Topic: Remote SDR Radio Receivers YOU Can Play With

[W1RC]

This article is for our good friends and NEAR-Fest staffers, Warren, W1GUD/4, Jerry, K0TV and John, N1FOJ who are all battling with very serious illness and need something to do while they slowly recover.  The entire staff and management of NEAR-Fest wishes them all a full and speedy recovery.  Here's something you can do to play radio until you can get back on the air from your own QTH.  Enjoy my friends, keep playing radio and be well!

Computer and radio technologies today are so interwoven that it is hard to know where the microprocessors leaves off and the RF section begins.  There is a great deal of interest among radio amateurs today in software defined radios (SDR) some of which are incredibly inexpensive and do many incredible things. You can get one for as little as $20.00. For more information on SDR please follow this link

However this treatise is about existing receiving stations that you can play with right now on your desktop or laptop.  There is also a mobile version of the software so you can use it with tablet your iOS or Android based tablet and smartphone using Safari or FireFox. 

Because today's radio receivers and transmitters use a microprocessor to control the radio it is a relatively simple matter to create an interface that allows this control to take place remotely over the Net.  Because of this many radio amateurs are experimenting and as a result there are a good number of Web sites online that offer visitors an opportunity to experience operating the stations from wherever they may be located.  So you can transmit from Massachusetts and listen to your signal as it may be heard in the UK, Holland, Russia, Japan or wherever there is a remotely accessible receiver that you can operate over the Web.

Before I begin listing the sites I'd like to ask those of you who visit them please do not overstay your welcome.  These are resources that are shared and only a certain number of people can use a receiver at one time which is indicated in their listing  Finally, I want to thank all the great people who build and run these remote receivers for sharing their resources with the rest of us.  Thanks for all your efforts.  They are very much appreciated,

The first link on the list is a very interesting Web site located in Europe.  This receiver at a university in The Netherlands that is controlled by a user via the Web.  You can change frequency, mode and even memorize frequencies to create preset buttons so you can jump around the bands while looking for more stations. 

http://www.websdr.org

Actually the site is a collection of a number of receivers located all over the world that can be selected and operated by visitors.  There is no charge or subscription required and you don't even have to register to play with the radios.  Currently there are 58 remotely accessed SDR receivers all over the world on this remarkable site.

The remote receiver in North America that I tend to use most often is located at K2SDR, courtesy of Jeff in Sea Girt, NJ. It is located about 1/2 mile from the Atlantic Ocean.  This is a truly magnificent receiving site.  I like it very much because it covers all the HF amateur bands and is the closest remote receiving station to my QTH in Massachusetts.     

http://96.225.100.244:8902/m.html

As I type these lines I am listening to Don, K4KYV, in Tennessee on 3885 AM and he sounds absolutely great.

Another great site on the other side of "the pond" is in the UK at the former RAF Station Hack Green which is now a museum.  This an excellent low noise site with a great antenna system:

http://hackgreensdr.org:8901

This is also the location for a very popular flea market which is usually called a "radio rally" in the UK

Another UK SDR hosted by G4FPH that covers "Top Band (160 meters) with a great low noise location

http://www.160m.net

There are lots more links below.  Enjoy!

73,

MrMike

PS:  Here are some sites that have TONS more sites and stuff.....

Many remote receiving sites including one in Kenington NH operated by our friend, Kriss KA1GJU. 

http://sdrspace.com

And more: http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Internet_and_Radio/Online_Receivers/

And still more:  http://www.globaltuners.com

SDR software:  This is a pretty expensive commercial package but for non-commercial use it is FREE!

http://v2.sdr-radio.com/Home.aspx

The Licence key:  http://v2.sdr-radio.com/Download/Version2Licence.aspx

Here's a ham radio simulator. http://www.globaltuners.com

And finally, here's the original online receiver site:  http://www.chilton.com/scripts/radio/R8-receiver