Help me find an SDR :)

A place to discuss the HF and Shortwave listening side of the radio hobby. Discuss equipment, frequencies and antenna systems etc. Anything HF!
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Definity
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Help me find an SDR :)

Post by Definity »

Hi,
I'm about to take my foundation exam in a few weeks and was wondering a good SDR to get me started. I have a RTL but the noise is crazy
Can you recommend any good SDR's that can go up to 70cm and down to the HF bands? and under £200, I know it is not much but I am a student
so I'm pretty poor.

Thanks

Def
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owza
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by owza »

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ http://www.funcubedongle.com
Typical frequency coverage: 150kHz to 260MHz and 410MHz to 2.05GHz
Not bad for £124.99

Don't skimp on the antenna, and tailor to the frequency of interest.
e.g Long Wire for HF, discone for VHF/UHF. Personally I use a roll-up 'Slim Jim' antenna
for VHF/UHF, it works really well.

When you get your licence you can attach it to your HT and transmit.
sec1223
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by sec1223 »

https://www.cosycave.co.uk/product.php?id_product=288

these are fantastic... loads on here have got them.
cant stand IGNORANT b******ds
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RogerD
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by RogerD »

Definity wrote: I have a RTL but the noise is crazy
Try it on the end of a USB extension lead to get it away from the computer, and plug in an external aerial.
Definity
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by Definity »

Thanks Sec123, that is exactly what i have been looking for, been searching Forweeks
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Kaos
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by Kaos »

I am in the market for one of these.

I have the TV SDR dongle and enjoy that for the Emergency Servies and the like but want the SDR experience on HF. I have an FT950 and there was a MOD where I could use any of the freeware programs to have the waterfall display along with the freq readout on my laptop but never got it working.

In Germany there are lots of HF SDR sets

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Fruhlingsangebot ... 233715ce95

http://www.ebay.de/itm/SDR-Komplettpake ... 27e04b061d

The second having the SDR stick and an UP convertor for HF. Never heard of these and nned to research these more.
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Mitch
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by Mitch »

I've got one of the same dongles as the cosycave one and it worls well enough, however my PC is old and slow so I have to turn off the waterfall display else I can't click anything.

I did see a hack to alter the frequency range of the dongles involving soldering a small toroid transformer and new wires staight onto the receiver chip but it's not for me, there is a converter that will do the same job though here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150917110538
The perfect face for radio.
tomos
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by tomos »

Another + for the Funcube Pro + , its difficult to beat for the price, it has the full range you are looking for, the RTL dongles dont cover HF without additional converters etc as far as I am aware? though they are great on VHF. The other advantage with the FC is its pure plug and play, no messing about with Zadig etc .. (though it is does cost more than the RTL dongles, it also has some nice SAW filters etc )

Also the CCW SDR+ is also another well priced SDR receiver, up to 70Mhz and has great reviews (219 euros?)
http://www.crosscountrywireless.net/sdr-4.htm

Either will play niceley with HDSDR, sdr# and sdr-radio (v2)

You wont regreat getting either
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rocket
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by rocket »

Hiya,

I am having trouble with my RTL 2832U dongle, I've downloaded SDR# for it both here at home on the lappy and at work on the main PC where I've tried many different antennas on it, but it's as deaf as a post.

Here's a screenshot, antenna at the moment is a Maycom AR108 antenna connected via the SMA adaptor lead to the dongle, not the best antenna I'll grant you but some form of reception should be possible?

I've picked 96.0MHz which is Heart FM as an example;

Image

Are the settings correct, what am I doing wrong please? The spike on the spectrum graph is just noise, I seemed to make that spike appear for some odd reason but there is not an actual signal.
73 de Mark
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sec1223
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by sec1223 »

go into configure and put the gain up full
cant stand IGNORANT b******ds
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rocket
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by rocket »

Gain up to full, and still no signal. Screenshot as below;

Image

Any ideas please?
73 de Mark
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JGR
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Re: Help me find an SDR :)

Post by JGR »

No input selected on the sound card option in the audio selection tab, need to stop the RTL before adjusting!
So all your getting is an out you need both in and out set correctly with the corresponding sound card option.
Do not believe everything that is in black and white.
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