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SIGpi

Introduction

SIGpi is a "go-kit" for Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) enthusiasts with capabilities in the HF, VHF, UHF, and SHF spectrum. It includes a framework for simple installation and management of popular SIGINT appliucations and devices made mostly from bash scripts building/installing SIGINT tools on the following platforms:

Raspberry Pi4 4GB RAM or Raspberry Pi 400 with 32GB microSD card running Raspberry Pi OS "Bullseye" or "Bookworm" Full (64-bit)
ARM64 or AMD64 platforms with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage minimum runniing Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Release Notes

over here

Quick Setup

Login as pi or sudo user on supported platform
Update and install pre-requisite packages to install SIGpi
From your home directory, create a directory called SIG and switch into it
Clone the SIGpi repo
Change directory into SIGpi

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential cmake git
cd ~
mkdir ~/SIG && cd ~/SIG
git clone https://github.com/joecupano/SIGpi.git
cd SIGpi

Run the following command from $HOME/SIG/SIGpi to install the framework and package management

./SIGpi setup standard

After setup system will reboot.

Add a Package

Once setup, you can list the inventory of packages SIGpi includes as well as those already installed with the following command (note that ./ is no longer required for thr SIGpi command after setup)

SIGpi list library

An asterisk in the INSTALLED column indicates that package is already installed while those withou asterisks have not been installed. For example, you will see SDRangel has not been installed. You can do so with the following command.

SIGpi install sdrangel

Go back and list again to install other packages of interest

Server Setup

An SDR connected to a headless server running software accessed/managed by command line or a network accessible API interface us the following hardware as minimum:

Raspberry Pi3 B+ with 32GB microSD card running Raspberry Pi OS "Bullseye" or "Bookworm" Lite (64-bit)

Server install gives the option to run RTL_TCP, SoapySDR, or SDRangel-server on startup. Run the following command to create a server

./SIGpi setup server

During setup you will have the option to run either RTL-TCP, SDRangel Server, or SoapySDR server on startup or choose not to start any of them. After setup system will reboot.

SIGpi Package and Build Options

While SIGpi is focused on simplifying the installation and removal of applications, we've included the ability to download the source and build the latest versions of some application. Additionaly, we've included the ability to build and create a Debian package without installing.

To build and install an application

SIGpi build [PACKAGE]

The build option will clone the source code into a new directory under /home/pi/SIG/source, build the application, and install it.

To build and create a Debian package without installation

SIGpi package [PACKAGE]

The package option will clone the source code into a new directory under /home/pi/SIG/source and build a Debian package (.deb) in the build directory within that cloned directory. It will then move the created Debian package to /hoe/pi/SIG/SIGpi/debs. From that location you can install the Debian package.

sudo dpkg -i <PACKAGE>

Know if the application is already installed, you need to purge it first

SIGpi purge [PACKAGE]

New Applications

Periodically new applications will be added to SIGpiand notifications sent to those watching the repo. To add applcations available for install into your SIGpi instance simple run run the following from within your /home/pi/SIG/SIGpi directory

git pull

You will see the new applications as available running the list library command

SIGpi list library

Overview of Commands

Typing SIGpi by itself will give you the list of commands available.

SIGpi includes it's own package management platform to update applications to their latest releases using familiar syntax from package management systems. Here is an overview of available commands.

  Usage:  SIGpi [ACTION] [TARGET]

       ACTION
  
          install                install TARGET from current release
          remove                 remove installed TARGET
          purge                  remove installed TARGET and purge configs
          build                  compile and install TARGET (option may not be available)
          update                 check for update of TARGET
          upgrade                upgrade TARGET to latest release

       TARGET

          A SIGpi package
                 

  Usage:  SIGpi [ACTION]

       ACTION

          SIGpi setup standard   First time setup for desktop
          SIGpi setup server     First time setup for server
          SIGpi list packages    List all packages included with SIGpi
          SIGpi list installed   List installed SIGpi packages
          SIGpi list library     List all packages included with SIGpi with installed ones marked with an *
          SIGpi shell            provide SIGpi env variables around a TARGET

You can update packages in your existing SIGpi install. For example, Is there a SDRangel update. If so install it:

SIGpi update sdrangel

Update 7.17.4 is available

SIGpi upgrade sdrangel

You can add/remove Packages anytime

SIGpi install audacity
SIGpi remove audacity

Advanced Topics

Debian Packages

To speed up installation, beginning in SIGpi 6.X we started building our own aarch64 and amd64 Debian packages for select software when the latest packages are not available from Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi OS.

