First attempt at SDR... what did I do wrong? (Ontario, Canada)

[Setina]

Hello, I'm a new user. I've previously owned an analog scanner and used it to listen to emergency channels before they went encrypted many years back. I decided to get back into it and ordered the Noelec RTL-SDR v5 from Amazon. I understand you ideally need two for trunking, but I wanted to see how I did with just one. The package came with three antennas but I couldn't tell what the purposes was. One was clearly for AM/FM radio (the metal telescopic one) while the other two were for other frequency ranges I surmise.

I installed the drivers and set it up as per the manufacturers guide (Zadig). It didn't help that plugging in the one SDR showed up as two interfaces (one as Interface 1, the other as Interface 2). I didn't know which one to install the driver for, so I did both. Anyway I then went on to install SDR#, CubicSDR and a few others. I had high hopes but none of them particularly worked.

When I did finally get one that appeare to function, I put in 980.000 Khz for the local AM980 station. I faintly heard the station though it was poor. I was using the telescopic antenna (like you'd find on a portable radio). If I held it, it came in better but otherwise the quality was dismal.

I could find no other stations in the waterfall. I sent it back to Amazon, a little overwhelmed with the learning curve. I'd like to know if perhaps another antenna might have worked? My aim was, and is, to listen to Bell Fleetnet trunked system (I did have SDRTrunk and I know you should have two SDR units for this).

If I can't even get basic radio reception, I'm not sure I'd be sucessful in this venture. Also it doesn't help that the bands (AM, USB, LSB, etc.) are foreign to me. I know some of the abbreviations but not what they do, and when you'd use them. I'm somewhat naive as to what bands you'd need for a given frequency.

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

 

[PDXh0b0]

So you sent it back, you no longer have an sdr?

 

[Setina]

For now. I want to know if perhaps a better antenna is required and if so, purchase one and another SDR. I know it's kind of silly, I was a little overwhelmed and gave up.

 

[Omega-TI]

When I did finally get one that appear to function, I put in 980.000 Khz for the local AM980 station. I faintly heard the station though it was poor. I was using the telescopic antenna (like you'd find on a portable radio). If I held it, it came in better but otherwise the quality was dismal.

Yeah, those included antennas are not designed for that frequency range. I'm surprised you actually picked up something! I hooked up my old Palomar active antenna to mine to get "decent" coverage using my RTL-SDR at first. You might even get something with the Tecsun loop antenna. Honestly though, the right tool for the right job, so you might be better served using a regular AM radio with it's ferrite loop antenna than mess an SDR for MW. Now when it comes to VHF, those little dongles are pretty decent for local comms with the supplied antenna.

As for those abbreviations: AM (amplitude modulation) USB/LSB stands for upper and lower sideband. It's mostly amateur radio operators that use sideband on HF.

 

[Dirk_SDR]

Setina,
give yourself more time! The dongle you bought is one of the best and probably wasn't dead.

 

[dave3825]

ordered the Noelec RTL-SDR v5 from Amazon.

They are one of the better ones.

I understand you ideally need two for trunking, but I wanted to see how I did with just one.

Ideally, yes, but depends on which software your using and what exactly your looking to do.

The package came with three antennas but I couldn't tell what the purposes was.

One was clearly for AM/FM radio (the metal telescopic one) while the other two were for other frequency ranges I surmise.

If it came with these, they can generally get you by if the gain is set properly and the antenna has a good view of the outside sky. The telescoping one is not specifically for am/fm radio. Its more or less a wide band antenna which will usually work in different freq ranges when adjusted to the proper length.

If you got the Rattlesnake antenna's, they are somewhat better based on user reviews.







Three high quality antenna masts are included at no additional cost. One is an ultra-long telescopic antenna mast, which can receive a wide range of signal types, depending on set length. Another mast is tuned for DVB-T/DVB-T2/GSM applications (black stubby antenna with blue bands), great for customers both in North America and Europe. Lastly, a rather unique helical (corkscrew) antenna is included. Though light-weight, this antenna can receive a wide range of VHF/UHF signal types with ease.

