Tony is a Geek

Amstrad CPC PIO what? Well,  as posted previously: https://tonyisageek.blogspot.com/2023/04/amstrad-cpc-resurrections.html https://tonyisageek.blogspot.com/2023/04/cross-compiled-c-code-for-amstrad-cpc.html https://tonyisageek.blogspot.com/2023/05/amstrad-cpc-464-tape-deck-enhancement.html I have rekindled the old Amstrad CPC 464 (and 6128) memories from when I was a lot younger - and the CPC 464 was "the machine" that got me "into computers" way back in 1984/1985-ish. Having recently acquired a few and fixed up a few, I met a great electronics genius who helped to diagnose and fix one of the original CPC 464 mother boards, so it could live on again.  I learnt a lot and it rekindled my previous interest in the electronics side of things. Long story short, Rob, was also making standalone Z80 computer motherboards and basically making his own computers - which inspired me to obtain and put on the shelf ready for a rainy day or two to solder and make:  https://tonyisag...

well, that was acronym overload for you.. let me break it down: Airspy - https://airspy.com/ USB dongle to "listen to all the things" RPi = Raspberry Pi 4 - yes, they are back in stock & I just received a 4GB version.  Couldn't remember why I had it on back order, so I thought I would use it for this project anyway. RTL-SDR = Software Defined Radio - basically a USB stick that acts as a scanner of radio waves - but not just audio / digital too. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/ So what can you do with this? Well, you can run software that allows you to see what Plane transponders are broadcasting ADS-B around the 100+mile radius of where you are (if your antenna is good enough) - basically flightaware.com You can see what Ships are broadcasting AIS messages, albeit usually within a 25m radius - basically marinetraffic.com Basically, devices transmit encoded messages and we can pick them up from the SDR and decode them and work out the details that they contain an...