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  1. REPODON

    REPODON QRZ Member

    Does anyone know anything about these new RTL-SDR dongle systems?
    They are so inexpensive(like $20), they seem almost too good to be true.
    I know one person who says they are a legit listening experience.
    Would appreciate if anyone out there knows anything about them.
    Thanks
    Repo
     
  2. PA3GCJ

    PA3GCJ Ham Member QRZ Page

    What do yu want to know
    Rtl2832 dvb sticks make a great (cheap) shortwave receiver indeed
     
  3. KA9JLM

    KA9JLM Ham Member QRZ Page

    A Version 3 (V3) works very good and is metal, Not plastic.

    $20 on Amazon
     
  4. VA3VF

    VA3VF Guest

    Provided you keep your expectations in check, they are an excellent intro to SDR, and do a decent job in a number of areas.

    I have a number of them doing different things. I just setup an ACARS receiving station. Also have an ADS-B receiving station, and an FT8 feeder. For ADS-B only, you are better off with the Flightaware version.

    If you are open to suggestions, go with the RTL-SDR Blog V3 R820T2 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO SMA Software Defined Radio (Dongle Only).

    https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/
     
  5. KC8VWM

    KC8VWM Ham Member QRZ Page


    I have one of these:

    [​IMG]

    These are on eBay for around $25. Unlike other dongles, these are BOTH a V/UHF and an HF receiver. They cover everything from 100 KHz though 1.7 GHz.

    On VHF/ UHF they are actually pretty good. Even the supplied antenna will pick up many signals without much effort at all.

    However, signals on HF is an entirely different matter.

    You need to understand these "toys" are not going to be as sensitive as a regular portable shortwave radio or anything like that. They are just a very crude HF receiver design and it lacks the circuitry to make it a very sensitive receiver. Think of these like a crystal radio set and the better your antenna is, the more signals you will be able to pick up sort of thing.

    With a good outdoor antenna they will actually get all the stronger signals in, but don't expect miracles. You're not going to be "DX'ing" for any weak signals with this thing. lol

    One thing that does help a lot is an external preamp. I had this Radio Shack preamp made for boosting TV signals laying in the junk box doing nothing and just for kicks I tried it out as a preamp.

    [​IMG]

    I was actually surprised to find out this pre-amplifier actually works down to around 3 MHz and it actually does improve signals by quite a bit. Makes reception almost as good as a really cheap portable shortwave radio. I'm thinking other TV preamps like this one might work too. So if you have one, try it out and see what happens. :) They work on V/UHF signals too!

    SDR Sharp is the software you will need to use with these. Here's the website to download the SDR software: https://airspy.com/download/

    There's "two sides" to these RTL-SDR's. One side is the VHF/UHF radio and the other side is an HF radio. In the software, you will be using it as two separate receivers too. When listening to VHF/UHF you will have to configure sampling modes differently. VHF/UHF will be set to "Quadrature sampling" in the software settings. When using it for HF reception you will need to change the software settings to "Direct Sampling (Q Branch)" like this:

    RTL-SDR.jpg

    Once you get the hang of things, you will find out they are actually quite a bit of fun to play around with.

    If you get stuck on anything, just ask and I will try to help.

    73 de Charles KC8VWM
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2018
  6. KL7KN

    KL7KN Ham Member QRZ Page

    Was vising my son (WL7OP) last week. After we tried working a couple of HAMSATs, he ordered one of the $20 dongles (and an antenna kit) from Amazon, it arrived the same day.

    He spun up a virtual machine, loaded a LINUX core and had the thing running in under an hour. He then loaded up a couple of prediction programs and we had a lot of fun seeing what we could hear with a minimal antenna and the dongle.

    As noted the V3 is HF capable, but your software has to support the V3 hardware.

    Hey, for the price of a couple of hamburgers, you will have a wideband RX with panadapter and multiple formats to play with - and maybe learn something along the way....
     
  7. VE3CGA

    VE3CGA XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    I've got one of these V3 dongles. It replaced my scanner. It does a great job. I pick up and decode with free software: digital like P25- etc, decode pagers, decode wx satellites, listen to any vhf/uhf FM. I use it when I'm on the Ham satellites. It does a fair job on HF. Using it I heard my first 50MHZ on an openning.
    I use HDSDR and SDRSHARP. Both are good. They have a setup where you can use the "Q" signal to decode lower than 30MHZ.
    The only antenna I have on it is the Quadrifilar helix I made for 137MHZ.
    The only issue is digital noise from electronics. This supposidly can be fixed with filters.
    I find it to be a useful tool. I have it working on Linux mint, XP and win7. Linux uses GQRX.

    73's Bob
     
  8. VE3CGA

    VE3CGA XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    sorry I had to run to get the noaa19 image.
    I do get some overloading from a close by pager and other VHF radios that drive by on the road behind my property like school buses, Fire dept or other close proximity radios. This again could be possibly fixed with some preselector or filter.
    NOAA-19-2018-03-30-06-51-mcir.jpg
    this is a IR image from minutes ago. Not enough sun light for the visible yet. There is no comentary or embelishment with this broadcast hi hi
    Have a look at RTLSDR.com for programs, ideas and other SDR dongles. I dont use it much for HF but I've decoded all our digital modes with it and looked at LF beacons.
    test.jpg
    this is from meteor - n - 2 It has hi res imaging. I dont know if you will be able to zoom in but you can see the ice on the great lakes and snow from the last couple storms near lake erie. Some use these dongles as panadapters fed off the IF of your HF rig. Decoding packet is easy with UISS and theres telemetry decoders for the Ham satellites too.

    Bob
     
    K2NCC and K6CLS like this.
  9. VA3VF

    VA3VF Guest

    Excellent, Bob!!!

    My current use for the dongles is for Radarspotting, aka ADS-B reception.

    These dongles are great. Stock up on them as the R820T2 chip is no more, at least in smaller quantities. AirSpy is no longer producing their original SDRs based on it.

    The RTL-SDR Blog still has stock.
     
  10. VE3CGA

    VE3CGA XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Hey Vince, thanks, I forgot to mention plane plotter. The Xyl flew up to Timins last fall. I tracked her flight all the way from London to Toronto then up. When they was landing back here, I noticed the crew mentioned something about the APU. (auxillery power unit) was not working and they needed a portable unit for cabin air flow. Ever watch that Mayday tv show.
    Not too worried about the chip, with all the excitement the R820 generated, my bet is that there'll be something else to replace it, maybe there is already.

    Bob
     

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