If what you want to listen to is close to you with nice strong signals, either antenna set will most likely work. If stuff further away is desired, a rooftop antenna is the way to go.

If I can't even get basic radio reception,

What was your gain set at in Cubic and where did you have the antenna sitting?

 

[sunwave]

Hello, I'm a new user. I've previously owned an analog scanner and used it to listen to emergency channels before they went encrypted many years back. I decided to get back into it and ordered the Noelec RTL-SDR v5 from Amazon. I understand you ideally need two for trunking, but I wanted to see how I did with just one. The package came with three antennas but I couldn't tell what the purposes was. One was clearly for AM/FM radio (the metal telescopic one) while the other two were for other frequency ranges I surmise.

I installed the drivers and set it up as per the manufacturers guide (Zadig). It didn't help that plugging in the one SDR showed up as two interfaces (one as Interface 1, the other as Interface 2). I didn't know which one to install the driver for, so I did both. Anyway I then went on to install SDR#, CubicSDR and a few others. I had high hopes but none of them particularly worked.

When I did finally get one that appeare to function, I put in 980.000 Khz for the local AM980 station. I faintly heard the station though it was poor. I was using the telescopic antenna (like you'd find on a portable radio). If I held it, it came in better but otherwise the quality was dismal.

I could find no other stations in the waterfall. I sent it back to Amazon, a little overwhelmed with the learning curve. I'd like to know if perhaps another antenna might have worked? My aim was, and is, to listen to Bell Fleetnet trunked system (I did have SDRTrunk and I know you should have two SDR units for this).

If I can't even get basic radio reception, I'm not sure I'd be sucessful in this venture. Also it doesn't help that the bands (AM, USB, LSB, etc.) are foreign to me. I know some of the abbreviations but not what they do, and when you'd use them. I'm somewhat naive as to what bands you'd need for a given frequency.

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

The forums can help a lot. If it was overwhelming to you to start with just please consider that many here also felt overwhelmed by software defined radio at the first run.

Another thought that comes to mind is MW reception on a SDR will need a specific antenna. One good way of doing it is running about 30ft of speaker wire to a Nooelec balun one nine and grounding the balun to a copper water pipe or another earth ground. Another way is an antenna that doesn't need a ground and that is the MLA 30+ active loop. All of these can be ordered from Amazon without breaking the bank.

For HF the above mentioned works.

For VHF-UHF the supplied antennas work. Nooelec's short coiled antenna is good for VHF/UHF. The shorter fat antenna is good for 1GHZ and above. The telescopic antenna is good for FM broadcast and VHF. Also that telescopic antenna can be adjusted to whatever part of the VHF/UHF spectrum you want to listen to.

I hope you decide to re-order the dongle and give it another try.

 

[Setina]

They are one of the better ones.

Ideally, yes, but depends on which software your using and what exactly your looking to do.






If it came with these, they can generally get you by if the gain is set properly and the antenna has a good view of the outside sky. The telescoping one is not specifically for am/fm radio. Its more or less a wide band antenna which will usually work in different freq ranges when adjusted to the proper length.

If you got the Rattlesnake antenna's, they are somewhat better based on user reviews.
View attachment 151940






Three high quality antenna masts are included at no additional cost. One is an ultra-long telescopic antenna mast, which can receive a wide range of signal types, depending on set length. Another mast is tuned for DVB-T/DVB-T2/GSM applications (black stubby antenna with blue bands), great for customers both in North America and Europe. Lastly, a rather unique helical (corkscrew) antenna is included. Though light-weight, this antenna can receive a wide range of VHF/UHF signal types with ease.

If what you want to listen to is close to you with nice strong signals, either antenna set will most likely work. If stuff further away is desired, a rooftop antenna is the way to go.


What was your gain set at in Cubic and where did you have the antenna sitting?

