Often this is posted within forums, and as comments to articles about software defined radio. No matter what the post contains we often see something like this. "Hackers use DVB dongle to reveres engineer the 70's song Do The Hustle" ; and the first comment is something like this. Jeff6969 commented "How do i hack friendface with sdr PLZ".

Something tells me knowledgeable hackers, engineers, and the pope absolutely hate this type of comment. I know I hate seeing these when I'm trying to figure something out. Obviously these comments are posted by someone who hasn't done their homework, and if it's one thing I've noticed about the hacker community it's don't ask stupid questions. Personally I have found myself wanting to ask questions on forums, or articles but avoid doing so because even though I think my question is relevant it may be seen as just as stupid as the simulated post above. That and I hate having to go through an account creation to ask a question, and pray for a reply.

So you got an rtl-sdr eh?

I will assume you at least got it installed and went through driver madness, now your reading everything you can. However still a shadow of confusion hangs over your head. Discouraged you place your new toy in a shelf, and return to your seamonkey farm. Forgetting the fun you could of had, but due to so much information you couldn't get a stable idea of the Who, What, and why of the device. This was me, well kinda I don't have a seamonkey farm (The instructions got to complicated, and the forums i read informed me these aren't underwater primates as I had hoped). I returned to the sdr after a series of other project failures, and deceded f*** it i'm going to read EVERYTHING I CAN. Even if it was a series of trigonometry calculations that i couldn't even begin to understand I'm going to force myself to read it. I also saved up the $10 for the

The Hobbyist's Guide to the RTL-SDR: Really Cheap Software Defined Radio

Which $10 doesn't seem like much (Hell i forked out 12 for the sdr) but at the time I was stuck in a lease for an apartment i couldn't afford. I URGE you to buy this book, It slapped me and brought me from the depths of discouragement right back to the euphoria of hacking.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KCDF1QI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00KCDF1QI&linkCode=as2&tag=book0674-20&linkId=XHRIQAZC3JVLUJWM

That's the link... moving on

The "now what" is up to you, i guess i could have started with this statement. However I have ADD and never scored well on essay writing. So with this neat little DVB stick there are many possibility's

1. You can track aircraft.

• This seems like it's one of the most popular uses of the device. Personally I don't quite understand what's fun about tracking aircraft. However to each their own. I will cover this, and will attempt construction of a suitable antenna It is neat and a fun demonstration of it to your friends, though mine gave me a weird look and asked so?

2. Hear, and track trunked police, fire, and EMT radio conversations.

• Pretty neat, though I live in a small town so it grew old quick. After about 20 minutes of 2 police officers discussed a errant tire which was on a pubic road.

3. Hear FM radio

4. Discover weird a wild things transmitting.

• This is the closest thing to being an explorer as the average man can be. I often wish i was born in the 1700 because exploration seemed so accessible. The rf spectrum is tantamount to the sea of the 1700's, well not really; but it's ripe for discovery.