North Bristol Bandscan 23rd July 2015 - IQ Files

Here's 5 IQ files covering the complete 87.5 to 108 band taken late July 2015. It's taken a while to upload them as they are 1gig each. They span 8MHz each as they were made at home using my SDRPlay...

https://mega.nz/#F!bd8lxCaC!DxO2rpzvO9jdO7lhQe7W5Q

SDR IQ Files of London Hyde Park Bandscan 18-07-2015

Why Am I Doing This?

1 - To archive bandscans of the FM dial in different places and different times, in an interactive way (as opposed to just watching somebody else tune through FM on a Tecsun via YouTube)
2 - An experiment to see if anybody else is interested, and try and get other people doing the same thing
3 - I'm insane?

A Lesson In SDR

Software Defined Radio, as a lot of you may already know, allows you to see a chunk of radio spectrum and click on signals to tune into them. It also allows you to record the chunk of spectrum to a huge .wav file called an IQ file. I sat in Hyde Park with a portable SDR set up (thin wire dipole, dongle and Win 8 tablet running SDR# which is free SDR software) and recorded about 17 gigs worth of IQ files covering 87.5 to 108MHz. The dongle is a cheap £15ish Freeview dongle, nothing special. The magic comes in the 3rd party 'Zadig' drivers which allow it to tune from 24MHz upwards. There are even DLLs and mods you can do to go lower into SW, and in some cases into MW. These things aren't perfect, they are wide open to problems from images and they have spurs which look like blank carriers and mess up your reception. They are cheap though, fairly portable, and a proper SDR will set you back £100s if not £1000s. So, can't complain really! You can get slightly better SDRs between £100 and £200 which are a bit cleaner, but you might have trouble powering them from a tablet.

It wasn't working it's best during this scan. There is one section of the band that was quite noisy and full of images. That said, I don't think it got in the way of too many stations.

The Files

I've rar'd all the .wav files to crush them down a touch and I've managed to keep all of them under a gig in size. You'll have to unrar them first. There are .txt files with descriptions of the content which are handy if you want to know what's in a file before you download it. The filenames show the time the recording started, and the center freq. of the chunk.

The files are in this folder on mega.nz as I don't know anywhere else that would allow me to store up to 50GB online for free...
https://mega.nz/#F!3UUUnSiD!WLhWZ3ff4f4Pi7Ko_zcodQ

What You Need - SDR# (SDR Sharp) / HDSDR

Install this software first, otherwise you can't play the files.

http://www.sdrsharp.com/#sdrsharp

When the .zip has downloaded, go into it and click the 'unzip' file, it should now unzip itself. Go into the unzipped folder and click the 'install' file, which will then extract the software into it's own folder. SDR# doesn't attach itself to windows through the registry or anything, it just works from the folder.

Alternatively, you can use HDSDR but it's not 100% compatible with the files. It doesn't have RDS built in, so you need to pipe the signal at 192k 24 bit to RDS Spy via VB Audio Cable Asio Bridge. This will give better RDS results than SDR# though.

http://www.hdsdr.de/
http://rdsspy.com/
http://vbaudio.jcedeveloppement.com/Download_CABLE/HiFiCableAsioBridgeSetup_v1007.zip
Link above taken from http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm

How To Play The Files

Start SDR# and select IQ File (*.wav) from the Source drop-down. It will immediately ask you to locate an IQ wav file to play.
Make sure you tick 'Correct IQ' or you will have a massive spike in the centre of the display.
Snap to 100kHz for easy tuning.
Make sure you have WFM selected.
Press play.
Move the tuner around by clicking / dragging with the mouse and adjust the filter by dragging the edges.

