Radiosonde receiver toolkit

Collection and interoperability of different software packages for reception and decoding radiosonde signals.

Contents:

• Radiosonde decoder plugin for SDR++
• Command-line tool for decoding telemetry packets using RTL-SDR with gpsd intergation to show real-time flight data on map
• Termux scripts for Android to support on-site balloon hunting using RTL-SDR

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/simonyiszk/radiosonde-receiver-toolkit
cd radiosonde-receiver-toolkit

Radiosonde decoder plugin for SDR++

Using this patch based on the original repository.

Note: this tool does not support real-time tracking on map, only displays telemetry data which can be saved to gpx and csv logfiles.

Compatibility:

Manufacturer	Model	GPS	Temperature	Humidity	XDATA
Vaisala	RS41-SG	✔	✔	✔	✔
Meteomodem	M10		✔	✔
Meteomodem	M20	✔	✔
GRAW	DFM06/09/17	✔	✔
Meisei	iMS-100	✔	✔	✔
Meisei	RS-11G	✔	✔	✔
InterMet	iMet-1/4	✔	✔	✔	✔
Meteolabor	SRS-C50	✔	✔
Meteo-Radiy	MRZ-N1	✔	✔

Building from source:

1. Copy the plugin folder into sources:

cp -r sdrpp_radiosonde SDRPlusPlus/decoder_modules

2. In the SDRPlusPlus/CMakeLists.txt file, and add the following line in the # Decoders section at the top:

option(OPT_BUILD_RADIOSONDE_DECODER "Build the radiosonde decoder module (no dependencies required)" ON)

3. In that same file, search for the second # Decoders section, and add the following lines:

if (OPT_BUILD_RADIOSONDE_DECODER)
add_subdirectory("decoder_modules/sdrpp_radiosonde")
endif (OPT_BUILD_RADIOSONDE_DECODER)

5. Build and install SDR++ following the original guide
6. Enable the module in SDR++ by adding it via the module manager

Command-line tool with tracking support via gpsd

Displays real-time telemetry data in the terminal or in a GPS data analyzer like Viking.

Building the RS41 decoder from source:

cd sonde-cli
gcc -c ../RS/demod/mod/bch_ecc_mod.c
gcc -c ../RS/demod/mod/demod_mod.c
gcc ../RS/demod/mod/rs41mod.c demod_mod.o bch_ecc_mod.o -lm -o rs41mod
cp ../RS/tools/pos2nmea.pl .
chmod +x sonde_cli.sh
chmod +x sonde_map.sh

For the use of other type of radiosondes, please refer to the original repository.

Dependencies:

RTL-SDR (available as submodule) Installation steps

Usage:

./sonde_cli.sh [F] where F is the target frequency in MHz. The output will show in the terminal.

./sonde_map.sh [F] where F is the target frequency in MHz. In Viking, add a new GPS layer, with the default gpsd settings (Realtime tracking mode -> Autoconnect: Yes, Host: localhost, Port: 2947). The radiosonde will show up on successful telemetry reception, and will keep update the flight information on the map.

Termux scripts for Android

• Install F-Droid
• Install Termux
• Install Termux:API
• Install RTL-SDR driver
• Install any application that is capable of displaying location on a map.
• Optional: for general use of RTL-SDR under Android, you can also install RF Analyzer

Build sources, connect the RTL-SDR via USB_OTG then execute ./Locate.sh.

References:

• https://github.com/martinmarinov/rtl_tcp_andro-
• https://k3xec.com/rtl-tcp/