Experiments with RTL SDR

Got an RTL-SDR stick and downconverter. What to use it to build RF HEATMAPS, specifically to monitor a new Solar Installation going in at a local school. Plan is to create a heatmap before the system goes online and then after to see if any new interference is detected.

System contains:

• NooElec NESDR Mini2 - RTLSDR USB
• NooElec Ham it Up - 125Mhz Uconverter
• Debian Wheezy Linux
• RTL-SDR http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
• heatmap https://github.com/keenerd/rtl-sdr-misc

First run rtl_power to scan a band:

timeout 1h rtl_power -f139M:139.35M:100 -p59 ~/20M_band.csv

Where:

"timeout 1h" is a GNU coreutils program that will send an ineterupt to the program after 1 hour
"rtl_power" the binary program
"-f139M:139.35M:500" scan the band from 139.00MHz to 139.35MHz in 500 Hz steps (actually 14.00 to 14.350 through the upconverter)
"-p59" compensate 59 parts-per-million error in the tuner
"~/20M_band.csv" where to save the data

Then when that's done, feed it into the heatmap program:

python heatmap.py ~/20M_band.csv ~/20M_band.png

Where:

"python heatmap.py" is the python program to parse the data
"~/20M_band.csv" input data
"~/20M_band.png" output image