Portable SDR and Bandscan on Lansdown (remix)

I have recently started getting back into using my RTL SDR dongle and I discovered that it was possible to have Windows 8.1 on a tablet allowing me to use better software than just SDR Touch (an Android SDR app which is fine for listening but not so great if you want to make IQ / IF recordings) and also run the dongle from the USB socket alone although with reduced battery life. That means I don't have to take my laptop anywhere, which would be too cumbersome for me as I don't drive so all my outdoor radio adventures are done on foot, bus and train. Taking the tablet out with me is a lot easier. Although sitting in a field with the aerial in a tree and all the gear spread out on the ground is slightly embarrassing when dog walkers come by, I decided to have a go at my idea to do an SDR bandscan up on the hill at Lansdown. First time around, this wasn't so successful as I was in a hurry and getting cold (not great weather!), but it proved it was achievable. I did get some IQ recordings out of it, so not a total failure.

Tablet - Dell Venue 8 Pro running Win 8.1, Intel Atom processor
Software - SDR Sharp (SDR#) with RDS Data Logger plugin
SDR device - RTL-SDR Dongle, NooElec NESDR Mini 2 (R820T2 chip)

I'm very pleased with how this runs on the tablet with very few drop-outs. Pity I hadn't really set the gain up properly (I didn't notice any major problems at 87.5 so assumed it was fine all the way, but higher up the band it was overloading), plus trying to do a bandscan automatically with the RDS logger and recording to an IQ file doesn't really work very well as on playback you find the band is scrolled at irregular intervals.





Anyway, from the IQ files I managed to grab on this first trip, here are a few of the more interesting signals.


93.2 BCFM (can be stronger than this on Lansdown, but I'd have to move the aerial around a lot to improve it)
96.1 BBC Solent
97.2 Wessex FM
97.5 Somer Valley FM
96.6 Frome FM
98 Ujima (stange effect on some stations causes there to be a trough rather than a peak at the center frequency, not sure why this happens)
105.8 Wave 105
105.5 WCR (Warminster Community Radio)
106.3 Bridge FM



I went back for a second go last weekend. I think I was up there about 3 hours in total! I was freezing by the end :D I found that different spots on the playing fields gave slightly different results, so had to try and do my best moving around with my flimsy wire dipole stung up in different trees / bushes, or even just being held as I was walking around. I need to build a portable wire yagi I reckon, one I can fold up and stuff in my backpack. I won't bore you with more videos, here's the best I can do going by what's in the IQ files...

