It would be very difficult for me to find an outdoor location and deploy an antenna that would outperform my home setup. Truth is, though, I haven’t had time to tinker with the PortaPack at all as I’ve been so busy with family life, travels and doing other reviews.Īlso, I rarely do field spectrum recordings because I’m lucky enough to live at a site that has little to no radio interference. After all, it must be the most compact, all-in-one solution for doing field spectrum recordings. I had planned to use the PortPack as a means to do field SDR recordings and do a full review. I suspect it’ll require a little tinkering to open and playback the file in another SDR application. The PortPack writes the recording as a basic IQ file. Why? Well, among many other things, you can do spectrum recordings natively and save them to a MicroSD card. I fell in love with the PortPack H1 and purchased it on the spot at the Hamvention. The only time an external computer is necessary is to reprogram the firmware. The PortaPack firmware runs on the fast ARM processors in the HackRF.

When you add power via the USB port (or using a USB battery pack) you can utilize many HackRF features without needing a computer or tablet. In essence, the PortaPack H1 is a shield that attaches to the HackRF and adds a touchscreen LCD, navigation controls, headphone jack, real-time clock, micro SD card slot, and custom aluminum case. While I’m sure a number of readers are familiar with the HackRF One SDR, I doubt many will be familiar with the PortaPack H1, which I found to be one of the more exciting innovations showcased at the 2016 Hamvention. The Portapack H1 was installed on the HackRF One by its designer Jarod (see below). I purchased these new at the 2016 Dayton Hamvention–the HackRF One was purchased at the TAPR booth and the PortaPack H1 at the Sharebrained Technology booth. HackRF One and PortPack H1 comboįirst up is my HackRF One and Portapack H1 field-portable receiver and spectrum sampling package. Know that funds from your purchase will help SWLing Post running costs and will be used to purchase future review units. I’ll plan to post these on the SWLing Post before placing them on something like eBay. I’m selling radios and accessories I no longer use or need for comparison reviews. It’s time to thin the herd! Over the coming weeks, I’m planning to liquidate some gear here at the SWLing Post HQ.

Hackrf one