
Searching for fast radio bursts from the Milky Way with low-cost radio receivers - privong
https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.01475
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oakwhiz
I don't see the cell phone idea working simply because the raw data from the
radio receiver is not exposed to the user application. Similar for the FM
radio in cell phones - all you really get is the demodulated and processed
audio. Software defined radios have the best opportunity to work because they
have direct access to the RF samples in the time or frequency domain.
Unfortunately there is a cost associated with purchasing and running one, so
the operators of the experimental data collectors would have to be volunteers
willing to put in the resources. It's not as easy as installing an app, you
need a piece of hardware running all the time and the data must be processed
before uploading to the Internet.

~~~
avian
Some Wi-Fi hardware does allow access to signal before demodulation, for
debugging purposes or channel monitoring (e.g. [1]). But this is usually
limited in some way (e.g. you can only get a limited number of samples or FFT
bins).

The authors also talk about correlating such samples with GPS time with sub-
microsecond precision. This is most likely impossible. GPS receiver is
separate from the Wi-Fi interface and I doubt they share any kind of low-level
synchronization in a smartphone.

[1]
[https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/ath9k/spec...](https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/ath9k/spectral_scan)

