11th International Conference and Exposition on Electrical and Power Engineering (EPE 2020)
Low Cost System for Terrestrial Trunked Radio
Signals Monitoring Based on Software Defined Radio
Technology and Raspberry Pi 4
Robert Helbet
Departament of Electrotechnics and Measurements
Technical University
Cluj Napoca, Romania
Andrei Cristian Bechet
Departament of Electrotechnics and Measurements
Technical University
Cluj Napoca, Romania
Abstract—In the last years, Software Defined Radio (SDR)
platforms, as a result of the facilities offered, have become
attractive for applications in the field of electromagnetic field
monitoring. Present work aimed to implement a cheap
electromagnetic field monitoring system to trace signals specific to
the Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) standard and to check its
capabilities. The chosen solution is based on the ADALM-PLUTO
SDR platform controlled by a Raspberry Pi 4 device. Testing the
system demonstrated the following performances: 5.12 MHz
instantaneous acquisition band; dynamic range of the input signal
level between (-100…-30) dBm; 2.5 kHz frequency resolution;
portability and flexibility for use in outdoor environments; low
cost.
Keywords—Electromagnetic Spectrum Monitoring; Software
Defined Radio; Terrestrial Truncked Radio; ADALM-PLUTO;
Raspberry Pi 4
I. INTRODUCTION
Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology has recently
acquired a special interest among specialists in a wide range of
applications in the field of digital processing of radio signals [1].
The low price of SDR platforms makes them attractive and, as a
result, we can find a multitude of SDR solutions on the market.
The main parameters that define the figure of merit of an SDR
platform are: frequency range, analog-to-digital converter
(ADC) resolution and sampling frequency. The resolution of the
ADC will limit the sensitivity of the SDR platform for
measuring low level signals. The sampling frequency will limit
the ability of the platform to monitor broadband channels.
Current SDR platforms, even at reasonable prices, have
features such as: frequency range up to 6 GHz, 12-bit resolution
of the ADC and a sampling frequency of 20 MHz. A low cost
SDR device is RTL-SDR for which the maximum sampling
frequency is 3.2 MS/s, the resolution of the ADC is 8 bits and
the frequency range is (25 MHz -1.75 GHz) [2]. An SDR
platform at a reasonable price, but with acceptable performance
978-1-7281-8126-4/20/$31.00 ©2020 European Union
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Vasile Monda
Departament of Electrotechnics and Measurements
Technical University
Cluj Napoca, Romania
Paul Bechet
Departament of Communications, IT and Cyber Defense
“Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy
Sibiu, Romania
for a wide range of applications is ADALM-PLUTO [3]. The
main features of this platform are: frequency range (325 MHz -
3.8 GHz), 8-bit ADC and digital-to-analog converter (DAC)
resolution; up to 20 MHz instantaneous acquisition frequency
band; half or full duplex for one transmitter and for one receiver;
USB 2.0 powered interface [3].
Real-time processing capacity, flexibility in implementing
software applications and relatively low cost price make SDR
platforms attractive for electromagnetic spectrum monitoring
applications also [4]. In accordance with the Recommendations
of ITU R SM-2039, monitoring systems should extend their
functionality in several areas and not only in the frequency
domain [5]. A notable initiative is the one in the USA where the
government agencies National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), starting with 2013, have
developed new spectrum monitoring capabilities. Two main
objectives were targeted: the development of an infrastructure
for data acquisition following the monitoring of the
electromagnetic spectrum and the provision of these data in real
/ almost real time using Internet facilities; establishing and
training good practices in the field of electromagnetic spectrum
acquisition following the monitoring activity [6]. If NTIA
initially used spectrum analyzers that are relatively expensive,
especially for short-term measurements, the next intention was
to replace spectrum analyzers with SDR sensors. The relatively
low cost price of SDR creates the possibility of increasing their
number throughout the architecture, while maintaining
performance in terms of electromagnetic spectrum monitoring.