87.5
87.6
87.7
87.8
87.9
88.0
88.1	Radio 2
88.2	Radio 2
88.3	Radio 2
88.4
88.5	Radio 2
88.6	Radio 2
88.7
88.8	Radio 2
88.9
89.0	Radio 2
89.1	Radio 2 (possibly)
89.2
89.3	Radio 2
89.4
89.5	Radio 2
89.6
89.7
89.8
89.9	Radio 2
90.0
90.1	Radio 2
90.2
90.3	Radio 3
90.4	Radio 3
90.5	Radio 3
90.6
90.7	Radio 3
90.8	Radio 3
90.9
91.0	Radio 3
91.1
91.2	Radio 3
91.3	Radio 3
91.4
91.5	Radio 3
91.6
91.7	Radio 3
91.8
91.9
92.0
92.1	Radio 3
92.2
92.3	Radio 3
92.4
92.5	Radio 4
92.6	Radio 4
92.7	Radio 4
92.8
92.9	Radio 4
93.0	Radio 4
93.1
93.2	BCFM / Radio 4 (directional)
93.3
93.4	Radio 4
93.5	Radio 4
93.6
93.7	Radio 4
93.8
93.9	Radio 4
94.0
94.1
94.2
94.3	Radio 4
94.4
94.5	Radio 4
94.6
94.7	BBC Hereford and Worcester
94.8
94.9	BBC Bristol
95.0	BBC Gloucestershire
95.1
95.2	BBC Oxford
95.3
95.4
95.5	BBC Soms
95.6
95.7
95.8	BBC Gloucestershire (or Wales, dunno!)
95.9	BBC Wales
96.0	BBC Unid - Too far back in the mush
96.1	BBC Solent
96.2
96.3	Heart
96.4	Maybe something
96.5	Unid - Too far back in the mush, Could be Wave or Heart
96.6	Frome FM
96.7	Heart
96.8	BBC Cymru
96.9
97.0	Fantasy Radio (Proabably!)
97.1	Heart
97.2	Heart / Kiss 101 / Wessex FM (Directional)
97.3
97.4	Capital - Quite hidden by Somer FM
97.5	Somer Valley FM
97.6
97.7	Radio 1
97.8	Radio 1
97.9	Radio 1
98.0	Ujima
98.1
98.2	Radio 1
98.3
98.4	Radio 1
98.5
98.6	Radio 1
98.7	Radio 1
98.8
98.9	Radio 1
99.0
99.1	Radio 1
99.2
99.3
99.4
99.5	Radio 1
99.6
99.7	Radio 1
99.8
99.9
100.0	Classic
100.1	Classic
100.2	Classic
100.3	Classic
100.4	Classic
100.5
100.6	Classic (slight trace)
100.7	Heart (slight trace)
100.8	Classic
100.9
101.0	Kiss 101
101.1
101.2
101.3	Classic
101.4	Classic
101.5
101.6
101.7	Classic
101.8
101.9
102.0	Spire FM
102.1
102.2	Heart
102.3	Heart
102.4	Breeze
102.5
102.6	Heart
102.7
102.8	Breeze (slight trace)
102.9	Heart
103.0	Heart
103.1
103.2	Capital
103.3
103.4	BBC Devon
103.5	BBC Wiltshire
103.6	BBC Bristol
103.7
103.8	BBC Solent
103.9	BBC Wales
104.0
104.1	BBC Berkshire
104.2
104.3	BBC Wiltshire
104.4	Unid (slight trace)
104.5
104.6	BBC Bristol
104.7	Unid (slight trace)
104.8
104.9	BBC Wiltshire
105.0
105.1
105.2	Wave 105
105.3
105.4	Heart
105.5	Swindon 105.5 / WCR (directional)
105.6	Breeze
105.7	Heart
105.8	Wave 105
105.9	Heart
106.0	Sam FM
106.1	Badminton Radio (RSL)
106.2	Sunshine
106.3	Bridge FM
106.4
106.5	Sam FM
106.6	Breeze
106.7
106.8	Nation
106.9
107.0
107.1	Unid (slight trace)
107.2	Breeze
107.3
107.4	Breeze
107.5
107.6
107.7	Sam FM
107.8
107.9	Breeze
108.0

I have a better SDR device on the way - an SDRPlay - which doesn't suffer so much with overloading and images. If I can get that running from the tablet, it'll make things even easier for bandscanning, but it might be a bit too much try to power it from the USB socket alone.

SDR# and R820T Dongle Bandscan

I've been getting used to using SDR# (aka SDRSharp) recently, having purchased a cheap DVB TV dongle called an R820T. These, and some other dongles are usable as Software Defined Radio receivers. You need to add an upconverter for freqs lower than 24MHz, which means LW, MW, SW need that extra piece of equipment.

Information - http://www.rtlsdr.org/

This bandscan demonstrates the capability on FM...

Last of the Summer Wine

I have spent some time up hills in a bath... sorry, in Bath.

Back in May I recorded some weak signals in Alexandra Park, South of the centre on top of Beechen Cliff...

106.1 is Badminton Radio, the RSL for the Badminton horse trials 2013
105.52 is Swindon 105.5, Swindon's community station, battling a bit with Real Radio on 105.4 from Wales. There was a local artist being interviewed before I recorded this, talking about getting one-rings on the mobile phone during pirate radio shows :D

Then, yesterday I decided to go up on the hill at Lansdown just North of Bath (the P&R bus goes up there and conveniently parks up near some playing fields).  I have just about received UKs Finest / Sub Zero FM on 87.5 up there before, but today wasn't a good day for getting accurate normal signal levels. Atmospherics were causing a lot of different things to come in.

