RTL2832U / E4000 vs RTL2832U / R820T DVB-T Stick

[KS4JU]

I spent a few minutes informally comparing these two DVB-T sticks for SDR use. It appears that the RTL2832U / R820T seems to be a much better performer in the higher frequency ranges, plus you get a little HF reception between 24 - 30Mhz. The other advantage, is that the RTL2832U / R820T is bit cheaper. Additional details at RTL2832U / R820T vs RTL2832U / E4000 | Ham Radio Science

 

[ansul1001]

How did you get the RTL2832U / R820T stick to receive up past the 800 meg band I have one and it just locks up with sdr

 

[KS4JU]

You may need to update your RTL drivers. The R820T sticks have only been recently supported. If you have not updated your SDR Sharp installation over the last month or so, then you may have problems using SDR Sharp with the newer R820T sticks.

 

[jmorgan123]

Thanks for posting this! I ordered a RTL2832U / R820T stick as soon as I saw that rtl-sdr was supporting it. It's currently on its way from China. I'm (now even more) excited to start playing with it!

 

[ansul1001]

Wow got it to work, the first thing I have to say is the 820 is really sensitive i mean i have to turn off the gain and manually adjust it around the band because it receives so much, and this is just with the little antenna that came with it. Is this normal i mean i get spikes all over the screen unless i turn down the gain.

 

[Bellingham_Scanner]

What kind of antenna are people using?

I just got a Newsky TV28T v2 USB DVB-T & RTL-SDR Receiver, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner from NooElec and find it quite disappointing.

The little antenna that came with it is worthless as I thought it would be but even with a 18 inch whip I can barely receive local FM radio stations.

 

[KS4JU]

With a R820T stick using the included whip you should see receive performance roughly equal to or a bit less than an inexpensive scanner using a rubber ducky. If not you might want to consider the following:

1. Do your initial testing with SDR Sharp. This is the easiest program to get working properly and it does a good job with the RTL2832U sticks. Check known signals like NWS broadcasts, trunking control signals, etc.

2. Since these devices are made so cheaply, a common problem for poor sensitivity is a blown ESD circuit. You may want to contact NooElec about a replacement if you think this is the case.

3. RF interference can greatly reduce the sensitivity of the RTL2832U sticks. When using SDR Sharp, you may want to go into the configure section of the ExtIO driver and turn off the automatic AGC setting and adjust it manually to see if there is any improvement.

I don't think you are having antenna issues, you may just have a bad stick.

Hope this helps!

 

[smason]

What kind of antenna are people using?

I just got a Newsky TV28T v2 USB DVB-T & RTL-SDR Receiver, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner from NooElec and find it quite disappointing.

The little antenna that came with it is worthless as I thought it would be but even with a 18 inch whip I can barely receive local FM radio stations.

I just got mine from NooElec and it's working very well. Not it's not as sensitive as my scanners, but definitely receives things better than what you describe. Did you turn the gain up?
Mine seemed deaf until I clicked configure in SDR# and increased the gain.

 

[Bellingham_Scanner]

I just got mine from NooElec and it's working very well. Not it's not as sensitive as my scanners, but definitely receives things better than what you describe. Did you turn the gain up?
Mine seemed deaf until I clicked configure in SDR# and increased the gain.

Yes even at full gain local FM broadcasts were barely receivable over the background static. NooElec is going to replace it after I contacted them and sent them a screen grab showing the gain at full and FM broadcast barely a peak above the noise.

 

[smason]

NooElec is going to replace it after I contacted them and sent them a screen grab showing the gain at full and FM broadcast barely a peak above the noise.

Good to hear. Do let us know how the replacement works out.

 

[smason]

I spent a few minutes informally comparing these two DVB-T sticks for SDR use. It appears that the RTL2832U / R820T seems to be a much better performer in the higher frequency ranges, plus you get a little HF reception between 24 - 30Mhz. The other advantage, is that the RTL2832U / R820T is bit cheaper. Additional details at RTL2832U / R820T vs RTL2832U / E4000 | Ham Radio Science

Thanks for posting these articles and videos. It inspired me to buy a cheap USB stick and try it.

I've been a radio geek since scanners used xtals, I've seen some great technology changes over the years, but what you can do with a $20.00 USB stick and free software just absolutely blows my mind!

 

[Bellingham_Scanner]

Good to hear. Do let us know how the replacement works out.

The replacement came yesterday it seem to work better than the first one, at least it can receive local FM commercial broadcasts.

But it's sensitivity is still a bit disappointing.

Maybe I was just hoping for too much.

 

[KS4JU]

If you are getting strong local FM signals, thats a good start. You might want to play with the gain settings a bit also. Sometimes the Automatic AGC settings in the ExtIO can be too high and desense the stick. The best thing to do is find a weak signal that is steady and adjust the gain upward until the signal gets weaker then back off a tad. Also try a good VHF/UHF antenna, even though the included whip can work surprisingly well on some frequencies, a good external antenna will make a big difference. Also when you do connect an external antenna, be sure to use an adapter to go from Pal or MCX to BNC or whatever you need. Connecting a wire to the center pin just doesn't seem to work well.