An SDR receiver is proposed by [7] for spectrum monitoring
and it had the following technical data: frequency range (9 kHz
– 3.5 GHz); noise figure 15 dB; 16-bit ADC resolution;
spectrum acquisition speed 1 GHz/s; instantaneous acquisition
band of at least 16 MHz. Various SDR solutions have been
implemented by the authors of present paper for accurately
assessing exposure to electromagnetic radiation [8], [9]. A
detailed study of two SDR platforms (Hack RF and USRP) in
their use to assess exposure to electromagnetic field emitted by
sources specific to 3G and 4G standards of communication is
presented in [8]. There it was proved that under certain
conditions, even an SDR platform with 8-bit ADC resolution
could provide measurements with an acceptable accuracy.
Current work is part of such approach and aims to use SDR
technology in the activity of monitoring the electromagnetic
field by implementing a low cost SDR platform to monitor
signals specific to the Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA)
standard of communication. TETRA is generally preferred by
government agencies and various emergency services [10]. An
SDR-type field monitoring system, due to its low price, provides
the possibility of increasing the number of monitoring sensors
throughout the architecture. In this way, problems of
electromagnetic interference or determination of radio coverage
in detail can be easily solved in real time.
Next, the paper is organized as follows: section II presents
the measurement system and the used procedure, in section III
the experimental results of the SDR platform testing during
TETRA signals measuring are presented and finally the
conclusions of the research are presented in section IV.
II. MATERIAL AND METHODS
From the perspective of electromagnetic field monitoring,
the main features of the TETRA standard are [11]: 25 kHz
Fig. 1. Software application developed in GNU Radio Companion that allows TETRA channel power measurement.
In order to measure the power of the TETRA channel, an
application was implemented in the GNU Radio environment
(Fig. 1). The application performs the following processing
operations of the TETRA signal: acquisition of an
instantaneous frequency band of 5 MHz on the central
frequency of 392.5 MHz (the entire TETRA downlink band is
acquired); displaying the spectrum and calculating the spectral
components of the entire 5 MHz band; selection of the
TETRA channel for which the power is to be measured;
calculating and displaying the power of the selected TETRA
channel. For the calculation of spectral components, the Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT) was implemented with a resolution
of 2048 points. Basically, the acquisition was made on a
bandwidth of 5.12 MHz, which means that the resolution
obtained for a 25 kHz TETRA channel is 10 points. The
selection of the TETRA channel is obtained by selecting the
10 points corresponding to the channel from the total of 2048
points of the FFT. For example, if you follow the selection of
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channel bandwidth; 200 channels in a 5 MHz frequency band; a
frequency-division duplex (FDD) system (between 380 MHz
and 385 MHz mobile station - MS and between 390 MHz and
395 MHz base station - BS). If we consider the access to the
TETRA services, we are interested about the signal coverage
provided by the BSs. Usually, a number of BSs can be accessed
inside one area. Therefore, the minimum requirements for a
monitoring system are: the acquisition of an instantaneous
frequency band of 5 MHz (390-395 MHz); measuring the power
of a 25 kHz bandwidth channel; the possibility of selecting the
TETRA channel whose power is to be measured.
In this paper we propose the implementation of a
measurement system based on the SDR platform ADALM –
PLUTO that owes technical sheet that meets the minimum
requirements of the monitoring system for TETRA [3] signals.
In addition, the cost is reasonable (less than $ 200). To achieve
the portability and flexibility needed to use the system outdoor,
the ADALM-PLUTO SDR module will be controlled using a
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B device that has a Broadcom 2711
processor with 64-bit Cortex A72 architecture, 1.5 GHz
frequency and 4 cores physical and a 4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM
[12]. The receiving antenna is an omni-directional broadband
OmiLOG 300800-Aaronia model, which has a gain of -6 dBi at
392.5 MHz.
the TETRA channel with the number 161, the points in the
FFT between 1634 and 1644 must be selected.
In the first stage, the monitoring system was amplitude-
calibrated by comparing its results with those obtained with a
Rohde & Schwarz FSH 6 spectrum analyzer used as reference,
which was set to the Channel Power measurement mode. A
test signal generated with the APSIN20G RF generator
(frequency range from 9 kHz to 20 GHz) was used for the
calibration, which was performed by directly connecting the
RF generator, by means of an RF cable (0.2 dB attenuation),
consecutively, to the two measuring systems. In Fig. 2 all the
elements used to calibrate the system are shown.
