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Command line utilities - pg2-rx

libpg2sdr includes pg2-rx, a command-line utility that configure a ProStick Gen 2 to receive data, then streams sample data to stdout or a file in one of a few different formats.

When installed from Debian packages, pg2-rx is installed as part of the pg2sdr-tools package.

Command line syntax

In general, pg2-rx is used like this:

pg2-rx -f FREQUENCY -r RATE [options] FILENAME

FILENAME is the file to write samples to, or '-' to write to stdout.

Options that accept frequencies or sample rates understand k and M suffixes, e.g. -f 978.0M to use a center frequency of 978MHz.

Device selection

pg2-rx operates on a single device at a time. If there is only one ProStick Gen 2 connected, it will use that device automatically. If there is more than one ProStick Gen 2 connected, you must provide command-line options to select exactly one device:

  • -s, --serial selects a device with a serial number starting with the given prefix. This only works for devices that have loaded firmware; it does not work for devices in recovery mode.

  • -p, --port selects a device by the physical USB port it is connected to.

USB port identifiers consist of a USB bus number, and then the path from the bus root port through any USB hubs to the particular connected port. The port numbering should usually stay the same unless the physical connection path from the host to the device changes (e.g. device is moved to a different physical USB port, or a USB hub is added or removed)

The simplest way to find the USB port for a device is to look at the "Port" line in the output of pg2-util device-info.

For example, given this device-info output:

Port 1-11:
  Device type:          ProStick Gen 2
  Serial number:        386297DBD86461DC
  [.. etc ..]

That device could be selected by passing -s 386297 or -p 1-11

RF options

These options configure RF tuning, ADC capture, and DSP postprocessing:

  • -f, --frequency - set center frequency (i.e. the RF frequency that will appears at 0Hz in output), in Hz
  • -r, --rate - set sampling rate, in Hz
  • -g, --gain - set total gain, in dB
  • -b, --bandwidth - set bandpass filter bandwidth, in Hz
  • -d, --decimation - set integer number of divide-by-2 decimation steps, or auto (see library API docs)
  • -u, --undersampling - set undersampling mode (see library API docs)
  • -a, --adc-limit - set ADC sampling rate limit in Hz
  • -i lower, `--sideband=lower - select lower-sideband tuning (captured sideband < tuner LO)
  • -i upper, --sideband=upper - select upper-sideband tuning (captured sideband > tuner LO)

Output format options

  • -m baseband, --mode=baseband (default setting) - produce complex-valued baseband samples, two values (real and imaginary, I and Q) per sample.

  • -m lowif, --mode=lowif - produce real-valued samples without conversion to baseband (i.e. ADC output, scaled but otherwise untransformed), one value per sample

  • -o FMT, --output=FMT - set the output data type to FMT, one of:

    • int16 - signed 16-bit integers (default setting), scaled to [-32768, +32767]
    • uint8 - unsigned 8-bit integers, scaled to [0, 255] (like the librtlsdr native format)
    • float32 - signed 32-bit floating-point (IEEE-754 binary32), scaled to (-1.0, +1.0)
    • float64 - signed 64-bit floating-point (IEEE-754 binary64), scaled to (-1.0, +1.0)

Capture length options

These options control how many samples are captured. If neither option is given, capture continues until interrupted by a signal / control-C:

  • -t, --time-limit - stop capture after a given duration (in seconds)
  • -n, --sample-limit - stop capture after a given number of samples

General options

  • -q, --quiet - suppress informational messages, show errors only
  • -v, --verbose - generate additional debugging messages
  • -h, --help - show option help