Software Defined Radio

[GTGallop]

Anyone here have any experience with SDR? I was thinking about getting one of these just as an elementary play / learning tool.
http://www.amazon.com/Receiver-RTL28...794726&sr=1-8&

For $15 or less? Can't be a bad investment.

But......... It got me to thinking. What ELSE is out there for cheap and easy? I noticed that the link above is just the hardware? If I read that right? Or does it actually come with the software - kinda confusing.

[SOCOM42]

Interesting, is the software resident in the USB drive?

I am confused on that to.

The spectrum analyzer only shows lower end of the HF.

Does not say anything about emission types.

Cheap enough to play with.

I know they have had plug in cards for quit a while for tabletops.

I am too old school to get into them.

[Quietsurvivalist]

I have a few of the SDR dongles shown here

They are limited by the POS antenne they come with which is an easy fix. They are capable of much more than what is shown here, like a high speed scanner tied to a DF Doppler rig. Home brew intel intercept is what I like mine for

Key the mic in range and 2 seconds later you are a blinking red dot on the laptop screen

google usb dongle project

[GTGallop]

I have a few of the SDR dongles shown here

Was there supposed to be a link associated with "shown here?"

[hayden]

I bought one of those off ebay for 8 or 10 bucks and fooled with it a little. Only thing I could get was local FM stations. One of our club members got the real setup and loved it so much he changed his call sign, last 3 letters SDR.

[SGT E]

Anyone here have any experience with SDR? I was thinking about getting one of these just as an elementary play / learning tool.
http://www.amazon.com/Receiver-RTL28...794726&sr=1-8&

For $15 or less? Can't be a bad investment.

But......... It got me to thinking. What ELSE is out there for cheap and easy? I noticed that the link above is just the hardware? If I read that right? Or does it actually come with the software - kinda confusing.

I've messed around with those for a while and all I can say is don't expect much for the money...I've owned 4. A few weeks ago I bought an SDRPLAY system for 149$ and it bowls the rest over...Even my Perseus that cost me over 800$ new is only equal to it.


SDRplay

Covers 100hz to 2 Ghz .


HRO is the US Distributor

SDRplay SDRplay RSP | RSP - Radio Spectrum Processor SDR Receiver

It's not much bigger than a pack of smokes and can be velcroed to a laptop case.....runs by USB hookup on the computer and if you can solar charge your laptop you'd have a great SHTF reciever! I know it's not exactly cheap but it does what the almost 1k SDR's do for a tenth of the price. The cool thing about it is you can monitor any 8 MHZ slice of spectrum you choose...For example the entire 2 meter band at once....You just click on a signal and it tunes it...no going up and down on VFO buttons for hours looking for a signal....Same for all other ham bands and most government and bizz bands as well!

[Will2]

i have a couple dongles. they are good for receiving, if you want to listen into a big range of signals.
I highly recommend picking one up.

mine were the old black ones, not the nooelec.

the antenna is a little small you can probably get a better antenna for it.


if you have lots of radio signals in your area its a good buy. it will also introduce you to radio software programs if you havn't encountered them before.


they are very cheap receivers.

also mine didn't require a battery.


one cool thing you can use recievers for is detecting signals - for instance knowing what frequency your wiring radiates. you can all kinds of useful info out of receivers.

i had my suspicions when there was a frequency radiating at one of the police allocated bands from my place. the only logical likelyhood I could think of was that there was a bug or a police officer operating nearby and that my place which was all metal was acting as some sort of antenna to that signal. it was very weird as it was only the local police specific signal that was that loud. you could in that effect use a receiver to scan for bugs also. bear in mind it could have just been coincidence.

totally off topic but I've found suspected police monitoring to be sort of funny. i.e. naming their wifi networks RCMP van 1 RCMP van 2 and using public OPP frequnecies for their listening devices. if in fact they were I find it funny they would so openly broadcast on supposedly covert survielance operations. maybe it was a a joke. as far as the listening devices I have no insight into what the OPP uses or doesn't use, I thought they used shotgun mics but maybe if they have no where to set up from they use planted bugs, who knows. anyway use of dongles as bug detectors is one practical use.


for 10 or so bucks it is an educational buy well worth it.


getting something in various bands is good. it may seem odd but checking for gps and listening devices could be useful to periodically do, as not only government but criminals use technology these days. for instance someone who wants to break into your home could place a gps tracking device on your vehicle to know when you are gone.

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/law...on-of-privacy/


This is especially bad for hams in Canada because the government publishes all their addresses and their gear is often worth thousands of dollars and a hot target for theives.

you can see how disturbing government publication of ham radio operators addresses is. a theif who was in toronto could just type toronto in the search heading and have a massive list of targets

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...rDBkFaSlT45qpA


point is that having a wide frequency receiver that can act as a scanner can be very useful.

[James m]

I was part of a micro engineering program for r&d on a chip that can be planted in the human body. It was designed while i was at los alamos and we finished at sandia national lab. It was a micsoscopic chip that could be inserted into a shot, like a flu shot or a required child inoculation. I fear talking about its capabilities but i can say you can be tracked and it can read your thoughts. An experimental feature was introducing thoughts into the human brain. It can instantly make you think about pancakes or grand larceny. Have a nice day.

[James m]

But Will i get strange interfereint all of the time. It could just be that, interfereinterference. For example i am here next to my scanner and it is picking up haptic feedback from my tablet on a police or fire frequency. Every time i click a button it goes on the scanner at 150 something mhz.

Part 15 of the fcc rules at its finest.

[SOCOM42]

James, your laptop has a local oscillator (clock) to make it operate, that is what is locking up the scanner, plus some scanners lock up on their own generator also.

Just lock them out of the scan when it happens.