HDSDR with a 820T2 dongel problems

[cehurst]

I have a 820T2 dongle connected with HDSDR on an HP laptop. I used ZADIG 2.2 drivers and then installed DSD+. The input is Cable A and the output is Speakers.
When the radio comes up everything looks great. I tried 2M because I have a FT-60 and when I transmit Simplex it shows up on the sound floor and the waterfall. The sound, though is VERY low, even when the volume is turned up. I checked the Volume controls and the incoming is thru Cable A and the outgoing are the speakers.

In FM mode and looking for FM stations, I see stations, but there is no sound. Many known stations don't show up on the waterfall.

I am very rural, so there is not much 2M traffic to monitor, even emergency.

My antenna is a simple 16" telescope plugged into the dongle.
The sound card on my laptop seems to be OK.

My question is:

Do you see anything wrong with the above setup?

What would be a good way to see and test digital signal?

Thanks;
Chuck

 

[SCPD]

Get yourself a spare huge cookie sheet and a 2M mobile antenna in your attic or use your base antenna. The telescoping antenna has no gain.

Now I am going out on the limb here and going to say If you got the NooElec NESDR SMART it comes with 3 antennas the mid sized black coil loaded one is actually for 433mhz ISM band BUT it will work in 2 M reception (Please dont beat me up for saying this because it does work). I have been DX-ing 162mhz weather with it having 90 mile signals coming in on today's troposphere ducting in Oklahoma.

 

[cehurst]

Antenna

I think you're right. I am going to hook up to my J pole when I get home (I'm wintering in AZ now). I have the adapter to direct connect to it. I also have the up-converter for HF, but haven't even tried that yet.
Thanks;
Chuck

 

[SCPD]

GAIN!!!!!

The thing with an rtl-sdr is the ADC has low 8bit resolution which isn't best for dx-ers. Higher resolution brings in weaker signals. There is no way to increase the ADC resolution. All we can do is change it's sample rate (the span of frequency shown) and adjust two different gains.

As a personal recommendation based on experience never use experimental decimation extio libraries. They alias badly.They write to registers on the R820T/2 chip and never erase which causes the aliasing to stick and still a problem if reverting back to a stable extio library. The dongle has aliasing by default but the decimation extio libraries worsen it. (This decimation extio http://www.rtl-sdr.com/an-rtl-sdr-extio-with-decimation-and-tuner-bandwidth-controls/ )

Always helps to keep in mind if you want decent reception, antenna high as possible, and most gain as possible on the antenna. You can't go wrong ordering from scannermaster a decent antenna. They work.

Can you post which rtl-sdr you have?

 

[cehurst]

experimental decimation extio libraries

Thanks for the help.

I am having trouble converting anything, be it digital or analog.

What is an experimental decimation extio library?



Thanks again;
Chuck hurst

 

[cehurst]

ExtIO library DLL

I do have the ExtlO DLL libraries, as I was instructed to do by the manufacturer of my configured SDR set-up. I noticed that when the DLL file is placed in the HDSDR folder as directed, the Sound card function changes, eliminating the Input and Output boxes. I will try the system without the DLL file - I hope the registers can be re-written.

I have two Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) DVB-T+FM=DAB, USB 2.0, RTLs

Thanks for the help;
Chuck

 

[SCPD]

I do have the ExtlO DLL libraries, as I was instructed to do by the manufacturer of my configured SDR set-up. I noticed that when the DLL file is placed in the HDSDR folder as directed, the Sound card function changes, eliminating the Input and Output boxes. I will try the system without the DLL file - I hope the registers can be re-written.

I have two Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) DVB-T+FM=DAB, USB 2.0, RTLs

Thanks for the help;
Chuck

Those sound card functions are meant for sdr's that provide Sound Card IQ samples and not needed for RTL-SDR because RTL-SDR doesn't use sound card based IQ samples. The EXTIO dll you have is probably the correct one. The EXTIO dll's I mentioned are experimental versions.