I was recently successful in installing rtl-sdr on my Linux Mint laptop. I was not able to get it to work in Navigatrix.
I was able to use the product below to monitor VHF 16 using the laptop.
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1254300 Using these how-tos:
http://blogs.bu.edu/mhirsch/2012/07/get ... in-ubuntu/ http://de8msh.blogspot.com/search/label/RTL-SDR http://kmkeen.com/rtl-demod-guide/index.html I failed a few times but finally got it to install on Linux Mint. I'm not sure I can replicate it, the software is not user friendly.
The command that receives VHF 16 is as follows:
sudo rtl_fm -W -f 156.75M -l 36 -g 49.6 -s 200000 -r 48000 | aplay -r 48k -f S16_LE
You will have to adjust -f (frequency). Nominally the frequency for VHF16 is 156.8M, however I calibrated my setup by trial and error and found the best reception 0.05M lower than the nominal frequency.
The -l is the squelch level, which will change based on background noise that day.
-g is gain, which should be set at the highest result returned from rtl_test.
So far I have tested using my own VHF handheld in tx mode. I need to make an antenna. A vertical dipole with legs of 18" should work. My plan is to solder two 18" wires to the board and to use a usb male to female extension cord to put the board up in the air. Another option is to use the supplied coax and cut the coating back 18" and pull the shielding one way and the inner wire the other. Or solder a wire to the shielding, if it is foil, which I suspect.
If this is reliable, it would be a good way to monitor 16. If I am running OpenCPN anyway, might as well use the laptop to monitor 16 too. rtl-sdr should also be able to scan frequencies, for example 9 - 13 - 16 - 22. It should also pick up weather VHF stations.
Here are my notes from trying to install on Navigatrix:
# Installing rtl_sdr to receive VHF 16
sudo apt-get update
#
http://blogs.bu.edu/mhirsch/2012/07/get ... in-ubuntu/# de8msh.blogspot.com/2012/09/rtl-sdr-toolbox-on-linux-based-os.html
# note:error in de8msh webpage: build-essential has no s at the end
# I did this but it is for the full gnuradio install, might have been a mistake
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake git-core libboost-all-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev python-scitools portaudio19-dev -y
# mhirsch's install:
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev git cmake
# make a directory to hold source files and move to it
cd ~
mkdir rtl-sdr
cd rtl-sdr
#get the rtl-sdr software
git clone
git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git#note: this created a second rtl-sdr directory in the ~/rtl-sdr directory. I moved the files to the ~/rtl-sdr directory
# make a build directory and move to it
mkdir build
cd build
#you should now be in ~/rtl-sdr/build with all the rtl_sdr git files in ~/rtl-sdr
# install the rtl-sdr software
sudo cmake ../
sudo make
sudo make install
# make rtl files executable
chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/rtl*
#getting lib errors so see if this fixes it:
chmod a+x /usr/local/lib/librtlsdr.so.0.5git
The error that I see on terminal is:
rtl_test: error while loading shared libraries: librtlsdr.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
I am wondering if anyone has suggestions as to how to get this to work.