In the second stage, the system was tested by performing
measurements outdoor, by means of the antenna. A
measurement location was sought for which several TETRA
channels were captured, both with high and low levels.
 Fig. 2. Components of the experimental set-up used for laboratory
calibration.

In this way the dynamic range of the input signal level was Fig. 4. The power measured by FSH6 spectrum analyzer for a test signal
at frequency 391.2625 MHz and at level of -70 dBm.
tested. In Fig. 3 the experimental setup for the outdoor
measurement situation is presented.

Fig. 5. The power measured by the SDR system for a test signal at the
frequency of 391.2625 MHz (corresponding to the 50’th TETRA channel)
and at a level of -70 dBm.
Fig. 3. Components of the experimental set-up used during TETRA
signal outdoor measurements. TABLE I. COMPARATIVE RESULTS OBTAINED AFTER THE
CALIBRATION OF THE SDR MONITORING SYSTEM
Level of the
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Level of the signal
Level of the signal
measured by FSH 6
generated measured by
Calibration of the SDR monitoring system was performed signal [dBm] SDR System
Spectrum Analyzer
for an input signal of -70 dBm power. The test signal’s [dBm]
[dBm]
amplitude was chosen at around the center of the dynamic -30 -30,16 -30,35
range (which was between -105 dBm and -35 dBm). Fig. 4 -40 -40,16 -40,36
shows the power of the channel as measured by FSH6 -50 -50,15 -50,37
spectrum analyzer while Fig. 5 shows the channel power as -60 -60,22 -60,46
measured by ADALM-PLUTO SDR monitoring system. -70 -70,11 -70,31
-80 -80,12 -80,28
After establishing the amplitude-correction factors, the -90 -89,92 -89,56
calibration was checked for a test signal with a dynamic range -95 -94,55 -93,03
of the input level between -100 dBm and -30 dBm. The -100 -98,45 -95,20
measurement results are presented in Table I. Fig. 6, Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 indicate the results of the
It can be observed that for levels lower than -90 dBm the measurements performed by the experimental SDR system in
SDR system has an even better response than the FSH6 the outdoor environment and highlights the measured values
spectrum analyzer. This demonstrates the good sensitivity of for three captured TETRA channels: channel 11
the SDR system and shows its ability to measure low-level (390.2875MHz), channel 58 (391.4625 MHz) and channel
signals. In the case of outdoor measurements, the correction 155 (393.2875) respectively.
factors will also include the gain of the antenna.

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Fig. 6. Power of the TETRA 11 channel (390.2875 MHz) measured by SDR
system: -86.44 dBm.
Fig. 7. Power of the TETRA 58 channel (391.4625 MHz) measured by the
SDR system: -71.29 dBm.
Fig. 8. Power of the TETRA 155 channel (393.2875 MHz) measured by the
SDR system: -67.93 dBm.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
This paper investigates the possibility of using SDR
technology to implement an electromagnetic field monitoring
system to report the TETRA signals amplitude. The system is
based on an ADALM-PLUTO SDR platform which has a very
reasonable cost. For the portability and flexibility of the
system, necessary especially for measurements made
outdoors, the control of the ADALM-PLUTO module was
performed by means of a Raspberry Pi 4 device.
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Testing the SDR solution in both laboratory and outdoor
conditions has demonstrated the ability of the ADALM-
PLUTO system to accurately measure signal levels emitted in
the TETRA standard. Thus the system has the following
performances: instantaneous acquisition band of 5.12 MHz;
2.5 kHz frequency resolution (10 points per a 25 kHz TETRA
bandwidth channel); ability to accurately measure signals with
a dynamic range of the input signal between -100 dBm and -
30 dBm; the possibility of selecting the TETRA channel
whose power is measured.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We address our thanks to Analog Devices regional office
in Romania, for presenting us the ADALM-PLUTO module.
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