Software Defined Radio is a fascinating playfield for hackers. But the learning curve is steep, and the SDR devices are expensive.
This 2 hour hands on workshop introduces SDR via a gentle learning curve, and with cheap devices, so that everyone can participate.
Operating SDRs via the open source software GNU Radio offers a wealth of possibilities, but it is hard for beginners to start with GNU Radio. You need a good grasp of the radio concepts to find your way through the software. SDR is quite different from analogue radio, and for most attendees, even analogue radio is quite mysterious. As an electronics engineer and former CB radio operator, I have a good background in RF technology. With GNU Radio and GNU Radio Companion, I will guide the attendees through a set of exercises (specially designed for this workshop) intended to familiarize them with radio technology, SDR, GNU Radio and GNU Radio Companion.
Each attendee brings his own laptop. Didier brings 20 cheap SDR devices (USB digital TV receivers RTL2832U) and a couple of more performant devices, like the HackRF One, a WiSpy, a handheld digital spectrum analyzer, …
Attendees connect the RTL2832U to their laptop, we boot from a Live CD and we start doing simple exercises to understand SDR.
Because of the limited number of devices (20 devices), the workshop is limited to 20 attendees. But attendees can bring their own RTL2832U.