[yosyp]

Do you have any pointers/references for getting started with Software Defined Radios? i.e. the state of the art software, hardware, and common hobbyist applications? Any open source communities?

[tomswartz07]

Surely.

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ is a great site for updates on new hardware and software.

Most commonly, I use my SDR for: - Listening to ham (amateur) bands - Receiving NOAA/Meteor satellite images - Airplane tracking

There are quite a few other use cases, which I've outlined in several talks that I've presented at conferences over the years; https://github.com/tomswartz07/CPOSC2017/blob/master/Softwar...

[tomswartz07]

Additionally, to further point out, there's a giant, vibrant open source community around the SDR software.

SoapySDR/Pothos do great work, as well as the fine guy behind GQRX, the open-source SDR gui.