Chapter 03 · Typical hobby uses

What you can listen to and decode

One of the joys of SDR is variety. With the right receiver and antenna, a hobby listener can explore an enormous range of signals — here are some of the most popular:

  • Broadcast radio — long, medium and shortwave stations from around the world
  • Amateur (ham) signals — voice, CW and digital conversations across the bands
  • Ship-to-shore communications — maritime voice and data
  • Aircraft ADS-B — decode and map aircraft positions overhead
  • FT8 & FT4 decoding — the hugely popular weak-signal digital modes
  • Other digital modes — a whole world of data signals to decode
  • Weather data — facts and imagery from weather services and satellites
  • Amateur satellites — listen to signals from orbiting amateur payloads
  • Television — experiment with broadcast signal reception
  • Slow Scan TV (SSTV) — decode pictures sent over the air
  • CW & Morse code — the timeless art of the dits and dahs

Each of these is a rabbit hole in its own right. Many listeners start with broadcast and amateur signals, then discover the addictive fun of decoding — watching aircraft appear on a map, or FT8 contacts roll in from across an ocean on a tiny signal you can barely hear.