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First-Ever Public 5G Broadcast SDR Receiver for OTA Signals

Details

The software access provided below is to configure a Linux based SDR to receive WWOO, Channel 28 in Boston. You can only receive WWOO if you are in the local contour of WWOO in Boston.

Sign up to access SDR

Once installed, you will have access to WWOO’s broadcast of France 24 in English

System Requirements:

CPU: Intel i5 10th Gen+
RAM: 16GB DDR4+
OS: Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS

Recommended SDR Options:

Nuand BladeRF (buy it here)
HackRF
Line SDR

Attach an antenna suitable for 557 MHz to the RX1 port of the BladeRF, and hook it up to a USB3 port on your computer.

Use of this software is free of charge. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 3.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful.

One Step Solution To Get Going

Open Terminal

Add the XGen PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xgen-5gbc/ppa

sudo apt update

If you do not have VLC, here’s how to download

Install rt-mbms-modem and VLC

sudo apt install rt-mbms-modem vlc

You’re all set! Now Run VLC

vlc rtp://@239.11.4.10:5501 --miface="mbms_modem_tun"

To check status, run:

sudo systemctl status rt-mbms-modem.service

You should then see this

- rt-mbms-modem - 5G-MAG Reference Tools: MBMS Modem for 5G Broadcast reception

     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rt-mbms-modem.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)

    Active: active (running) since Sun 2023-10-08 18:14:47 CEST; 49s ago

    Process: 5962 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/5gmag-rt/pre_modem.sh (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

    Main PID: 5966 (modem)

    Tasks: 50 (limit: 18552)

    Memory: 291.9M

    CPU: 12.877s

    CGroup: /system.slice/rt-mbms-modem.service

             └─5966 /usr/bin/modem

Troubleshooting

Try restarting the service:

sudo systemctl restart rt-mbms-modem.service

Check if packets are received:

sudo tcpdump -i mbms_modem_tun

Expected output:

tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v[v]... for full protocol decode

listening on mbms_modem_tun, link-type RAW (Raw IP), snapshot length 262144 bytes

18:22:03.030054 IP 192.168.188.11.57421 > 239.11.4.10.5501: UDP, length 1328

18:22:03.031593 IP 192.168.188.11.57421 > 239.11.4.10.5501: UDP, length 1328

18:22:03.061504 IP 192.168.188.11.57421 > 239.11.4.10.5501: UDP, length 1328

18:22:03.061907 IP 192.168.188.11.57421 > 239.11.4.10.5501: UDP, length

1328 18:22:03.080624 IP 192.168.188.11.57421 > 239.11.4.10.5501: UDP, length 1328

18:22:03.082131 IP 192.168.188.11.57421 > 239.11.4.10.5501: UDP, length 1328

18:22:03.085021 IP 192.168.188.11.57421 > 239.11.4.10.5501: UDP, length 1328

...

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. There are no warranties, expressed or implied. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.