SDR Practical Applications is a hands-on course that teaches students practical field techniques to use low cost software defined radios in constrained conditions. Focusing on commercial off the shelf (COTS) equipment and open source software, students will use SDR radios for signal reception, spectrum analysis, recording, and controlled RF experimentation. Using the RTL-SDR, HackRF Pro, Raspberry Pi platforms, and open-source tools such as SDR++, GQRX, SDRangel, and Universal Radio Hacker, students learn SDR configuration, tuning, filtering, modulation and demodulation, IQ recording, and custom receiver design.

Students apply these skills to practical field-oriented tasks, including analog audio and video reception, signal analysis, portable spectrum monitoring, and Raspberry Pi–based collection systems. Instructor-controlled labs also explore the capture and analysis of simple fixed-code remote-control transmissions, giving participants a foundation for building effective SDR collection and analysis workflows.