HackRF One - An Open Source Software Defined Radio (SDR) Platform

Amazing tool.I've been using it pretty extensively for some RF testing and am very impressed with it capabilities for its price.I'm a bit torn about giving it 4 instead of 5 stars. It has worked exactly as expected based on its design and has been an awesome tool, there are places where it could be just a little bit better, but it is a great value for the price/capability.There are a few changes which would make it to a 5 star device for me.Better information on windows setup (see below)Full Duplex operation--the hack RF can transmit or receive, but not at the same timeHigher bitcount on ADC--device has 8 bit I/Q sampling, 10 or 12 would be nice to have as an optionHigher precision TXCO--device has 20 ppm clock, lower would be betterOf these, only the Windows support could be achieved without raising the price, so I understand why they were left out in the name of keeping prices down.As far as Windows support, Linux does have better support, but for some projects we aren't able to use Linux due to external tool dependencies.It was a bit of a slog to figure out how to make things work in Windows. I had several false starts and in the end wound up just building the tools from source; unfortunately I found the Windows build instructions were out of date and included incorrect library information. Ultimately I did find an easier route to success on Windows: the PothosWare project includes the prebuilt windows binaries for the HackRf.The only other issue to be aware of with the HackRF is that the receiver has a large DC spike. Unfortunately the DC spike is just part of life with zero-IF receivers. If you are coming from a R820T2 RTL-SDR dongle with its intermediate frequency based receiver you will be a bit disappointed to see the DC spike in your received data.

The device performed VERY poorly compared to other SDRs I have that cost under $50. With my favorite $40 SDR I can reliably receive NOAA satellite imagery broadcasts (NOAA 15, 18, and 19) along with the normal audio broadcasts from local towers in the 160MHz range. This SDR could not receive from NOAA satellites and it struggled to even receive the NOAA radio broadcasts. I use a home made QuadriFiliar Helix for satellite imagery and it works well with my other SDRs. I was hoping this specialty SDR would help enhance reception and get rid of some artifacts that low end SDRs can insert into the waveform. I was very disappointed in this purchase considering its price.I tried over 5 homemade antennas and another 7 Diamond antennas. They all resulted in very poor performance. The cheap SDRs I have can receive a local broadcast at 164.64MHz at -30db. The HackRF out of the box was receiving at -75db and after tuning GQRX/GNU Radio, the best I could get was -42db until the DC offset bug kicked in. This bug is reportedly fixed with new firmware but after upgrading, it still existed.I had plans to receive and decode GHz transmissions from other satellites but with it struggling at low frequencies I am going to explore other options.

It's a great gadget, if you really want to only be able to receive voice communication. Anything else that you might like to do with an SDR such as receiving ADSB, AIS, or ACARS data doe not exist for this device. Every developer is more interested in what you can do with an RTLSDR more. The programs that support this are few and far between. Ones that do have an extremely high learning curve (IE GNURadio).

Great experimental transceiver. But it needs the 10 MHz plugin TCXO to be really stable on frequency and not drift. The TCXOs are available for about 10 bucks on eBay and maybe Amazon. ... I set output power to about one mW, then run it into an amplifier that puts out a watt or two. Note: those inexpensive 20-dollar amplifiers only take CW and FM signals. They are not "linear amplifiers." ... Use SDR-Angel to control this transceiver. SDR Angel is for both Windows10 and Ubuntu.

What a awesome sdr transceiver, I have been using it with Linux and GNU radio and other recommended software. There is a learning curve to get use it's advanced features mostly in software but gnuradio is outstanding and just a lot of fun to experiment with. Setting it up for basic receiving is a piece of cake lots if good software to use it like any other sdr receiver. A lot of fun in a small package and a great learning experance, I love it.

Still learning; not out of the box product.

Excellent - thank you - I'll be watching for future products as well

An absolutely fantastic SDR KC0PAH