Reception of one-segment broadcasting with GNU Radio and gr-isdbt on VirtualBox with vagrant

category: experiment

The virtual machine automatic configuration software vagrant automatically acquires and sets up image files such as Linux by simply writing a text file. GNU Radio is a freeware that realizes software radio, but in order to introduce modules such as gr-isdbt, compilation from source program using pyboms is necessary. In addition, although GNU Radio author does not recommend to use GNU Radio on a virtual machine from the point of performance view. But I would like to use GNU radio on a virtual machine, because GNU radio depends heavily on other software. Therefore, I tried to receive one-segment broadcasting using GNU Radio on Linux (debian) on VirtualBox, a virtual machine software, using vagrant.

gr-isdbt on Virtual Box

Typing vagrant up from the terminal of the Mac which introduced vagrant, you can set up software almost automatically including steps of downloading Debian image, compiling GNU Radio and gr-isdbt. By connecting a dongle for receiving DVB-T made by RTL-SDR.com to the PC and doing a bit of additional setup manually, I could receive one-segment broadcasting.

Vagrantfile is as follows.