We began with SDRangel for aarch64 (RPi) and slowly adding packages along the way. The debian packages we install can be found in ~/SIG/SIGpi/debs. They are built to be SIGpi independent so as long as your particualr build has the dependencies installed, these packages should install normally with sudo dpkg -i .

Building and/or Installing Packeges

If our packages do not support your SDR device, you can install SDR drivers per your device's instructions and compile a new version. Using SDRangel as an example you would first purge SDRangel if already installed and then compile and install a new SDRangel build as follows:

SIGpi purge sdrangel
SIGpi build sdrangel

For build what happens is SDRangel git repo is cloned into ~/SIG/source then compiled into ~/SIG/source//build. The debian package is created there using checkinstall and installed. A copy of the Debian package is then made available in ~/SIG/SIGpi/debs.

If you just wanted to create a Debian package of SDRangel and not install it, the second command would instead be:

SIGpi package sdrangel

For package git repo is cloned into ~/SIG/source then compiled into ~/SIG/source//build. The debian package is created there using checkinstall copied to ~/SIG/SIGpi/debs.

Desktop Environments

For the Raspberry Pi OS desktop environment, we have tried to curate the GUI and command line applications into menus and submenus. Where an application appears missing you should be able to run from the terminal windows as pi user. For Ubuntu 22.04 som apps have been added as favorites yet all will be available via the Applications icon on the lower left. Also for Ubuntu 22.04 desktop, the SIGIwiki and SIGpi icons will show red circled X on them. This is Ubuntu being secure with the desktop. Just right-click each icon and set them for Allow Launching

Streaming Audio

Perhaps you want to remotely connect to your SIGpi box and listen from a more comfortable location. VNC which is included will let you remotely see and touch but not hear audio. For audio we configure via Preferences > PulseAudio Preferences in the Network Access and Network Server tabs. In Network Access check the first box and in Network Server check the first four boxes.

APRS and Packet using a VHF/UHF Transceiver

SDRangel and other SDR applications have the capability to decode APRS and Packet Radio signals and transmit at given TX capable supported and attached devices. If you have an Amateur Radio license and aspire to operate serious distance including satellites then you will need VHF/UHF transceiver capable of 5 watts for the latter interfacing to the transceiver through audio and radio control via Hamlib.

In the past dedicated hardware known as TNCs (terminal node controllers) was used between a computer and transceiver. But the signals themselves are audio so TNCs were replaced with software and soundcards connected to the transceiver. For this build DireWolf is the software replacing the TNC and AX.25 software providing the data-link layer above it that provides sockets to it.

If you are planning to operate APRS and Packet Radio with a transceiver then configuring DireWolf and AX.25 is necessary. Otherwise you can skip the subsections.

AX.25

If you intend to transmit, you will need to edit axports and change to your licensed Amateur Radio callsign

sudo nano /etc/ax25/axports

Change N0CALL to your callsign followed by a hyphen and a number 1 to 15. (For Example N0CALL-3)

# /etc/ax25/axports
#
# The format of this file is:
#
# name callsign speed paclen window description
#
ax0     N0CALL-3      1200    255     4       APRS / Packet
#1      OH2BNS-1      1200    255     2       144.675 MHz (1200  bps)
#2      OH2BNS-9      38400   255     7       TNOS/Linux  (38400 bps)

Save and exit

Packages

Device Drivers

bladeRF
HackRF One
LimeSuite
PlutoSDR
RTL-SDR - RTL2832U & R820T2-Based
SDRPlay
SoapySDR
SoapyRemote
SoapyBladeRF
SoapyHackRF
SoapyPlutoSDR
SoapyRTLSDR
SoapySDRPlay
Ubertooth - Ubertooth support

