Intro to SDR
At Scales University, the Software Defined Radio course is built as a no-bullshit, tradecraft, doctoral-style training program for beginner to intermediate radio enthusiasts who want to move from curiosity to operational competence. This course isn’t about fluff or surface-level tutorials — it’s designed with rigor, built on evidence-driven methods, and sharpened with practical, hands-on labs that produce real results. You’ll master over ten core competencies in the field of SDR, from fundamental RF theory to advanced toolchains like SDRPP, SDR-Trunk, SDRangel, and Universal Radio Hacker. Each module is structured to give you both the “why” and the “how” so you can confidently move from installation and setup to live signal hunting, decoding, and replay.
The curriculum is intentionally tradecraft-focused and doctoral in its approach. Every topic follows a repeatable pattern — hypothesis, method, experiment, and result — ensuring you develop both conceptual understanding and real operational capability. Labs are designed like field playbooks, giving you step-by-step procedures for capturing, decoding, and analyzing signals. You’ll learn how to troubleshoot SDR hardware and Windows drivers with error-proof workflows, configure SDRPP for scanning and waterfall analysis, recognize and triage different signal types in the wild, and set up SDR-Trunk for trunked radio analysis and talkgroup extraction. Beyond that, you’ll move into advanced configurations with SDRangel and SDRangel DSD Voice, and you’ll gain practical experience in URH by capturing, decoding, and replaying signals in controlled lab environments.
This isn’t just about tool usage — it’s about building operational literacy. You’ll study RF theory, spectrum literacy, and modulation recognition so you can think like an analyst in the field. You’ll master capture logging, chain-of-custody practices, and automation with Python to ensure your work is reproducible, auditable, and future-proof. The course also covers the critical dimension of ethics, legality, and operational security so you know exactly where the line is and how to stay on the right side of it while practicing your craft.
The format is straightforward and focused. You get concise, citation-rich lectures supported by lab-first exercises that force you to apply knowledge immediately. You’ll have access to reproducible lab kits with drivers, configs, and step-by-step instructions, plus templates and checklists for every stage of the process — from setting up an SDR to drafting an incident report. Community engagement is a core pillar: you’ll participate in peer review, office hours, and graded capstone work that mirrors the rigor of a doctoral defense. Your capstone project will require you to plan, collect, analyze, and present real data, producing both a dossier and a professional-grade briefing.
By the end of this course, you will be able to confidently install and troubleshoot SDR hardware, identify at least 15 common signal types, configure multi-stream capture and voice extraction in SDRangel and SDR-Trunk, and execute capture-to-replay workflows in URH. More importantly, you’ll walk away with repeatable lab artifacts, published reports, and playbooks you can use in real-world operational or research environments. This isn’t certification wallpaper; it’s competence you can prove.
SDR technology evolves rapidly, which is why Scales University pairs academic rigor with applied agility. Alongside the structured curriculum, you’ll gain access to an ongoing intelligence community and monthly intel briefs that update labs, add challenges, and keep you ahead of changes in the field. You won’t graduate into silence — you’ll remain connected to a living, breathing ecosystem of operators.
Enrollment is simple. Even though it’s 100-minutes of detailed instruction it should take 4-6 hours, of self-study research, and have a duration 2 weeks, equip yourself with an RTL-SDR (or higher-grade hardware), a Windows 10/11 system, and basic Python readiness, and you’ll have everything you need to succeed. The content is short but detailed. Make sure to pay attention to the materials list. This is a no-fluff, results-driven training program designed to transform your curiosity into operational skill. If you want serious competence in software defined radio, if you want playbooks you can use tomorrow, and if you’re ready to cut the guesswork, then join the Software Defined Radio program at Scales University. No bullshit. No fluff. Just skill, community, and tradecraft mastery.