The gain was about 5db and the antenna was next to the monitor and laptop. I was hoping to get the London Airport which is about .5 km from me. Looking for mainly local business traffic and Fleetnet (120-150 range in Mhz). I would like to try again, just need a better idea of what I'd need for an antenna.

 

[dave3825]

Well for sure raise the gain and for air, use the telescoping antenna fully extended. Air can be difficult if you’re not close to the tower. I am about 5 miles from my tower and barely receive that with a scantenna and or discone outside on the roof.

 

[morfis]

The gain was about 5db and the antenna was next to the monitor and laptop. I was hoping to get the London Airport which is about .5 km from me. Looking for mainly local business traffic and Fleetnet (120-150 range in Mhz). I would like to try again, just need a better idea of what I'd need for an antenna.

business and Fleetnet in 120-150MHz? That range of frequencies would cover most of the civil airband and little else of particular listening interest in the UK (eg. colostomy club 2m frequencies, a national pager allocation, JRC frequencies - used by TfL bus truked net).
THE? London airport - does this mean one of the airports around London UK? Guessing it is as you mention emergency comms becoming encrypted. If it's only 500meters away then you ought to be able to pick up most of the comms with a damp lettuce leaf as an antenna.

First of all start to have a read about BANDS and MODULATION - plenty of good general resources withing Radioreference or via your preferred search engine. It seems like you had no real understanding of what you were doing when you had a scanner - now you really need to get a basic idea of things to make the most out of the hobby. Randomly installing software is also unlikley to help you. Some of the SDR control software is particularly complicated and certainly not good for 'learning' on.

Whether you need two devices for 'runking' depends a lot on what type of trunking it is as well as what you want to acheive. It will likely involve a requirement for other software as well as your control software. This also adds in another variable as there is no single piece of software that covers all options. I'd certainly start with one rtl device and learn what it can do, how to control it etc. before adding a second unit.

As others have suggested - give it some time. Take it steady and build your knowledge/experience. On this foundation you can build to monitoring digital traffic, tunking etc.

 

[sunwave]

The gain was about 5db and the antenna was next to the monitor and laptop. I was hoping to get the London Airport which is about .5 km from me. Looking for mainly local business traffic and Fleetnet (120-150 range in Mhz). I would like to try again, just need a better idea of what I'd need for an antenna.

I forgot another thought. That thought is the airband. It is close to the FM broadcast band. Nearby FM broadcast signals may overwhelm a sdr. The Nooelec Flamingo FM bandstop aka notch does a well enough job to reject FM broadcast signals. Just remember to remove it if wanting to listen to FM broadcasters. This item is also on Amazon for a modest price.

 

[Setina]

Just to clarify, I'm in Ontario Canada not the UK. From what I'm reading, I'd be needing a VHF antenna for the high band possibly a dipole or high gain antenna. Gotta admit it's a steep learning curve. Part of the issue was I didn't know if I should use the telescopic antenna or one of the black spiral ones. There were no instructions. It's a hobby you either sink or swim I guess lol.

I will order another SDR, and try to be a little more patient this time.

 

[Dirk_SDR]

I will order another SDR, and try to be a little more patient this time.

If you let us know, what you plan to buy: there is much advice here ....

 

[spongella]

Sorry to hear about your trouble but don't give up hope. I have lots of experience with SDRs and can tell you that the whip usually included with the SDR dongle is virtually useless. Forget about using it for the AM broadcast band, it won't work. You want to attach a wire antenna 30 feet or so long, outside is best, for listening to 530 kHz to about 30 MHz. For VHF/UHF, (30 MHz and up), an antenna covering those bands would be required.

SDRs work very well in general but only with a proper antenna. Hope this helps and let us know your progress.

 

[Setina]

Hi again.

I found a Uniden BCD996P2 for $380 on Amazon, and thought it would still be there this morning in my checkout basket... nope, someone else has purchased it (used from Warehouse Deals). Ugh!

