$300 HackRF Deaf Vs. $25 RTL-SDR using SDR#

Been using a cheap $25 RTL-SDR for many months and satisfied with its receive. Just picked up the $300 HackRF SDR and no matter how the LNA/VGA gain is set, this HackRF has very poor RX. A friend also has the HackRF, and we tested his older one vs my new one and the are identical with poor receive. A $25 vs $300 SDR works better. We've experimented with many indoor and outside ham antennas/computers, with the same poor receive. We both have the optional RF shield soldered in place.

Now here is where the plot thickens.......

Friend has the Portapack option on his HackRF, and the receive is WAY better, but only when using the PortaPack. Hook his HackRF up to any PC, and the receive honestly is terrible on both of our HackRF SDR's.

Is there something we are doing wrong when using SDR# & HackRF SDR (latest firmware and software for HackRF and SDR#) on the PC?

Any input would be greatly appreciated

Sounds like RFI leaking in through the USB cable. Does your USB cable have a ferrite in it?

jonwienke said:

Sounds like RFI leaking in through the USB cable. Does your USB cable have a ferrite in it?

Click to expand...

Yes, actually it has a big ferrite core around it. I’ve also tried many different USB cables, from junk to super thick high quality ones with ferrite cores.

The same USB cables I’ve been using with the RTL $25 SDR without any problems.

The hack RF is just deaf across the band, and friends is also. Yet his HackRF using the PortaPack has much better receive. That’s what has me boggled.

Then something in the power supply circuitry is generating RFI when powered by USB rather than the PortaPack thing, or the PortaPack is providing additional shielding that reduces some flavor of RFI.

Using the same computer to supply power to the PortaPack, so it’s not a power problem.

The PortaPack has a plastic box, just like the HackRF. Also the PortaPack has more electronics that could cause interference, but it doesn’t.

The HackRF has no front end filtering or track tuning, however I started watching a video the creator of the HackRF created and he was using a computer and free software and was showing how to create band pass filters. I haven’t had the time to watch all the videos, but it appears there is a way to add software notch filters which seems impossible due to it not having any front end filtering, so there is something I’m missing and need to further watch his videos.

The PortaPack only comes with basic software to control the HackRF, but some others have come up with some super advanced software that runs on the PortaPack, and I’m wondering if this advanced software is auto generating the band pass filtering when tuning into any frequency.

Someone also mentioned there is a plug-in for SDR# for the HackRF, however I’ve not been able to find it.... maybe “fake news”?

I will watch the HackRF creators videos to learn more about this. Will report back if I find anything of interest.

XTS3000 said:

Using the same computer to supply power to the PortaPack, so it’s not a power problem.

The PortaPack has a plastic box, just like the HackRF. Also the PortaPack has more electronics that could cause interference, but it doesn’t.

The HackRF has no front end filtering or track tuning, however I started watching a video the creator of the HackRF created and he was using a computer and free software and was showing how to create band pass filters. I haven’t had the time to watch all the videos, but it appears there is a way to add software notch filters which seems impossible due to it not having any front end filtering, so there is something I’m missing and need to further watch his videos.

The PortaPack only comes with basic software to control the HackRF, but some others have come up with some super advanced software that runs on the PortaPack, and I’m wondering if this advanced software is auto generating the band pass filtering when tuning into any frequency.

Someone also mentioned there is a plug-in for SDR# for the HackRF, however I’ve not been able to find it.... maybe “fake news”?

I will watch the HackRF creators videos to learn more about this. Will report back if I find anything of interest.

Click to expand...

I just stumbled across this post. Thank you I thought I was nuts. I spent $300ish for a HackRF One a couple years ago and the rx sens has been worse than expected. I have 2 of the 820T SDR dongles and 1 of the E8000 dongles and they perform better. Although one of my 820s gets about 10 dB higher gain than the other for some reason. I swapped antennas and USB ports on them and it follows the device.

Have you had any additional luck?

I have a HackRF.DLL file in my SDR# directory. Have you updated your SDR# software? just run the install-rtlsdr.bat file in the SDR# folder. I'm pretty sure the hackrf.dll came in the download for me. I can get it to you if that's not the case.

Good post.

I've had many different model SDR dongles over the past several years.and have used three different HackRFOnes. In general I use the HackRFOne only when listening to frequencies above what the normal dongle does not cover, i.e., above 1.7 Gigs.

One good thing about the HackRFOne is that it covers down to the AM Broadcast band, while most dongles do not. At this location it does a very good job on the broadcast band and HF. However in my experience I found the SDR dongle is more sensitive on the UHF band in the region of 400 - 500 mHz than the HackRFOne. For example I can hear the NYPD comms in the 470 mHz region quite well with the dongle but not with the HackRFOne, even with the amps turned to the max.

Note that I use a discone antenna for the information I am presenting regarding UHF reception. Antennas make all the difference when comparing radios.

Initially I was disappointed too with the HackRFOne's sensitivity in the region of 400 - 500 MHz, but remember that the HackRFOne is more for experimentation than simply acting as a receiver. It also has the advantage of receiving up to 6 GHz while SDR dongles (with the exception of those with the E4000 chip) max out at around 1.7 Gigs. So both the dongle and the HackRFOne have their advantages and disadvantages.