hackrf

Another example: the HackRF SDR board was done in KiCAD https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf

I thought that board looked interesting. Looks like a $50 cellular board, includes 500MB of data over 10 years (though with missing fineprint according the the HN thread). Might not be a terrible board to design around. Though adding it to your BOM will make your final retail cost on the order of $450. Some creative googling got me this, for a different starting point. Looks like it might be a useful project writeup dealing with SDR and connecting to some cellular sources. https://www.blackhillsinfosec.com/intro-to-software-defined-... I'm not sure how common open SDR hardware is, though some forum threads seem to suggest the Hackrf schematics are here, and are meant to be replicated: https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf I think one of the big problems is ultimately going to be dealing with phone companies. I think that will ultimately stym

I don't think you can really call them a knockoff. As far as I know, the HackRF has been designed as an opensource hardware[0], so I'd guess the designer intended it to be built by different entities. [0] https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/tree/master/hardware "This is a free hardware design; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License[..]"

I do take requests but mostly for documenting other people's projects and getting them in a state to be put up. I was going to have a go at HackRF [1] next but if you know any good projects you would like to see put up, let me know. https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf P.S. I should really have a go at this power supply too: https://github.com/eez-open/psu-hw

For a device that can transmit as well as receive, consider HackRF: https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/wiki It's been out for a while. The newer option is LimeSDR, which just shipped: https://www.crowdsupply.com/lime-micro/limesdr (Note that you need to comply with all local laws regarding transmitting).

Yep. Wifi is easy - any wifi module that can be put into "monitor mode" will let you listen in for SSID probes. Apple have started randomising the MAC address the device uses for those probes in iOS8, which is a start, but there's often a close-to-unique fingerprint that you still get from the set of SSID's that are probed for (how many people do you suppose probe for "Company $A Staff Wifi, Shopping Mall $B free wifi, Cafe's $C $D and $E free wifi, and person $F home wifi") - there's also a trick that I think I heard WifiPineapple uses of listening for common SSID probed (McDonald Free Wifi, Netgear, etc), then responding as that base station - then getting the real MAC address during the negotiation phase). BlueTooth is only a little more difficult - you only need a hundred or so dollars to start playing there though: http://ubertooth.

https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/wiki/Jawbreaker What it really depends on is your modulation method. So say you want to operate legally as a ham radio op on 5760.1 operating CW. Well with a reasonably high gain antenna -15 dBm is OK. COTS MMIC amps and some filters and you'll have a vaguely competitive contest rover. I would imagine QEX/QST and the like will have ham radio band amp designs for a couple bucks soon enough after this thing rolls out. Looking at the cost of a FT-817 and a transverter, I imagine you could save quite a bit of dough using this device... Given $200 I could probably scavenge up some TR relays good for 5 cm and maybe a whole watt or so. Placed in front of a modest rover capable dish this could pretty much kick butt. Plus or minus phase noise, which hasn't been discussed, and frequency stability (I'm guess

The spec from HackRF github wiki: https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf/wiki/Jawbreaker * half-duplex transceiver * operating freq: 30 MHz to 6 GHz * supported sample rates: 8 Msps to 20 Msps (quadrature) * resolution: 8 bits * interface: High Speed USB 2.0 (with USB Micro-B connector) * power supply: USB bus power