So I'm thinking of getting this VHF antenna (for Bell Fleetnet and 400-460Mhz bandwidth for our work, and airport traffic)

https://www.amazon.ca/HYS-Antennas-Dual-Band-UHF-male-Motorola/dp/B08H24P613/ref=sr_1_10?crid=1ZE3FVAPEL3AF

and the Nooelec SDR radio USB module

https://www.amazon.ca/Nooelec-NESDR-SMArt-SDR-R820T2-Based/dp/B01HA642SW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=WUGKH6VTORJF

and a PL259 to SMA adapter. Does this sound like a solid purchase?

 

[Dirk_SDR]

The Nooelec RTL-SDR v5 dongle is a good choice.
The antenna is not broadband (like the dongle), but suited mainly for 144 to 433 MHz (VHF, lower UHF).
So you won't have much fun with that antenna for LW up to HF (150 kHz - 30 MHz).
My suggestion:
Also buy a Nooelec Balun One Nine:

https://www.amazon.ca/NooElec-Balun-One-Nine-Applications/dp/B00R09WHT6

... with an SMA coax cable with 2 male plugs (between dongle and balun/antenna) and attach a long wire (and possibly an RF ground) to this Balun.
Then you get an end fed random wire antenna (EFRW) with quite good reception from LF to HF.
Have fun.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Hello, I'm a new user. I've previously owned an analog scanner and used it to listen to emergency channels before they went encrypted many years back. I decided to get back into it and ordered the Noelec RTL-SDR v5 from Amazon. I understand you ideally need two for trunking, but I wanted to see how I did with just one. The package came with three antennas but I couldn't tell what the purposes was. One was clearly for AM/FM radio (the metal telescopic one) while the other two were for other frequency ranges I surmise.

I installed the drivers and set it up as per the manufacturers guide (Zadig). It didn't help that plugging in the one SDR showed up as two interfaces (one as Interface 1, the other as Interface 2). I didn't know which one to install the driver for, so I did both. Anyway I then went on to install SDR#, CubicSDR and a few others. I had high hopes but none of them particularly worked.

When I did finally get one that appeare to function, I put in 980.000 Khz for the local AM980 station. I faintly heard the station though it was poor. I was using the telescopic antenna (like you'd find on a portable radio). If I held it, it came in better but otherwise the quality was dismal.

I could find no other stations in the waterfall. I sent it back to Amazon, a little overwhelmed with the learning curve. I'd like to know if perhaps another antenna might have worked? My aim was, and is, to listen to Bell Fleetnet trunked system (I did have SDRTrunk and I know you should have two SDR units for this).

If I can't even get basic radio reception, I'm not sure I'd be sucessful in this venture. Also it doesn't help that the bands (AM, USB, LSB, etc.) are foreign to me. I know some of the abbreviations but not what they do, and when you'd use them. I'm somewhat naive as to what bands you'd need for a given frequency.

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

*Usually* the antennas that come with an SDR are terrible. And a good SDR will cost more than $100 and there are good ones less than $200. Most of your problems though are probably mistakes from inexperience (we have all been there so do not take that person). Form what you have attempted, and SDRPlay RSP1A (HRO sells) would be a good choice and once installed, using the software designed for it, things would be simpler. But I think AirSpy are better but you would need two separate models for the same coverage. Nothing is going to overcome the encryption but there are program for SDRs to deal with trunking.

 

[Jphila20]

They aren't that expensive and I have been using them since 2016. I primarily use them with Unitrunker and SDRTrunk. I've had 1 go bad in 7 years and Nooelec replaced it. I use 2 Yagi antennas. One for 700MHz and one for 800Mhz.

 

[Pape]

For nooelec I recommend you verify the price also directly on their web site some time cheaper than amazon

 

[Jphila20]

For nooelec I recommend you verify the price also directly on their web site some time cheaper than amazon

Amazon and Nooelec are currently the same price.