time. Perhaps I'll set one up for decoding over a 24hr period this weekend and compare the temperatures.
@@FrugalRadio Yes I have an nesdr smart running 24/7 for ADS-B on 1090 MHz and yes it is quite warm. However when scanning, my two other devices are REALLY HOT as in it burns your hand hot.
So I just thought I would mention it for others benefit.
I think for continuous scanning some form of cooling may be required.
maybe a small fan etc.
Just a heads up as last thing we want it to kill our beloved SDR's as they are not as cheap as they used to be.
Very true! Thanks for your report!
I finally set this up. Can you explain the Plugin Visualization panel? What do the red and yellow up/down arrows do?
They are used for setting the thresholds of various parameters. Squelch and signal level threshold on which to stop if I'm remembering correctly.
I love this video, could you recommend a good AirSpy R2 antenna? I'm mostly interested in VHF and UHF bands so would want something to cover that. Thank you
The best antennas are tuned to the frequencies you want to receive. Discones give respectable VHF & UHF performance. You can see a typical discone at amzn.to/3jNPHx0
Just tried this and no luck. Software is totally different layout wise. I’m also using a NooElec Smartee v2 and I can’t see it listed. Any help is very welcome.
Hi Pete. There have been quite a few updates of the SDR# software, so this plug-in may not work now. I don't run the newer versions of SDR# as they made my old laptop crash too frequently, so I still use the old version. Your single choice is fine though, just select RTL-USB from the menu in SDR#, and as long as you have the Zadig drivers installed, you should be able to receive just fine.
@@FrugalRadio is there an option to use the version you are? I couldn’t see a list of versions. As for driver I’ll do that now
You can't officially download the older versions now, however there is an unofficial set of downloads at www.iz3mez.it/software/SDRSharp/
You might want to check out the NooElec Install Guide as well at support.nooelec.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005298053-NESDR-Installation-Guide
@@FrugalRadio okay so drivers now installed. I use the latest version and it scanned but the number range doesn’t match yours at all. I’ll try the matching version tomorrow. Gutted it’s this difficulty
The good news is that once you have it up and running well, it needs very little readjustment!
What annt. did you use ?
In the video here the receivers were all disconnected from antennas so I could test the search speeds without interruption.
Very good video! Because of this I went ahead and purchased an Airspy R2 (I already have the Airspy HF+, but realized it doesn’t cover UHF).
Because it scans the band so quickly, and aviation comms are so brief, do you know if there is a good recording app/program that will automatically record the audio, when the squelch is broken, then stop recording once the transmission stops? I am trying to avoid missed manually recorded audio due slow reactions, and also avoid long audio clips of silence punctuated by brief 5 second recordings. Thanks much, love the channel!👍😊
I expect there would be an SDR# plug-in that would do so, while recording the frequency as well, but I haven't done that myself. I have made use of the free Audacity software to do this though. It has a voice activated type mode, so only records the transmissions that break squelch.
Thanks...I will look at the SDR# for a plug-in, and take another look at Audacity as well as I did not know it has a voice activated mode. Thanks much!
I had another question for you on how you use the SDR: Do you only use the SDR to identify the active frequencies, then plug them into your Bearcat scanner(s), and search these frequencies? Or, do you just use the SDR for identification and listening, and the Bearcat scanners never come into play?
I use them in multiple ways. Mostly I use the wide bandwidth SDRs for signal searches and working out unpublished trunk network frequencies. The lower bandwidth SDRs are used to monitor Control Channels of digital networks (P25, DMR, NXDN). Another PC is used for voice following networks, and sometimes uses a cheap SDR, other times a high bandwidth one depending on the frequency span of the system.
Several other SDRs are used for aviation data decoding (ACARS, VDL2 & CPDLC). It is much easier to do these with SDRs than scanners.
