Frequency Deviation Measurement with an RTL-SDR Dongle
A PC Computer and RTL-SDR Dongle as a Signal Spectrum
Analyzer
by Dr. Carol F. Milazzo, KP4MD (posted 15 April 2018)
E-mail: [email protected]
This article describes in detail how to setup an RTL-SDR
dongle or other low cost software defined radio together
with free and low cost software to measure the frequency
deviation of an FM transmitter using the Bessel Zero
method.
and a sine wave audio source of known frequency and
adjustable amplitude (1200 Hz in the example).
Visual Analyser's software sine wave generator may
suffice with adequate attenuation and isolation between
the computer line output and the transmitter.
Virtual Audio
Cable. This application pipes the
demodulated audio stream from SDRSharp directly to the
Visual Analyser program through software. Download
and purchase from https://vac.muzychenko.net/en/
Under the Source tab select "RTL-SDR/USB" in the drop
down box.
Click the Gear icon on the top menu to open the
Configure pop-up window.
Select the RTL Device and choose Sample Rate 0.25 MSPS
for greatest detail, uncheck both AGC boxes, then click
"Close"
Set SDRSharp to the same frequency as the transmitter
by clicking on the top or bottom of each digit on the
frequency display on the top menu.
Under the Radio Tab click Radio button "NFM", type
"20000" in bandwidth, Select Step size 10 kHz, uncheck
the Squelch box.
Under the Audio Tab select Line 1 (Virtual Audio
Cable) in the Output drop down box and uncheck the
Filter Audio box.
Scroll down to FFT Display tab and select Spectrum
Analyzer in the View drop down box, then click "OK".
Scroll down to Zoom FFT tab and uncheck all the boxes.
Visual Analyser Setup
Install Visual Analyser
Run Visual Analyser
Check the "Values" box to the right of the top scope
display.
Click the Settings Button on the top menu to open the
Settings pop-up window
Select the Device tab, and Select Line 1 (Virtual
Audio Cable) in the Input device drop down box.
In the video I had also activated the "Freq Meter"
button to display the modulating tone frequency.
Set the RF Gain on SDRSharp
The SDR receiver can be damaged by applying excess RF power
to its antenna connector. Use the lowest transmitter
power possible during testing. The RTL-SDR may pick up
sufficient off the air signal directly though its plastic
case or with a short pickup wire in its antenna
connector. Alternatively, you may couple signal from
the transmitter to the RTL-SDR through an appropriate dummy
load and attenuator.
Click the right arrow icon to start SDRSharp.
Slide the Zoom slider to widen the shaded area to fill
most of the display window. You should display
about 30 kHz.
While the transmitter is off, adjust the "Range"
slider to lower the trace so it remains visible at the
bottom of the display.
Key the transmitter with no modulation and observe the
height of the peak in the center of the display.
If the trace appears to shoot above the top of the
display, stop SDRSharp, click the Gear icon on the top
menu to open the Configure pop-up window, and slide the
RF Gain slider a bit to the left, close the Configure
pop-up window, start SDRSharp again and return to step
3.
Repeat these adjustments as necessary so that the
trace fills most of the display like the picture on the
right while transmitting without modulation.
Set the Audio Output Level on SDRSharp
Click on the 3 horizontal bar icon in SDRSharp to hide
the drop down settings.
Resize SDR and Visual Analyser windows to display them
side by side.
Start SDRSharp and click the "On" button in Visual
Analyser.
While the transmitter is off, adjust the Volume slider
in SDRSharp (between the Speaker icon and the Frequency
digits) towards the right. Once you reach the
point where the random waveform in the upper scope
window no longer increases in vertical size, stop and
slide the Volume slider back about 3 dB.
Transmit an unmodulated signal (CTCSS also off) on the
receiver frequency and the oscilloscope trace waveform
should display a flat horizontal line that is vertically
centered on the zero reference line. If the unmodulated
carrier wave trace on the scope is above or below the
zero reference line, adjust the Frequency correction
(ppm) setting in the SDRSharp Configure pop-up window to
center it onto the zero line.
If there is significant random noise on the scope trace
of the unmodulated signal, adjust the RF gain slider in
the SDRSharp Configure pop-up window for minimal noise
and use the SDRSharp Range and Offset sliders to resize
and fit the RF spectrum display in the window.
By varying the transmitter 5 kHz on either side of
the carrier frequency you may carefully adjust the
SDRSharp audio output level, the Visual Analyzer Ch A(L)
Zoom setting and the Settings > Scope > Scope >
Scope grid > Y divisions so that each major vertical
division corresponds to one kHz of frequency
displacement. The peak frequency deviation of a
modulated signal could then be directly estimated from
a reading off the scope grid.
SDRSharp and Visual Analyser are now properly adjusted to
begin the Bessel Zero calibration as demonstrated in the
video. You may use the "Audio Repeater" program under the
Virtual Audio Cable in the Windows Start Menu to monitor
the demodulated audio through the computer speakers. Set
the Wave In to Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable) and the Wave
Out to the speaker device and click the "Start" button to
listen.
Calibrate the Frequency Deviation
To calibrate your frequency deviation measurements, feed a
pure sine wave of known frequency to the audio input of the
transmitter preferably through a dedicated data port jack,
if available, to bypass the FM speech 6 dB/octave pre-emphasis
circuits and to avoid overload distortion in the sensitive
microphone preamplifier circuit.
In the video, the amplitude of the 1200 Hz sine wave is
slowly increased from zero until a null appears on the
carrier frequency. This null, called a Bessel Zero, occurs at various
predicted modulation indices (2.4, 5.52, 8.66, etc) where
the Modulation Index is defined as the peak frequency
deviation divided by the modulating frequency.
For a 1200 Hz sine wave modulating tone, the first Bessel
Zero occurs at a frequency deviation of ±2.88 kHz as 2.4 =
2.88 kHz/1.2 kHz. Likewise, a 1250 Hz modulating tone
would display its Bessel Zero at ±3 kHz frequency deviation,
etc.
In the video, the oscilloscope indicates a Peak to peak
(%fs) value of 54.3% at the first Bessel Zero, this
amplitude then corresponds to ±2.88 kHz deviation.
For this calibration, the peak-to-peak amplitude is observed
to equal the frequency deviation multiplied by a constant
factor of 18.9, that is, P-P%= FreqDev × (54.3÷2.88) =
FreqDev × 18.9. Using the constant factor, we can prepare
this table that lists the peak to peak amplitude measurement
for each corresponding frequency deviation.
Confirm the calibration by transmitting an unmodulated
signal 5 kHz above, then 5 kHz below the center frequency.
This should raise or lower the horizontal trace away from
the zero reference by the same amount as predicted for ±5
kHz frequency deviation.
Frequency Deviation
P-P Amplitude
±1 kHz
19%
±2 kHz
38%
±3 kHz
57%
±4 kHz
75%
±5 kHz
94%
You must perform this calibration and determine the constant
factor for your setup in order to accurately correlate the
trace amplitude with the peak frequency deviation.