Dongle R820t2, how much of an upgrade to the R820T?

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DK327

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I think the better antenna (telescopic) and lower noise floor IS worth the extra $5.. I'll take the plunge and get a couple of sticks.
 

SCPD

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R820T2

I just received my NooElec R820T2 today and it's working quite well. The first noticeable feature is that the RF gain is vastly improved. Instead of having to crank up the gain by 20db on the R820T, I only need 2db gain on the R820T2. This is with using an external discone antenna.

Noise floor seems more consistent across the bands. Also, the drift is much better. Offset is at 60ppm (versus 65ppm of the R820T.)

So far so good. Will keep listening...
 

jay427

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Nick,

I got my two yesterday, the Offset of my original NooElec is at 59ppm and one of the new ones is at 70 something and the second one is around 30 or so if I recall. I will double check when I get home but I do recall a good spread between the two new dongles, thought that was a tad strange. but they do seem to work well.
 

woodpecker

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I just received my NooElec R820T2 today and it's working quite well. The first noticeable feature is that the RF gain is vastly improved. Instead of having to crank up the gain by 20db on the R820T, I only need 2db gain on the R820T2. This is with using an external discone antenna.

Noise floor seems more consistent across the bands. Also, the drift is much better. Offset is at 60ppm (versus 65ppm of the R820T.)

So far so good. Will keep listening...

What is the drift like as the unit warms up, my R820T drifts a few kHz, are these any better?

Thanks
 

jay427

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How does the telescoping antenna work? It has to be a lot better than the wire stuby with old 820.


I really did not notice a huge difference but on the other hand I only used the little antenna to see if the dongle would fire up. I will use the outdoor antennas.
 

SCPD

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How does the telescoping antenna work? It has to be a lot better than the wire stuby with old 820.

Yes it's quite a bit better than the stock. The magnet is about 50x stronger too so it'll stay up longer on soft metal (like a computer case.)
 

SCPD

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ADS-B Update

Wow! The R820T2 is simply the standard for ADS-B monitoring. With the stock R820T, I was lucky to get < 5 packets/sec. With the R820T2 I am getting upwards of 35/sec and this is with the *stock* whip antenna.

Even with the external antenna, I couldn't get very many packets with the R820T.

Data is actually updating in real-time which is pretty sweet. This is a first for me on any RTL SDR unit.
 

jay427

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Dang nickcarr I may need to pick another one. I just updated the one I plan on leaving on HF with one of the two R820T2 sticks I just got.
 

jay427

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I did notice with using one of the new R820T2 sticks with a upconverter on HF the audio was like it was underwater, almost like listening to back scatter. I cranked down the RF gain to about +2, +3 no difference.

Maybe one of the two sticks I got is fubar, will try the second new one and see what I get. The original stick still worked.
 

Fizz306

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New R820T2 IC

NooElec is selling the new R820T2 based RTL-SDR on their website.

They claim better SNR and increased sensitivity. Based on my ears and nothing very scientific, I can confirm these claims. Much better SNR, a lower noise floor, and I am picking up more than I did with either of my R820T2. These comparisons were based on HF reception using the Ham-It-Up converter. I'll try and post a video comparing both a little later tonight after I get home.

Also worth noting, it comes with a telescopic antenna now. Not that it'll be a miracle worker by any means, or act as a replacement for a good outdoor antenna system, but it is better than the previous fixed-length antenna that came with the dongles.

NooElec - NooElec NESDR Mini 2 SDR & DVB-T USB Stick (RTL2832 + R820T2) w/ Antenna and Remote Control - SDR Receivers - Software Defined Radio

Rob


[Administrative Note: merged duplicate threads]
 
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DK327

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Looking forward to the video comparing the two.. Could you show both dongles with two instances of SDR# on same frequencies side by side, antennas right next to each other on different frequency bands besides the HF, like VHF, UHF, etc..? Thanks in advance!
 

Voyager

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Could you show both dongles with two instances of SDR# on same frequencies side by side, antennas right next to each other on different frequency bands besides the HF, like VHF, UHF, etc..?

An antenna multicoupler would be much better - eliminates all antenna issues.
 
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