Hi,
I recently got myself a HackRF One. I guess most of you already know this device, it has been around for a couple of years.
I have ordered a PlutoSDR, but the backorder went from Dec, 4th to somewhere in Feb 2018
so I got the HackRF meanwhile.
There are two options on purchasing the HackRF: the offical and original one from Great Scott Devices for around US$300 or chinese clones at around US$200. I went for the original one due to faster shipping, warranty and original plastic case.
Under Linux, there is qspectrumanalyzer -->
https://github.com/xmikos/qspectrumanalyzerThis is impressive speedwise and in terms of frequency-range, but pretty limited in functionality. It does, however, show the great potential of this hardware platform.
On my blog I posted a first result using Windows:
http://vma-satellite.blogspot.pt/2017/11/using-hackrf-one-and-gnu-radio-on.htmlOther than generally found on the Internet, you can well use this device under Windows and most tools are supported.
Unfortunately, qspectrumanalyzer refuses to work with current firmware/hackrf_tools/Python/whatever releases.
There is, however a Windows solution:
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/hackrf-sweep-spectrum-analyzer-windows/Here is the GitHub page from PAVSA:
https://github.com/pavsa/hackrf-spectrum-analyzerIt works relatively well, but the HackRF crashes a LOT when toggling the frequency range (easy fix, just press RESET to resume). Also, it has little functionality. BUT: this is fast and with high resolution!
Meanwhile I managed to compile the hackrf_tools and there is a fix which prevented hackrf_sweep.exe to run under Windows. It works now.
This led me to make a first quick hack to adapt my VMA Simple Spectrum Analyzer software to HackRF One. Results *promise* to be fantastic, but the current firmware/hackrf_sweep implementation are totally inadequate, as changing the start/end frequencies will actually crash the device and the RESET button has to be pressed (which is what happends with the hackrf-spectrum-analyzer for Windows).
I wonder if anyone literate in VC++ is interested in giving me a hand to modify hackrf_sweep so that it will work with my software?
This would allow a fully functional "software defined" spectrum analyser for US$200-300 and frequency range from 1MHz to 6GHz. Add to this extra functionality (recording and TX) - and it blows my mind.
Regards,
Vitor