RTL-SDR – ArchWiki
RTL-SDR is a set of tools that enables DVB-T USB dongles based on the Realtek RTL2832U chipset to be used as cheap software defined radios, given that the chip allows transferring raw I/Q samples from the tuner straight to the host device.
See the RTL-SDR wiki for exact technical specifications.
Packages
The latest stable RTL-SDR version can be installed from .
Bleeding edge is on AUR.
Note: RTL-SDR conflicts with existing /usr/lib/modprobe.d/rtlsdr.conf. To use the dongle with the original DVB-T drivers, it is required to manually load them, see
RTL-SDR conflicts with existing DVB-T drivers in the kernel, and upon installation blacklists the relevant drivers as can be seen in. To use the dongle with the original DVB-T drivers, it is required to manually load them, see DVB-T#Driver
udev rules are installed at /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/10-rtl-sdr.rules and set the proper permissions such that non-root users can access the device.
Tip: The official RTL-SDR software does not include an infrared module. If one is desired, this
The official RTL-SDR software does not include an infrared module. If one is desired, this fork , which includes an rtl_ir module, should be used instead.
Usage
Performing a simple test, and make sure the dongle works and that there are no lost samples:
$ rtl_test
Raw samples can be captured directly to file (or fifo), for example to tune to 123.4MHz and capture 1.8M samples/sec:
$ rtl_sdr capture.bin -s 1.8e6 -f 123.4e6
Tune to your favorite radio station and pipe to sox for audio:
$ rtl_fm -f 102.7e6 -M wbfm -s 200000 -r 48000 - | aplay -r 48000 -f S16_LE
Applications
Some popular applications that use RTL-SDR:
- – a popular SDR receiver with waterfall GUI for Linux
- – complete suite for wireless protocol investigation with native support for many common SDR
- AUR – a lightweight ModeS (1090Mhz) decoder
- – a decoder for various digital modes
- AUR – protocol aware receiver for multiple devices. Supports automatic packet interception and protocol analyzers for reverse engineering.
