Hackrf One Windows 10

  • HackRF one with SDRangel under Windows 10 #windows. Thierry F4EWI #385. I installed SDR Console V3 and my HackRF One had be seen at the frist running.
  • HackRF One from Great Scott Gadgets is a Software Defined Radio peripheral capable of transmission or reception of radio signals from 1MHz to 6 GHz. Designed to enable test and development of modern and next generation radio technologies, HackRF One is an open source hardware platform that can be used as a USB peripheral or programmed for stand.
Hi,

If you are using Windows XP, download and run theXP version from this page. In Zadig, go to “Options-List All Devices” and make sure this option is checked. Select “ Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0) ” or HackRF one from the drop down list.


So finally I got my very own HackRF One!

While I was waiting for the order to arrive, I started to learn about how to use the HackRF One and all instructions I found online pointed to one basic fact: you need to have Linux to fully use the HackRF One.

Hackrf One Windows 10

The problem is that I currently have only Windows 10 installed on my computers, because most programs I use, are only available for this operating system.

Hackrf One Windows 10 Software


For the casual Linux use, I droped having a dedicated Linux partition and instead started to use Ubuntu inside a virtual machine. Using the free VirtualBox has been a great experience, as it works really well.
However, I discovered that for HackRF One, the bandwidth of the virtual USB port is simply not enough. While you can in fact use the HackRF inside a virtual Linux box, performance is not ideal. It does work, but don't expect to TX/RX the full 20MHz.OneWindows
I tried my luck with Pentoo, a Linux distribution on DVD that has everything radio related pre-installed. It does work, but again there was a slight annoyance: I am used to my SSD, which is really fast and I use three monitors to have plenty of desktop space. With Pengoo, everything loads from DVD and that is really slow! Also, all three monitors show the same content with a lower resolution that would be possible.
And so I ended up giving GNU Radio for Windows a shot and guess what: it works actually amazingly well!
How to set it up? Look here: https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/WindowsInstall
And yes, you get FULL HackRF One support, commands like 'hackrf_transfer' are available and work.
I did a first test with my new HackRF One and this image shows the capture of a few seconds of just 2MHz:

Soon I ended up recording 20MHz bandwidth (basically the whole FM band in one go) and then transmitted it at 160MHz centre frequency... Why? Because I can!

Hackrf One On Windows 10

The spectrum analyzer shows how it looks like...

Hackrf One Windows 10 Driver



...and my Uniden Bearcat UBC9000XLT could perfectly receive the relayed FM stations! Simply amazing!
Now I need to learn more about GNU Radio - it is an amazing piece of software!
So here is a prrof of concept that you can use the HackRF One with Windows, as opposed to basically all quick start instructions I have found.

Hackrf One Windows 10

Hackrf one on windows 10
Cheers,
Vitor