Does anyone know owt about SDR ?

[g8ina]

Just sent back my loaned RAIBC ham radio kit as I wasnt using it, but I still fancy a communications receiver.

Ive only just become aware of SDR - seems too good to be true. Anyone used one ? Pros / cons ??

[Flibb]

I haven't set my radio kit up since moving, but someplace have a funcube stashed. Your welcome to borrow it if you want to have go. I did try one of the hacked USB TV receivers when they first started being used, but struggled to get it working, possibly down to my inexperience.
Main benefit of the funcube over the hacked usb dongles is that at least your starting from a known place, with the hacked stuff its all a bit hit and miss. As to does it work, yes its great, have you tried the online SDR radios that you can log into?

[Jonatron]

I randomly bought an rtl-sdr about a week ago, not sure why but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I picked up some aircraft comms (my antenna isn't high enough for tower comms), and listened to Capital FM to make sure it worked. Not sure what to do with it. I suspect lower frequencies are more interesting. I think it only goes down to 24Mhz.

[g8ina]

Thanks for the offer, I may take you up on that before I spend some serious dosh

I'd be after one that goes down to 100KHz or so, not one of the 24MHz up limited. I think that needs an extra PCB for a converter from what Ive read.

Its either one of these or a FRG7 or similar.

73, G8INA

[g8ina]

Flibb, check your PMs

Edit - NVM, Ive ordered one for China ready built for £27

[g8ina]

Just a quick update

My £27 RTL-SDR USB box is now running perfectl;y happily on HDSDR on the upstairs PC, while I remotely access and drive it from the downstairs PC usaing Team Viewer.

Getting a few spurious signals, so planning to upgrade to a RSP1 or RSP2 SDRPlay box soon.

Quite chuffed with my little self, I know the tech is not new, but its very new to me and in the space of a month I'm almost satisfied

[imadaily]

RTL-SDRs are great value for getting started with radio, I got one and have had a go at aircraft tracking (ADSB) on 1090MHz, I was picking up signals from ~300km away which i think is pretty good for a £20 dongle.

One way to reduce your spurious signals might be to add a low noise amplifier at the antenna and then mount the SDR a reasonable distance away.
The USB signals and computer tend to put out a lot of noise so amplifying the signal at the antenna before it picks up any computer related noise will often allow you to hear fainter signals.

Or i guess the simpler way might be to just use the longest USB extension cable you can find to keep SDR and PC apart. My SDR still worked on the end of ~6m of extension cables