This was really uncomfortable to record, as a result it's a bit cak. Look out for the green thing that decided to walk across the top of the Tecsun!

Radio Ramadan from Bristol appears to be fading in and out with the atmos on 87.9. There is also a similar station on 87.8 but whether that is a Ramadan RSL or something coming in on atmos I don't know for sure, but I'd assume it was Radio Ramadan 87.8 FM - Walsall!

There is also something on 90.95 (I tune to 91.0 in the vid) which also doesn't look like an RSL to me.

There's something playing what sounds like a mix of Spanish and Arabic music in there too (accompanied by the green thing), and a bit of French.  There were so many signals in and out between 87.5 and 87.9 including French and some pop stations, no idea what they could be.

Isle of Wight Radio on 107 is normal on Lansdown in my experience.

When I wasn't recording or sat on the floor, Ujima and BCFM came in much better, Ujima reaching 19dB.

On 97, but not in the vid, was Fantasy Radio from Devises.

Free FM doesn't broadcast at the time of day I recorded this, so 105.8 has Wave 105 coming in on atmos. It also appears on 105.2.

You might just hear Heart on 100.7, next to Classic on 100.8.

Radio Solent is the BBC station on 96.1.

The rest I just didn't have time to ID. I'd love to spend a day up there in a tent with the laptop running SDR# to get a really decent scan, but that's a bit mad :D

Below, the view from the hill...

Above... Moooo!

Bandscan Update - 21st April 2013

An update for the Bandscan posted recently. This time I used a different aerial and blue-tacked it to a window. BCFM and Ujima both in Stereo, which is hard to get with an indoor aerial. Some stations disappear, but others are stronger and new stations appear to.

To get a really good scan, I will have to eliminate the house from the equation, as I know the walls and ceilings are blocking some stuff out.


93.2 BCFM Stereo
98 Ujima Stereo
100.7 Heart (weak - I used to get this much stronger years ago)
102.3 Real Radio
103.4 BBC Radio Devon
105.2 Something playing Will Smith, very weak but just about audible
106.3 Bridge FM (I think)

Bandscan - April 2013

I thought I'd do a bandscan for North Bristol. Different corners of the city get slightly different results.

This is as thorough as I could make it. Unfortunately, 103.4 BBC Devon didn't want to make an appearance whilst I was recording, although it had done in my trial run 30 mins before. This was done with a slightly longer whip on the Tecsun (I had to replace the whip anyway as the screw fixing fell apart - a common problem with them).

The camera work is pants BTW.

The whole list...

Freq		Station
88.1		R2
88.3		R2
88.6		R2
89.0		R2
89.3		R2
89.9		R2
90.3		R3
90.5		R3
90.8		R3
91.2		R3
91.5		R3
92.1		R3
92.5		R4
92.7		R4
92.9		R4
93.0		R4
93.2		BCFM
93.4		R4
93.7		R4
94.3		R4
94.7		BBC Radio H & W
94.9		BBC Radio Bristol
95.5		BBC Radio Glos.
95.9		BBC Radio Wales
96.3		Heart
96.8		BBC Radio Cymru
97.2		Kiss
97.4		Capital
97.6		Free Radio
97.7		R1
98.0		Ujima
98.2		R1
98.6		R1
98.9		R1
99.5		R1
100.0		Classic
100.2		Classic
100.4		Classic
100.8		Classic
101.0		Kiss
101.4		Classic
101.7		Classic
102.2		Heart
102.4		Heart
102.6		Heart
103.0		Heart
103.2		Heart
103.4		BBC Radio Devon
103.6		BBC Radio Bristol
103.9		BBC Radio Wales
104.3		BBC Radio Wilts
104.6		BBC Radio Bristol
104.7		BBC Radio Glos.
104.8		R4
105.4		Real Radio Wales
105.6		Breeze
105.9		Real Radio Wales
106.2		Sunshine
106.5		Jack
106.8		Nation
107.2		Breeze
107.5		Breeze
107.7		Breeze
107.9		Breeze