Libraries and Decoders

aptdec - NOAA satellite imagery decoder
cm256cc
dab-cmdline - DABD/DAB+
dsdcc - Encode/Decode Digital Voice modes (DMR, YSF, D*Star, etc)
hamlib - API for controlling a myriad of radios
libax25 - AFSK baseband audio library for AX.25 packet as used by APRS
libbtbb - Bluetooth Baseband Library
libsigmf - Used for Signal Metadata Format - sharing of signal data
liquid-dsp - Digital Signal Processing (DSP) library
mbelib - P25 Phase 1
RadioSonde - Various tools for Weather balloon telemetry
serialDV - Encode/Decode audio with AMBE3000 based devices (DMR, YSF, D-Star, etc)
sgp4 - Used for satellite tracking given TLE data

SDR Applications

Audacity - Audio Editor
CubicSDR
CygnusRFI - Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) analysis tool
dump1090 - Mode S decoder specifically designed for RTLSDR devices
GNURadio
SDRangel
SDR++
SigDigger
rtl_433- Generic data receiver for UHF ISM Bands decoding popular sensors

Amateur Radio Applications

ax25-apps - Command line AX.25 apps
ax25-tools - AX.25 for daemon interfaces
direwolf - Software “soundcard” AX.25 packet modem/TNC and APRS encoder/decoder
Fldigi - GUI app for CW, PSK, MFSK, RTTY, Hell, DominoEX, Olivia, etc
js8call - JS8 mode
QSSTV - GUI app for SSTV
WSJT-X - FT4, FT8, JT4, JT9, JT65, Q65, MSK144

Satellite and Geo

gpredict - Satellite Tracking with Radio and Antenna Rotor Control
xastir - APRS Station Tracking and Reporting
linpac - Packet Radio Terminal with Mail Client

Other SIGINT tools

bettercap wireless signal reconnaissance
Chrony - NTP sync
HASviolet (RPi only) LoRa communications on 33cm band (902-928 MHz)
Kismet - wireless reconnaissance and intrusion detection
Multimon-NG - decodes POCSAG, etc
NRSC5 - HD Radio decoder
SPLAT - RF Signal Propagation, Loss, And Terrain analysis tool for 20 MHz to 20 GHz
srsRAN beta
Universal Radio Hacker
Wireshark - Network Traffic Analyzer

For Raspberry Pi OS, most of the GUI applications you will find via the SIGpi,Hamradio or other menus. Many of the command line applications are accessible via the SIGpi shell menu. Each menu option opens up a terminal window for that application and invokes its included help info. If a command line tool does not appear in the SIGpi shell menu, not it is in located in /usr/local/bin and in PATH. For Ubuntu, all apps will be available via the Applications icon

Package Notes

CubicSDR

Cross-Platform Software-Defined Radio Application. Used with SoapySDR capable devices such as RTLSDR and HackRF. The RPi OS repo package is installed which is the latest version 0.2.5.More information available from the online documentation

CygnusRFI

CygnusRFI is an easy-to-use open-source Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) analysis tool, based on Python and GNU Radio Companion (GRC) that is conveniently applicable to any ground station/radio telescope working with a GRC-supported software-defined radio (SDR). In addition to data acquisition, CygnusRFI also carries out automated analysis of the recorded data, producing a series of averaged spectra covering a wide range of frequencies of interest. CygnusRFI is built for ground station operators, radio astronomers, amateur radio operators and anyone who wishes to get an idea of how "radio-quiet" their environment is, using inexpensive instruments like SDRs.

Menu launches you into a terminal session in the CygnusRFI directory

DireWolf

DireWolf needs to be running for APRS and Packet applications to have use the AX0 interface defined in the previou section. You will need to configure your callsign, the soundcard device to use, and whether using PTT or VOX in the /usr/local/etc/direwolf/direwolf.conf file. The conf file itself is well documented in how to configure else consult the DireWolf online docs.

Because a number of factors go into a successful DireWolf setup with your transceiver, configuration discussion is deferred to the official DireWolf documentation.

Dump1090

During install you will be flashed with a message that dump1090 can be started automatically via an init-script. Otherwise, the init-script does nothing; you must run dump1090 by hand. Answer no when asked to Start dump1090 automatically? unless you are install the SIGpi node and that is your intent. Dump1090 runs a light HTTP server which could conflict with some SDR gui apps with APIs.

