Michael’s newest creation, the HackRF, is an absolute revolution in low-cost software defined radio (SDR). We’ve reported in the past on the latest trend of using create cheap SDR receivers with re-purposed USB TV tuners (RTL-SDR), and while those projects have offered an incredible amount of capability for the cost (usually around $20 USD), they absolutely pale in comparison to the HackRF.
To start with, the HackRF has a much higher frequency range than any of the other SDR devices in its price range. Most RTL-SDR devices can receive between 50 MHz and 2200 MHz, with a gap in the 1000-1200 MHz area. This represents a lot of interesting areas to explore, but falls just shy of the high frequency ranges used by consumer technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi. But the HackRF can operate from 30 MHz all the way up to 6000 MHz, an absolutely unheard of upper limit for a consumer-level SDR device.