I'm not going to comment on the first part since all of that data is readily available, in real-time, on various Internet sites already. No need for a radio. A

I'm not going to comment on the first part since all of that data is readily available, in real-time, on various Internet sites already. No need for a radio. As to the question about the radios in cell phones the answer is yes and no. Yes a lot of modern baseband are nothing more than an SDR, but that's only part if the issue. The other issue is getting appropriate signal levels into and out of that device. For that you need specific filters and antennas for the frequencies you want to receive and transmit. For example, an LTE baseband can work on any of the LTE frequencies (and then some) but specific handsets will have filters for the appropriate region the handset is sold in. While you can change these it's just easier and cheaper to use something like a USRP. If your interested in radio at all I suggest you start liking into ameture radio. There's still a ton of interning tinkering with everything from Morse code to data communications from 3MHz all the way into the hundreds of GHz frequencies.