There are a few basic software packages or SDR that can be exceptionally handy and they don’t require much work to install, here’s a couple from gr-osmocom that are likely installed already if you are up and running already.

The osmocom spectrum browser, osmocom_fft, is nice and quick to use and should have been installed already as part of the gr-osmosdr package:

Another handy one that should also be available already is a signal generator, osmocom_siggen, that will allow you to generate some basic signals. Take care to make sure you are transmitting on a frequency you are allowed to, the application starts transmitting straight away so set the frequency on the command line. If you don’t exit it properly it will stick on transmit.

The sweep generated above with the HackRF received on a rtl-sdr dongle:

This was my first transmit test, so the HackRF transmits, yay 🙂

Another handy application is osmocom_spectrum_sense. This will give power readings for a frequency or within a range in the console so could be handy for quickly scanning or checking for a strong signal. It can be run over a range or on a single frequency with a 0 range. In the single example below we first get a reading of 15 from a broadcast fm station, the second reading of 2.7 is from 1mhz under the broadcast station where there is just noise.

2014-08-16 20:55:16.523750 center_freq 105650000.0 freq 101900000.0 power_db 15.5508674659 noise_floor_db -84.4425523316

2014-08-16 20:55:37.790722 center_freq 104650000.0 freq 100900000.0 power_db 2.76116236335 noise_floor_db -84.432340649