HAMs SDR

[skeets]

Anybody playing with an SDR dongle? I dont know much about them so info other than youtube. Which can be a bit confusing when they speak for others that already know about a subject.
So which one and why, antennas, home brewed or factory Dipole, software down loads, problems, good things and not so good things,,,,,, OK GUYS Im 10-7 and standing by

 

[Roadworthy]

No help here but thank you for the post. I've not been keeping up and had not heard of such a thing. Now I see another toy in my future. As far as antennas I suspect it will work with any receiving antenna you care to connect to it. I don't know impedance but I saw one picture with what appeared to be an F type connector as used in CATV.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Takes all the fun out of burning fingers and getting burned by vacuum tubes......
I did the dits and dahs, still have my dad's bug.

 

[mikester]

I'm interested in using SDR for listening in to cheap wireless sensors ie. driveway alarms, weather stations etc and logging the data. This link has some interesting links to low cost SDR links in case you want to start off small before going all in on a system.

Connecting Commercial 433 MHz Sensors To MQTT And Home Assistant With RTL-SDR

When [Elixir of Progress] was looking at setting up environmental sensors around their home to keep track of temperature, humidity and such, the obvious ideas of using WiFi-connected sensors didn&#…

hackaday.com

 

[RBsingl]

The little cheap SDR dongles are fun to play with but if you are looking for even a "semi-serious" wideband receiver, they aren't for you. The lack of front end filtering combined with the limited bit depth will quickly get you into overload and spurious response issues. To get out of the toy class, you have to move up the more expensive SDR packages.

Being a vintage gear type, I went the other direction although I do have a SDR based high end Yaesu transceiver.

Rodger

 

[armylifer]

Okay, this may be just a little off your intended request for information but here is a link to a web based sdr. You can try listening to some of the stations in different bands and see if there is anything interesting going on that you want to be a part of.

websdr.org

 

[skeets]

Thanks guys,, good catch there lifter