Differences between $20 dongle vs airspy vs SDRplay

[Roveer]

So I'm contemplating a nice SDR project for when the cold months descend and it's nice to be inside. I really like the idea of SDR. I'm not so much into amateur radio listening or such, so I think it would be mostly about aviation listening and our county fire/emergency radio system.

I see 20-30 dollar dongles being sold. I also see airspy and SDRplay equipment for considerably more money. As I'm getting closer to actually buying anything I'd be interested to know if the more expensive equipment has any real advantage over the cheap stuff in my application?

One thing I notice whether it's my Uniden scanners or the SDR youtube videos that I watch is that the audio from a digital radio system always sounds terrible. It just doesn't sound that bad in the police cars and emergency vehicles. I've been told that the real equipment has much more costly processing equipment and that this is as good as we can get with a 500 dollar scanner.

I'd like to know if buying a more expensive SDR radio has (or does not have) any real benefits. I know some have different features (I think SDRPlay has a 2 receiver model, which is good for SDR setups), but I'm looking for any real quality differences that set these devices aside and I should consider. If 20-30 bucks gets you the exact same thing as 150-200 bucks, when spend the money on a pretty box.

Thanks,

Roveer

 

[boatbod]

It all depends what you want to listen to, and what software you want to run, as well as budget of course.

For public safety systems (police, fire, ems) the cheap dongles are great because signal strength is usually adequate even with the crappy indoor antennas. If you want to listen to weaker signals you'll likely need to spend more and put up a decent antenna.

Commercial scanners usually do a horrible job with simulcast transmissions, but sdr software is capable of reproducing audio almost indistinguishable from high end subscriber radios. It's all about the demodulator and error correction implemented...

 

[slicerwizard]

An Airspy or SDRPlay will give you much better weak signal performance, especially in the presence of stronger local signals.

 

[SteveSimpkin]

Two of of the main benefits of an AirSpy vs a RTL-SDR dongle include sample depth/dynamic range (8 bits vs 12 bits) and viewable bandwidth (2.4MHz vs 10/6MHz). The SDR Play RSP adds 8 switched preselection filters.

Some comparisons:
HackRF One Review vs RTL-SDR vs SDRPlay
Radio for Everyone: HackRF One Review vs RTL-SDR vs SDRPlay

A Comparison between the RTL-SDR and SDRplay
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/a-comparison-between-the-rtl-sdr-and-sdrplay/

Review: Airspy vs. SDRplay RSP vs. HackRF
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/review-airspy-vs-sdrplay-rsp-vs-hackrf/

 

[woodpecker]

Two of of the main benefits of an AirSpy vs a RTL-SDR dongle include sample depth/dynamic range (8 bits vs 12 bits) and viewable bandwidth (2.4MHz vs 10/6MHz). The SDR Play RSP adds 8 switched preselection filters.

Some comparisons:
HackRF One Review vs RTL-SDR vs SDRPlay
Radio for Everyone: HackRF One Review vs RTL-SDR vs SDRPlay

A Comparison between the RTL-SDR and SDRplay
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/a-comparison-between-the-rtl-sdr-and-sdrplay/

Review: Airspy vs. SDRplay RSP vs. HackRF
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/review-airspy-vs-sdrplay-rsp-vs-hackrf/

The RSP1A has 14 bit sampling below 6Msps, I find it more senstive than the Airspy or Airspy mini, its an excellent SDR for the price.

 

[Roveer]

Thanks so much for the detailed information. I'm going to check out the links to help me decide.

Roveer

 

[MN_Safari_Pilot]

Thanks so much for the detailed information. I'm going to check out the links to help me decide.
Roveer

@Roveer What did you come up with...?

 

[rocky28965]

I find using SDR for scanning is very slow compared with my Uniden scanner

 

[DRL-XM43]

I find using SDR for scanning is very slow compared with my Uniden scanner

What are you using s/w to scan with? Whatever it is makes a huge difference.

 

[rocky28965]

What are you using s/w to scan with? Whatever it is makes a huge difference.

I was actually scanning some pre-programed VHF aircraft frequencies.

 

[jonohudson]

SDRplay is close to having scanning software available in SDRuno (version 1.3 coming soon): More news here: Software news from SDRplay – SDRplay

 

[questnz]

I find using SDR for scanning is very slow compared with my Uniden scanner

Of course, it will never match SCANNER, it is a RECEIVER with scanning capabilities with soon to be release software version 1.3 as already stated.
But I dont expect SCAN speed to be near of Uniden or TRX-1

 

[questnz]

Thanks so much for the detailed information. I'm going to check out the links to help me decide.

I was in the same situation few years ago, got two RTL-SDR ver 3 dongles to start with and soon purchased SDRPlay RSP1A, now I am looking at RSPDuo. However must say that for the money $20 dongle is hard to beat, but SDRplay is a notch above for sure. and don't forget good antenna with quality Coax to match whatever you decided to buy.

Reviews – SDRplay

 

[jonohudson]

Of course, it will never match SCANNER, it is a RECEIVER with scanning capabilities with soon to be release software version 1.3 as already stated.
But I dont expect SCAN speed to be near of Uniden or TRX-1

I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how quickly it works. You will have control over channel steps, choice of target frequencies, threshold levels, pause times or ability to pause on signal etc....

 

[moonbounce]

I have an RTL-SDR V3 dongle along with some other dongles and they only area I find that the dongles will be out performed by a scanner is in that 225 Mhz to 380 Mhz band. My scanner will constantly out perform all dongles in this band, otherwise I don't find much difference.

MB

 

[KB4MSZ]

I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how quickly it works. You will have control over channel steps, choice of target frequencies, threshold levels, pause times or ability to pause on signal etc....

This is very good news.

 

[Ubbe]

I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how quickly it works. You will have control over channel steps, choice of target frequencies, threshold levels, pause times or ability to pause on signal etc....

That's pretty much the things that the scanner plugin does for the SDR#.

/Ubbe

 

[bagmouse7]

You may want to review this article.

https://forums.radioreference.com/t...best-milair-setup-ive-encountered-yet.320983/

I have been an air band monitor for may years, and you can't beat the speed of an Airspy+SDRSharp+Vasili's frequency scanner plugin.
It is an awesome setup!

 

[questnz]

I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how quickly it works. You will have control over channel steps, choice of target frequencies, threshold levels, pause times or ability to pause on signal etc....

Oh great thank you for clarification, if this is the case it will be excellent setup, will this work with SDRPlay or/and with any other Receiver or Dongle eg RTL-SDR, personally I would like to see just Basic version of the SDRRuno software for that (scanning) and full version for everything else. Full version looks very intimidating with steep learning curve. Looking forward to release date. Chris

 

[jonohudson]

The scanner is now released - see SDRplay have released SDRuno Version 1.3 with Frequency Scanning feature – SDRplay

Currently it only works for SDRplay RSPs but we are looking at how we could support a basic version for other devices in the future.