Radio hacking

Hardware

RTL2832U supports only receiving. Used for SDR.

CC1101 supports transmitting and receiving. It’s what the Flipper Zero uses. It’s not SDR, i.e. it doesn’t expose the raw signal. SC127X is another transceiver used in LoRa devices like LilyGo LoRa.

More complex and expensive devices: hackRF, LimeSDR, bladRF.

SDR

Hardware:

• rtl-sdr. Best budget option
• Nooelec SMArt dongles. Comparison better frequency accuracy but lacks
• AirSpy mini. Better performance but more expensive.

Software:

• https://www.sdrangel.org/
• https://www.sdrpp.org/
• https://airspy.com/download/
• https://github.com/DSheirer/sdrtrunk
• https://pysdr.org/
• WebSDR
• GNU Radio
• rtl_433
• Universal Radio Hacker
• rtlamr - used e.g. for GAS meters

References

• Project ideas - 50 things to do with SDR
• Reversing a car key fob signal
• Decoding IM-1
• Reading my electric meter with RTLSDR)

Thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out for any comment or question.