Приём служебного GSM-трафика без использования SDR

Приветствую всех!

Интересующиеся сотовыми сетями наверняка слышали про то, что сигнальные сообщения, передающиеся открытым текстом, можно принять на самый обычный ТВ-тюнер на чипе от Realtek. Для более продвинутых пользователей существует прошивка Osmocom, софт Airprobe и более продвинутые модели SDR. Но как насчёт анализа вообще без использования SDR и тому подобных устройств?

Не так давно появился инструмент, позволяющий ещё больше снизить порог вхождения для таких опытов. Именно о нём мы сейчас и поговорим.

Enhanced Definition TV: “A Poor Man’s High-Def”

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=J0as4DiswGU

Although to many of us the progression from ‘standard definition’ TV and various levels of high-definition at 720p or better seemed to happen smoothly around the turn of the new century, there was a far messier technological battle that led up to this. One of these contenders was Enhanced Definition TV (EDTV), which was 480p in either 4:3 or 16:9, as a step up from Standard Definition TV (SDTV) traditional TV quality. The convoluted history of EDTV and the long transition to proper HDTV is the subject of a recent video by [VWestlife].

One reason why many people aren’t aware of...

Worst Clock Ever Teaches You QR Codes

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=rA7HXQxqpPA

[WhiskeyTangoHotel] wrote in with his newest clock build — and he did warn us that it was minimalist and maybe less than useful. Indeed, it is nothing more than a super-cheap ESP32-C3 breakout board with an OLED screen and some code. Worse, you can’t even tell the time on it without pointing your cell phone at the QR code it generates. Plot twist: you skip the QR code and check the time on your phone.

But then we got to thinking, and there is actually a lot to learn from here on the software side. This thing pulls the time down...

Radio Apocalypse: Clearing the Air with SCATANA

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=R0Vzaf14SKQ

For the most part, the Radio Apocalypse series has focused on the radio systems developed during the early days of the atomic age to ensure that Armageddon would be as orderly an affair as possible. From systems that provided backup methods to ensure that launch orders would reach the bombers and missiles, to providing hardened communications systems to allow survivors to coordinate relief and start rebuilding civilization from the ashes, a lot of effort went into getting messages sent.

Strangely, though, the architects of the end of the world put just as much thought into making sure messages didn’t get sent....

PCBs the Prehistoric Way

https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-clay-pcb/oembed

When we see an extremely DIY project, you always get someone who jokes “well, you didn’t collect sand and grow your own silicon”. [Patrícia J. Reis] and [Stefanie Wuschitz] did the next best thing: they collected local soil, sieved it down, and fired their own clay PCB substrates over a campfire. They even built up a portable lab-in-a-backpack so they could go from dirt to blinky in the woods with just what they carried on their back.

This project is half art, half extreme DIY practice, and half environmental consciousness.  (There’s overlap.)  And the clay PCB is just part of the...

A New Generation of Spacecraft Head to the ISS

While many in the industry were at first skeptical of NASA’s goal to put resupply flights to the International Space Station in the hands of commercial operators, the results speak for themselves. Since 2012, the SpaceX Dragon family of spacecraft has been transporting crew and cargo from American soil to the orbiting laboratory, a capability that the space agency had lost with the retirement of the Space Shuttle. Putting these relatively routine missions in the hands of a commercial provider like SpaceX takes some of the logistical and financial burden off of NASA, allowing them to focus on more forward-looking...

Submirror – Self-perception, loss of control, and digital puppetry

Submirror is a body of work by Atelier Lozano-Hemmer comprised of mirrors that do not reflect faithfully; they act with intention, manipulating the viewer’s image to reveal a version of the self that is not their own.

Listening for the Next Wow! Signal with Low-Cost SDR

As you might expect, the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo has a fascination with radio signals from space. While doing research into the legendary “Wow! Signal” detected back in 1977, they realized that the burst was so strong that a small DIY radio telescope would be able to pick it up using modern software-defined radio (SDR) technology.

This realization gave birth to the Wow@Home project, an effort to document both the hardware and software necessary to pick up a Wow! class signal from your own backyard. The University reasons that if they can get a bunch of volunteers to build...

LattePanda IOTA SBC combines Intel N150 SoC with Raspberry Pi RP2040 for GPIO and power control

LattePanda IOTA is a new Intel Processor N150 SBC equipped with up to 16GB LPDDR5 and 128GB eMMC flash, as well as a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller for GPIO and power control It’s an update to the LattePanda V1 launched in 2015 with an Intel Atom x5-Z8300/Z8350 Cherry Trail SoC and an ATMega32U4 microcontroller. The new model is up to eight times faster, features up to four times the memory, twice the storage, Gigabit Ethernet, and more, but mostly keeps the same dimensions and layout for compatibility with most accessories. It also adds new features such as a 16-pin PCIe...

Give Your Band The Music Of The Bands

The way to get into radio, and thence electronics, in the middle years of the last century, was to fire up a shortwave receiver and tune across the bands. In the days when every country worth its salt had a shortwave station, Cold War adversaries boomed propaganda across the airwaves, and even radio amateurs used AM that could be listened to on a consumer radio, a session in front of the dial was sure to turn up a few surprises. It’s a lost world in the 21st century, as the Internet has provided an easier worldwide medium and switch-mode power...