ExtIO_RTL

ExtIO plugin for use with HDSDR and other Winrad compatible programs on Windows, e.g. SDRuno.

This ExtIO plugin is a wrapper around librtlsdr, the main driver for RTL-SDR receiver devices (aka dongles).

Setup:

Simply put/copy the ExtIO_RTL.dll alongside to the SDR executable for HDSDR. Put/copy the ExtIO_RTL.dll into your 'Documents' folder for SDRuno. This dll is in the ExtIO_RTL_x32_v....zip file located at https://github.com/hayguen/ExtIO_RTL/releases, which has to be downloaded and unpacked first.

Zadig, the USB driver has to be installed and configured for the RTL device(s).

The ExtIO dll is a static build - including librtlsdr. Other DLLs or dependencies are NOT necessary.

Additional features with v2023 and later releases

• enhanced features for R860 or R820T/2 and also R828D tuners:
  • Narrow tuner bandwidths - downto ~ 300 kHz - improving dynamic and 'sensivity' by removing unnecessary signals
  • Band Center configuration to get rid of the received DC from the 'signal of interest'
  • Tune USB band: mirroring the spectrum - switches the band corner, where the steeper low pass filter is applied
  • RF gain: controls LNA and mixer
  • IF gain: controls VGA - with feedback from RTL2832U in case of enabled AGC
  • supports the RTL-SDR blog V4 dongle - based on the R828D tuner and including an HF upconverter. see https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-blog-v4-dongle-initial-release/
  • note: keep the IF-AGC / Auto-VGA off for R828D based tuners: it often produces 'pumping'
• explicit Bias Tee and GPIO controls in the GUI
• band configurations enabled by editing rtl_sdr_extio.cfg in your %USERPROFILE% directory
  • default/demo configuration is generated at first start
  • it's disabled by default
  • should be self-explanatory with comment lines
• control Impulse Noise Cancellation function of RTL2832U. this sound very interesting - especially on HF frequencies

Known issue(s)

• the comboboxes' list popup doesn't show up on some SDR programs
  • use mouse-wheel or cursor up/down keys to select other available entries, e.g. for tuner bandwidth

History / Source

• Original code from jorgem-seq/ExtIO_RTL, which was derived from josemariaaraujo/ExtIO_RTL
• refactored a lot and took much from extio_rtl_tcp
• removed makefiles and added cmake support to compile with Visual Studio 2019
• added all required libraries as submodules
• added github action for automatic build

Clone with submodules to automatically retrieve libusb, pthread-win32 and librtlsdr from git bash:

git clone -b cmake_github_action --recursive https://github.com/hayguen/ExtIO_RTL.git

Manual compilation from Visual Studio 2019 Command Prompt:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" -A Win32 -S ExtIO_RTL -B build_ExtIO_RTL
cmake --build build_ExtIO_RTL --config Release --target ExtIO_RTL
cmake --build build_ExtIO_RTL --config Release --target rtl_tools

A pre-built binary should be available in github Actions.

LICENSE

GPL-2.0, see LICENSE file