Back to scanning

[chriz1]

Hi all I'm coming back to scanning buy realise the good old days of endless frequencies have gone due to tetra and digital.
I used to have a yupiteru mvt7100 which I'm was thinking of buying again.
Is this a good choice radio or is there better ?
I read about dmr? Not sure what that is exactly or if theres a scanner to pick them up .
I live in west wales very high up not far from a military range pembrey on interested in picking up anything that's possible these days include military, air ambulances ?
Anything really.

What scanner would you recommend getting guys?
Cheers chris

[Metradio]

When you had the MVT7100 what did you receive from your West Wales location ?

Mike

[chriz1]

All sorts ham, aircraft civil and military police, ambulance security, fire,CB all the usual but then I wasnt living on a hill overlooking for tens of miles so I think it's got great potential up here

[Tigersaw]

You might be better buying a cheap sdr dongle and having a play first.

[chriz1]

Just googled sdr very interesting indeed and bit cheaper than s scanner. . So worth a go I think.
What software would you recommend?

[Tigersaw]

Not done it for a while, SDR Sharp (SDR#) was always a favourite.
Just checked, its now been bagged by airspy, but you can still get it from their site https://airspy.com/download/ just get the unskinned version.
The SDR dongles should be cheap as chips, but eBay sellers are taking the ****. I got mine from https://www.cosycave.co.uk/ some time ago for a tenner, but his site wont load for me.
Also, take care with the drivers, read the instructions - you need (or at least I did) needed to load Zadig and not let windows install what it thinks are right.

[chriz1]

Right ok many thanks for your help

[Alan Pilot]

Any recommendations for a cheep one just to have a look.
Amazon or even the bay.
Thanks in advance.

[Tigersaw]

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

Start there, read and take their guidance. There is tutorials on how to install all the software on there too.
Prices were £10, but now it looks like £20, though its an improved stick to the one I bought.
First one I found, so I'm not endorsing the seller in any way;
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RTL-SDR-Blog ... 4020215042

[jhampton2000]

Alan - if your budget can stretch to the mid 30's I really recommend the NooElec NESDR SMArt XTR SDR (preferable) or the NooElec NESDR SMArt v4 vs the cheaper chinese plastic models. The NooElecs run wiht lower noise threshold and are more stable/less drift when they heat up. There are some nice bundles with magmount antennas as well if you need one on amazon etc.

[Alan Pilot]

Thanks to both of you for the recommendations.
I am still looking so keep them coming.