RTL SDR Anyone?

Peter Shaw

That's the one I have, an Realtek 2383 or something like that. Cost me about £20 Gbp

S Douglas

Do you use it for listening to the amature radio bands?

Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.

Peter Shaw

Occasionally, but I'm not really that type of Radio Ham. The Value I find in it is finding all these data streams floating around, then trying to decode them, see what's in them. For example, on the housing estate I live on, all the Standard Thermostats fitted in my cul-de-sac, are all of exactly the same type, and all have quite strong radios in them, so I can actually sit and watch my neighbors central heating systems talking to the central heating boiler and see what temperatures/times/settings they have things set at. Iv'e also on occasion, used the UK pager network to find out about railway delays, prior to going on a journey, allowing me to better plan things, and usually before the notifications are posted on the train operators web sites :-)

S Douglas

Peter Shaw wrote:

The Value I find in it is finding all these data streams floating around, then trying to decode them, see what's in them.

Ah snooping, never really thought about that. That would be interesting to see what's floating around (my neighbors are far enough away from me that any low powered RF would not likely be fully receivable). I do listen into the State Patrol radio to see how many accidents there are out in the Morning on snow days. Its always a better indication of traffic flow than the DOT websites. :)

Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.

Peter Shaw

There's tons of stuff to find. Here in the UK, we don't have towns and houses where everyone on the street has a 10 Acre garden :-) As a result, it's usually quite a PIA to get your WiFi onto an unused channel, or at least one that has a minimal amount of overlap. However, here in the UK we also have a staggering amount of stuff that's WiFi enabled, from computer mice and keyboards right through to Baby Monitors. One of my neighbor's appears to have a microwave oven that's WiFi enabled (Don't ask....) Iv'e even successfully managed to pick up the occasional bit of Bluetooth traffic, mostly from the cars parked in driveways and on the street. We used to be able to listen to the Police/Fire emergency services too in the UK, but not for a very long time now, not since they all moved to using the TETRA system, which is based on the same principles as GSM Mobile and is encrypted, I do however often see pager messages being sent to ambulance staff via POCSAG on the unencrypted UK pager network.

S Douglas

Peter Shaw wrote:

Here in the UK, we don't have towns and houses where everyone on the street has a 10 Acre garden

Well, I live in the city so we don't have 10 acre spreads. Most of the city lots in my area are .5 acre. Which ends up being about 100yrds between neighbors (give or take). Just enough that that WIFI doesn't interfere. Might be interesting to snoop though now that you have me wondering about it. Just to see what all even in my house is broadcasting. I know the Insteon (lighting control) system all operate on 70cm. hmmm...

Peter Shaw wrote:

One of my neighbor's appears to have a microwave oven that's WiFi enabled (Don't ask....)

You know that a microwave works off RF right? Is it really WIFI, or just bleeding over? [https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-does-your-microwave-oven-mess-with-the-wi-fi-connec-1666117933\](https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-does-your-microwave-oven-mess-with-the-wi-fi-connec-1666117933)

Peter Shaw wrote:

We used to be able to listen to the Police/Fire emergency services too in the UK, but not for a very long time now, not since they all moved to using the TETRA system, which is based on the same principles as GSM Mobile and is encrypted

Thankfully, Emergency Services in the US still believe in being open. While on a digital trunked network, its still relatively easy to listen in. So far, most agencies have resisted the calls to encrypt their radio traffic (what the hell are they trying to hide anyways? Where accidents are)

Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.

Peter Shaw

Yup to the Microwave Oven and RF Q :-) (Iv'e previously worked as a Radio Access Networks Engineer), the reason for the "Don't Ask" was to be fair in reference to that as in (Don't ask me, I have no Idea how this would actually work). It may not be a Microwave, it may just be a regular oven, I dunno, but some of the ASCII data Iv'e pulled out of what Iv'e sniffed seems to suggest that there is some kind of Microwave cooking ability. :-) As for our emergency services, I seem to remember a long time back now, that the reasons sighted for moving to a secured channel for broadcasts, was because they got sick of people turning up at incidents to "spectate", and getting in the way of the services trying to do their job. I know certainly, when I was growing up, if we heard sirens outside, we grab our bikes and try to follow them to see what was going on.

S Douglas

Peter Shaw wrote:

It may not be a Microwave, it may just be a regular oven, I dunno, but some of the ASCII data Iv'e pulled out of what Iv'e sniffed seems to suggest that there is some kind of Microwave cooking ability.

Hmmm, so have you tried to send it data? Or just reply a capture? :)

Peter Shaw wrote:

because they got sick of people turning up at incidents to "spectate",

That many people listening in? I would suspect that in the scanner boards there would be a lot more questions from people in the UK then. More likely paranoia over the subject. More likely people just followed the flashing lights...Maybe they should encrypt those :) really be safe then.

Peter Shaw wrote:

heard sirens outside, we grab our bikes and try to follow them to see what was going on.

I bet a lot of kids did that! Half the fun was seeing how fast you can get the bike going!

Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.

Peter Shaw

Nah, not tried to send it anything.... there is still time though, I get the impression it's not going anywhere :-) When I get time I would actually like to try cracking the proto on my Thermostat too. Like all the houses on the estate, it's around the 400Mhz area +- 20 or so to prevent too much over lap, mine I think is at about 405. Apparently it's a 2 way protocol from the very limited info Iv'e been able to find online about Honeywell thermo control units, if it is, then it actually means I could probably control my central heating from my computer network, and thus from my phone :-) Again though, it's a matter of time, I just don't get much of it to do the things I want to these days, and end up spending time doing the things I have to do...

S Douglas

Peter Shaw wrote:

Apparently it's a 2 way protocol from the very limited info Iv'e been able to find online about Honeywell thermo control units, if it is, then it actually means I could probably control my central heating from my computer network, and thus from my phone

Depending on the thermostat you have, some have defined interfaces. I used to have a honeywell thermostat, and controlling it was pretty easy.

Peter Shaw wrote:

Again though, it's a matter of time,

I know that feeling all to well...

Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.