`rtlsdr_ssb.lua`

This example is a Single-Sideband (SSB) AM radio receiver. SSB is commonly used by amateur radio operators on the HF band, and sometimes on the VHF and UHF bands, for voice and digital (modulated in the audio) communication. This example uses the RTL-SDR as an SDR source, plays audio with PulseAudio, and shows two real-time plots: the RF spectrum and the demodulated audio spectrum.

This example requires an RF upconverter to listen to stations on the HF and MF bands with the RTL-SDR.

This single-sideband demodulator composition is available in LuaRadio as the SSBDemodulator block.

Flow Graph

Source

local radio = require('radio')

if #arg < 2 then
    io.stderr:write("Usage: " .. arg[0] .. " <frequency> <sideband>\n")
    os.exit(1)
end

assert(arg[2] == "usb" or arg[2] == "lsb", "Sideband should be 'lsb' or 'usb'.")

local frequency = tonumber(arg[1])
local sideband = arg[2]
local tune_offset = -100e3
local bandwidth = 3e3

-- Blocks
local source = radio.RtlSdrSource(frequency + tune_offset, 1102500)
local tuner = radio.TunerBlock(tune_offset, 2*bandwidth, 50)
local sb_filter = radio.ComplexBandpassFilterBlock(129, (sideband == "lsb") and {0, -bandwidth}
                                                                             or {0, bandwidth})
local am_demod = radio.ComplexToRealBlock()
local af_filter = radio.LowpassFilterBlock(128, bandwidth)
local af_gain = radio.AGCBlock('fast')
local sink = os.getenv('DISPLAY') and radio.PulseAudioSink(1) or radio.WAVFileSink('ssb.wav', 1)

-- Plotting sinks
local plot1 = radio.GnuplotSpectrumSink(2048, 'RF Spectrum', {xrange = {-3100,
                                                                        3100},
                                                              yrange = {-120, -40}})
local plot2 = radio.GnuplotSpectrumSink(2048, 'AF Spectrum', {yrange = {-120, -40},
                                                              xrange = {0, bandwidth},
                                                              update_time = 0.05})

-- Connections
local top = radio.CompositeBlock()
top:connect(source, tuner, sb_filter, am_demod, af_filter, af_gain, sink)
if os.getenv('DISPLAY') then
    top:connect(tuner, plot1)
    top:connect(af_gain, plot2)
end

top:run()

Usage

Usage: examples/rtlsdr_ssb.lua <frequency> <sideband>

Running this example in a headless environment will inhibit plotting and record audio to the WAV file ssb.wav.

Usage Example

Listen to 3.745 MHz (with a 125 MHz upconverter), lower sideband:

$ ./luaradio examples/rtlsdr_ssb.lua 128.745e6 lsb