would this be a good set up?

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Ref-Jazzy

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tylerwatt12

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The price on the terratec is a bit steep.
Do you have any need to scan from 1700-2300MHz?
Would you like to scan 25-63MHz? If so, you could get the R820t instead for much cheaper
R820t does 25-1700
E4k does 64-2300
You could also pick up an antennacraft ST-2 for half the price. Both of which would be fine in the attic.

Also, for NOAA APT, you may want an antenna with helical elements for good reception. I haven't tried a discone for reception of APT, but helical is said to be much better.

RTL-SDR Tutorial: Receiving NOAA Weather Satellite Images - rtl-sdr.com

Hope that helps :)
 

Ref-Jazzy

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I read somewhere that a guy was using a discne for apt with success.

I chose that SDR BC I wanted to have as much available to me as possible.

I also read that 25mhz is basically used for up links. Is there much to hear in that range?
 

tylerwatt12

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I read somewhere that a guy was using a discne for apt with success.

I chose that SDR BC I wanted to have as much available to me as possible.

I also read that 25mhz is basically used for up links. Is there much to hear in that range?

You get CB, 12, 10 and 6M bands from 24-64MHz
I think some cities also use 50MHz for pagers/radios.
 

JohnBreen

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25 and 26 MHz

Actually, radio reception depends greatly on your antenna, where you are located, the status of the sun spots and other variables, including maybe even which way the wind is blowing ( ;-0 ). Take a look at some of these logs:

http://forums.radioreference.com/skip-tropospheric-ducting-forum/256836-2013-vhf-low-band-logs.html

Don’t assume that what you will hear will be "frequency usage in accordance with the internationally assigned band plan". It ain't necessarily so. Depending upon many variables you may hear transmissions from many parts of the world with little or no thought given to "international law”. There are many people that believe "the air is free" and if they bought a radio they have a RIGHT to use it any way they want.

For example, when "skip is in, 25 and 26 MHz can provide some surprises as these frequencies are very often used by people who have no knowledge, and little respect of the law. There are a lot of inexpensive transceivers out there that can be very slightly modified (switch a few jumpers) to cover 25 and 26 MHz. You will hear "chatter" in many languages in this part of the spectrum (a lot in Spanish). The frequencies between 26.000 and 26.500 are commonly used as "International 11 meter frequencies" with 26.300 being the "calling frequency". Some of these frequencies seem to favor AM and some favor LSB. These are unlicensed people using these frequencies much like the higher frequency “CB" frequencies are used. During this sun spot cycle I have heard several conversations between people in Australia and people in the Eastern USA. You will hear a lot of "chatter" between people located in various Caribbean island countries. The frequencies above CB frequencies (between CB and 10 Meters) are also used the same way.

One of the fun things about radio is the unexpected! So don't "write off" these frequencies as "unpopulated" as they WILL occasionally surprise you.
 

Ref-Jazzy

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Thanks to the previous owner of my house, i have a ~60 foot antenna in my attic.

http://i.imgur.com/A1lmO.jpg

The top leads are about 30 feet
and the bottom two that go off at an angle for about 10 feet.

I was told on another forum, that this should work just fine for my purposes.

Any thoughts?
 

rbm

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I have a few with the R820T tuners and a few with the E4000 tuners.

The E4000 dongles very rarely are ever used.

In my case, the R820T performs much better.
I have six of this type and they all work very well.
New FM DAB USB DVB T RTL2832U R820T with MCX Connector Antenna Hot Sell | eBay

Rich

Here's a screen capture of four of those same units running simultaneously while tuned to a SatCom frequency.
Each is using a different ST2 antenna pointed in the direction noted.
 

JohnBreen

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Thanks to the previous owner of my house, i have a ~60 foot antenna in my attic.

http://i.imgur.com/A1lmO.jpg

The top leads are about 30 feet
and the bottom two that go off at an angle for about 10 feet.

I was told on another forum, that this should work just fine for my purposes.

Any thoughts?

Looks good to me - you have a "fan dipole" that was probably made for transmitting and receiving on 2 frequencies. For receiving it should be pretty good for you.
 

rbm

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Basically I want to listen to all I can, plus do some noaa apt stuf
Thanks!

Since you're interested in NOAA APT, here's a screen capture of NOAA-15 (137.620) and NOAA-18 (137.9125) APT at the same time using one of the R820T dongles on one of my ST2 antennas.

Rich

 
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