I have a bank of traditional scanners that monitor known local aviation frequencies. One for Ground / Clearance, one for Tower, one for Departures & Arrivals & Terminal (usually the same controller working 3 positions. Then I have a UHF two way radio programmed for the local air ambulance repeater.
That leaves 3 Bearcats. 1 does the 2 nearest ARTCC sectors, one does P25 & DMR reception, and one does mixed duties - sometimes railroad channels, other times airport company frequencies, airline staff channels, de-icing crews etc.
The Bearcats get switched around a bit, as do the SDRs. The bank of aviation scanners usually stays the same.
Thanks for your complete and interesting reply. It is good to learn the workflow of different hobbyists, and you certainly have your workflow worked out well! My Airspy R2 arrives tomorrow, so perhaps I will apply a little of your workflow with my SDR and traditional scanners.
You're going to miss radio calls jumping around like this. How do you receive the entire 220-380 band instantaneously? Use 36 radios?
You'd certainly miss briefer calls. But when those jumps are allowing you to cover the entire range in 2 seconds, you're only going to miss the shortest transmissions.
By using 2 x R2 SDRs you'd get that down to 1 second. 4 x R2s and you'd capture any transmission lasting more than 0.5 second (each R2 searching 1/4 of the mil air band). The whole UHF mil band in that amount of time is pretty amazing, and faster than 36 scanners!
You'd probably want a device covering 137-144 MHz as well, so you didn't miss any of the mil air activity in that band as well. You could easily cover that well with a standard RTL-SDR or NooElec dongle.
BladeRF, PlutoSDR, USRP B210, etc. Can do 56MHz bandwidth, basically almost 6x that of the airspy, the bladeRF even has a mode where it can view over 100MHz at a time...
Yes, it would be fun to experiment with some of the wider bandwidth devices to see how well they perform at this task.
Check out the ADALM-PLUTO, $231.65 at mouser right now and $232.93 at digikey, not much more than an airspy r2
Anything with AD9363 or AD9361 are quite similar, ADALM-PLUTO is the cheapest by far but the AntSDR E200 is pretty reasonable as well
i think you should update the video withe new version of SDRSHARP & the PLUGINS. i'm just saying, thankyou...
SDR Play RSP DX can Cover from 1 Khz to 2 Ghz and it's works very well in Receiving Military Air Craft Band,
It looks like a great SDR. I've yet to use one, so thanks for the report. Is there a way it can search the mil air band quickly, like this plug-in for SDR#?
@@FrugalRadio Yes SDR Uno Solfware have a Scanner Feature on it,
Scan, yes. But search the entire band for new signals in 2 seconds? I just don't know a way to do that in SDRUno.
NIce vid, My Hackrf is doing this in 0.9sec but not for long than sdr studio stops working.... lol So unstable..
Don't forget 137 to 155.975 am 25 kHz especially 137 to 143 some military air and contractors there
4 minutes until we get to the info...
4:07
These frequencies, including all military, are great for "pirate" comm's since FCC and their ilk, don't bother these frequency users unless official users complain.
You need to scan up to 399.975 or you will miss some of the mil Band.
Yes, mil air goes up to 399.975, but in Ireland & UK, there's also a national trunked Tetra network from 380-395. That's why I excluded it in this video.
Sorry in uk there's hundred of allocations military airband 380 to 399.975, and 137 to 155.975vam
Just lock out any airwave
But most of the freqs we know anyway so we search ocassionaly but have freqs programmed I use sds 200 and 100 loaded with 1500 freqs in use often at vhf mil and uhf mil
So never miss out 380 to 399.975 there's atc and ops, air to airs and also 137 to 155.975 am 25 khz
Airspy is trash. $25 rtl dongle works just as good
In many situations the lower cost dongles perform just as well as the more expensive AirSpy receivers, but the higher priced SDRs come into their own when you need them. e.g. if you are after the higher bandwidth, or you need the extra filtering, you'll want an AirSpy or SDRPlay.