Plug & Play SDR Software

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riverrat373

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When is someone going to develop plug & play software for SDR dongles? Software that doesn't require you to download this driver and that driver and place them in this folder or that folder and then you find out that you didn't configure everything just right and the darn software gives you this error or that error and you end up just saying "screw it!"
 

Markb

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The short answer is when you buy pony up some cash and buy a plug and play SDR.

Personally, I find that the RTLSDR dangles or quite simple to use. Sure, there is a little bit of a learning curve when you get started, but you use Zadig change one driver and there are zero folder considerations that I'm aware of outside of the software you might be using. Perhaps a different software suite might suit you a little better?

Bottom line is that I wouldn't expect a whole heck of a lot from a $25 device that was never originally intended to be used as software defined radio.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

bob550

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Sound like you're using SDR#. The setup on that is a bit more complex than others. I prefer SDR Console or HDSDR as the configuration is much easier.
 

Murphy625

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LOL..

I bought an RTL SDR dongle last year when I got into all this.. plugged it in, loaded the software, and I was listening to the air in under 10 minutes.

Of course, I was using the little telescopic antenna that came with it so about all I could pick up was a few radio stations in my rural area.

Then I bought an ICOM 746 and the dongle went into storage.. After learning lots and lots using the ICOM, I decided to break out the dongle again and use what I've learned..

Hooked it to my G5RV dipole antenna hanging 60 feet in the air and plugged in the dongle and NOTHING.. The software wouldn't recognize the dongle even though my device manager did..

I spent 5 hours loading and unloading drivers, deleting everything, reloading.. cleaning registry entries, downloading the newest NetFramwork.. and NOTHING.. I must have rebooted my computer 15 times..

Then my wife says "Why don't you try plugging it into another USB port?".. I Freaking HATE IT when she walks into a room and makes a comment about something she knows nothing about and ends up being right... Its infuriating.....

As soon as I changed the USB port, it fired right up like it was laughing at me for 6 hours.

And now.... I can hear stuff I've never heard before! That G5RV hanging 60 feet in the air brings in stuff I would have never thought I could hear.. I mean WOW! I'm picking up FM radio like none of my home stereo's could hear.. and the signal is soooo clean and crisp...

Dialing up the 144 (2 meter) band, I was listening to a guy in Bad Axe Michigan.. That's almost 100 miles away!!!

This thing is awesome! Its worth the effort to get it working.
 

woodpecker

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Aug 7, 2005
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LOL..

I bought an RTL SDR dongle last year when I got into all this.. plugged it in, loaded the software, and I was listening to the air in under 10 minutes.

Of course, I was using the little telescopic antenna that came with it so about all I could pick up was a few radio stations in my rural area.

Then I bought an ICOM 746 and the dongle went into storage.. After learning lots and lots using the ICOM, I decided to break out the dongle again and use what I've learned..

Hooked it to my G5RV dipole antenna hanging 60 feet in the air and plugged in the dongle and NOTHING.. The software wouldn't recognize the dongle even though my device manager did..

I spent 5 hours loading and unloading drivers, deleting everything, reloading.. cleaning registry entries, downloading the newest NetFramwork.. and NOTHING.. I must have rebooted my computer 15 times..

Then my wife says "Why don't you try plugging it into another USB port?".. I Freaking HATE IT when she walks into a room and makes a comment about something she knows nothing about and ends up being right... Its infuriating.....

As soon as I changed the USB port, it fired right up like it was laughing at me for 6 hours.

And now.... I can hear stuff I've never heard before! That G5RV hanging 60 feet in the air brings in stuff I would have never thought I could hear.. I mean WOW! I'm picking up FM radio like none of my home stereo's could hear.. and the signal is soooo clean and crisp...

Dialing up the 144 (2 meter) band, I was listening to a guy in Bad Axe Michigan.. That's almost 100 miles away!!!

This thing is awesome! Its worth the effort to get it working.

It would work even better with the correct antenna, a G5RV is for HF, whilst it may work higher up in frequency its not very good above 30MHz.
 

Murphy625

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Feb 11, 2017
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It would work even better with the correct antenna, a G5RV is for HF, whilst it may work higher up in frequency its not very good above 30MHz.

Ya I know.. I have an N9TAX antenna I could hoist up into the tree but I'd rather stick with the G5RV as all the interesting stuff is happening on HF.

I just started using my RTL SDR to feed into MultiPSK for decoding of digital signals and CW..

I'm using SD Sharp.. Downloaded the SDR Console software but it won't work with the RTL SDR dongle hooked to the USB port.

Also noticed today that the band plan in the SD Sharp software is incorrect.. They have the 40 meter band ending at 7.2mhz but it actually ends at 7.3. Had to go into the BandPlan.xml file and fix that little error. That was a big one.. seems that most of the voice activity on 40 meters takes place between 7.2 and 7.3 and they had it set up for broadcast radio..
 
S

simpilo

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Ya I know.. I have an N9TAX antenna I could hoist up into the tree but I'd rather stick with the G5RV as all the interesting stuff is happening on HF.

I just started using my RTL SDR to feed into MultiPSK for decoding of digital signals and CW..

I'm using SD Sharp.. Downloaded the SDR Console software but it won't work with the RTL SDR dongle hooked to the USB port.

Also noticed today that the band plan in the SD Sharp software is incorrect.. They have the 40 meter band ending at 7.2mhz but it actually ends at 7.3. Had to go into the BandPlan.xml file and fix that little error. That was a big one.. seems that most of the voice activity on 40 meters takes place between 7.2 and 7.3 and they had it set up for broadcast radio..

Its a shared band internationally Ham in USA and Broadcast in EU/Asia That's why MT programmed the XML in that way. :)
 
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