 

[seanshepard]

how to disable AUTGAIN extIO

how do I disable the autogain (or at least make it so I can adjust the gain myself) in the extIO file? where do I change it??

 

[KS4JU]

Depending on the software you are using:

SDR Sharp - It is found near the top of the SDR Sharp window. Press the configure button and the ExtIO control panel will pop up. You can make your changes there.

HDSDR - There is an ExtIO button on the HDSDR window. Pressing the ExtIO button will pop up the ExtIO control panel and you can make the changes. If you are using the ExtIO from https://github.com/josemariaaraujo/ExtIO_RTL with HDSDR you will find that this ExtIO does not yet save your settings. So you will have to set them every time you start HDSDR. This is one of the easiest ExtIO to get working in HDSDR, just by putting the ExtIO file in the HDSDR directory. Hopefully, the author will fix the not saving settings issue one day.

You don't have to worry about this with SDR Sharp since it contains it's own ExtIO and the settings are saved automatically.

 

[seanshepard]

Hdsdr

here is my problem: I have the dvb-t stick (NooElec R820T) and for right now, jsut the stock antenna (until I can get this thing working) - all the drviers/software loads up fine (no errors) and when I start HDSDR, I get "noise" but my 'gain' setting in the ExtIO is set at "MIN" 0 ... sooo ... I cannot move the gain setting UP - it is stuck at 0 - underneath there is a box that says something like "range" and it says "0.0-0.0" so any band I switch to in HDSDR has 0 gain (in the FM) - is that a software error? a hardware error? I've tried it on 2 different computers - any help would be great as I am strating to get frustrated. Thanks!
KJ4NLD
Sean

 

[KS4JU]

here is my problem: I have the dvb-t stick (NooElec R820T) and for right now, jsut the stock antenna (until I can get this thing working) - all the drviers/software loads up fine (no errors) and when I start HDSDR, I get "noise" but my 'gain' setting in the ExtIO is set at "MIN" 0 ... sooo ... I cannot move the gain setting UP - it is stuck at 0 - underneath there is a box that says something like "range" and it says "0.0-0.0" so any band I switch to in HDSDR has 0 gain (in the FM) - is that a software error? a hardware error? I've tried it on 2 different computers - any help would be great as I am strating to get frustrated. Thanks!
KJ4NLD
Sean

Hi Sean,
1. Do you know which ExtIO file you are using?
2. Can you switch off the auto gain setting (required to set the gain manually ?
3. Try using SDR Sharp instead of HDSDR, it usually just works if you follow the Windows setup procedure.

 

[seanshepard]

fixed

ok - so I finally by sheer luck, found a copy of SDR# that worked! When I had HDSDR, no matter which ExtIO file I used, I could never adjust the gain - so now with SDR# everything works great! But I have another question for the group: I have the little DVB-t stick and a connector that is PAL->COAX so I can plug in my normal antenna - works great! BUT: I got the Ham It Up HF converter, and that has SMA connectors on it for IN and OUT. Where do I find a NORMAL (usa) coax end (male) that terminates in an SMA connector (male) and then an SMA connector that has a NORMAL (usa) coax (female) for my antenna??? I don't really know what it is called that I am looking for, and searches are not yeilding what I think I need - any ideas?
Sean
kj4nld

 

[KS4JU]

ok - so I finally by sheer luck, found a copy of SDR# that worked! When I had HDSDR, no matter which ExtIO file I used, I could never adjust the gain - so now with SDR# everything works great! But I have another question for the group: I have the little DVB-t stick and a connector that is PAL->COAX so I can plug in my normal antenna - works great! BUT: I got the Ham It Up HF converter, and that has SMA connectors on it for IN and OUT. Where do I find a NORMAL (usa) coax end (male) that terminates in an SMA connector (male) and then an SMA connector that has a NORMAL (usa) coax (female) for my antenna??? I don't really know what it is called that I am looking for, and searches are not yeilding what I think I need - any ideas?
Sean
kj4nld

You might want to try NooElec - Home page. They may not have what you are looking for on their web page. Drop them an email or phone call and ask then if they have a the adapter you need.

 

[anon7845]

What kind of antenna are people using?

I just got a Newsky TV28T v2 USB DVB-T & RTL-SDR Receiver, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner from NooElec and find it quite disappointing.

The little antenna that came with it is worthless as I thought it would be but even with a 18 inch whip I can barely receive local FM radio stations.

I had the same product with a RTL2832 dongle from NooElec. The problem appeared to be with HDSDR not the hardware. Using SDRSharp (choosing WFM radio button), I get perfect FM radio. The NooElec site has a downloads section for each product, using everything from there it worked great.