Flarq

Fast Light Automatic Repeat reQuest is a file transfer application that is based on the ARQ specification capable capable of transmitting and receiving frames of ARQ data via FLDIGI. Program data exchange between FLARQ and FLDIGI is accomplished using a localhost socket interface. The socket interface requires that one program act as the server and the other the client. FLARQ is a client program and FLDIGI is a server program. FLARQ will not execute unless FLDIGI is already running. See the online documentation for more info.

Fldigi

Fldigi is a modem program which supports many classic digital modes used by Amateur Radio operators today (CW, RTTY, MFSK, PSK31, and many others). It is used with a USB sound dongle as a simple two-way data modem connected to the microphone and headphone connections of an amateur radio SSB transceiver or an FM two way radio.

The RPi OS repo package is installed which is version 4.1.18 for RPi and 4.1.20 for Ubuntu 22.04. More information available from the online documentation For advanced RPi OS users, a build script is included to download and compile the most recent version 4.1.20. Remove the old package then install new

SIGpi remove fldigi
SIGpi install fldigi4120

GNUradio

For amd64, GNUradio 3.10.5 is installed from the GNUradio repo. For arm64, GNUradio 3.9.8 is compiled from source during installation. Have yet to identify issues in building GNUradio 3.10.X for arm64. Consult the online documentation for usage details.

JS8CALL

JS8Call is a derivative of the WSJT-X application, restructured and redesigned for message passing using a custom FT8 modulation called JS8. It is not supported by nor endorsed by the WSJT-X development group. Note that WSJT-X conflicts with JS8CALL given both use wsjtx-data package. It's installation will conflict with the WSJT-X application.

LinPAC

Packet radio terminal used for AX.25 commuications.

Kismet

When asked Should Kismet be installed with suid-root helpers? respond with default yes

SDRangel

While we have built packages from source to make the install quicker, the install script also generates the FFTW Wisdom file. This file is invoked as a startup option in the desktop icon/file for SDRangel to make the start much quicker. The cost of this is the time it takes to generate this file during install. At least 20 minutes for RPi4 it under 2 minutes for amd64 systems.

Xastir

Xastir is an application that provides geospatial mappng of APRS signals. It needs to configured to use the RF interface provided by DireWolf. You must start Direwolf in a separately terminal window before you start Xastir. Be sure to consult Xastir online documentation for more info.

Wireshark

When asked Should non-superusers be able to capture packets?, respond with the default no

WSJT-X

Since stable arm64 and amd64 packages are available from the WSJTX team, we opted to add WSJTX back in. Reminder, WSJT-X does not like being installed with JS8CALL given their common use of wsjtx-data package.

LimeSDR Suite

Features enabled/disabled on RPi4 install

-- ######################################################
-- ## LimeSuite enabled features
-- ######################################################
-- 
 * LimeSuiteHeaders, The lime suite headers
 * LimeSuiteLibrary, The lime suite library
 * ConnectionFX3, FX3 Connection support
 * ConnectionFTDI, FTDI Connection support
 * ConnectionXillybus, PCIE Xillybus Connection support
 * LimeSuiteGUI, GUI Application for LimeSuite
 * LimeSuiteExamples, LimeSuite library API examples
 * LimeRFE, LimeRFE support
 * LimeUtilCommand, Command line device discovery utility
 * LimeQuickTest, LimeSDR-QuickTest Utility
 * LimeSuiteDesktop, LimeSuite freedesktop integration
 * LimeSuiteOctave, LimeSuite Octave integration

-- ######################################################
-- ## LimeSuite disabled features
-- ######################################################
-- 
 * ConnectionEVB7COM, EVB+COM Connection support
 * ConnectionSTREAM_UNITE, STREAM+UNITE Connection support
 * ConnectionRemote, Remote Connection support for testing
 * ConnectionSPI, Rasp Pi 3 SPI Connection support10
 * SoapySDRLMS7, SoapySDR bindings for LMS7
 * LimeSuiteDocAPI, LMS API Doxygen documentation

-- Install prefix: /usr/local
-- Build timestamp: 2021-12-31
-- Lime Suite version: 20.10.0-g1480bfea
-- ABI/so version: 20.10-1
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /home/pi/SIG/source/LimeSuite/build-dir

SoapySDR