Hi all SDR NOOB help!

[thegreatpotato]

thank you !

thank you very much for your response. my choice in the dongles right now is purely price. i still new to it but i am enjoying it ..for the most part... I keep having strange problems, like anyone know what could cause this, ok i was using my sdr today on police bands then i installed a few plugins to SDR#. everything worked totally fine for a few hours. Then i took a break and came back to the program, restarting it it says Could not connect to SDR...so i messed with it for a bit totaly deleted sdr# re-downloaded it restarted it and it worked, but sometimes when i start it, it still says it. AND now in the middle of my frequency read out is a large spike ( added a pic) but it wasnt like this the past few days using sdr#. I found if i raise the gain the line gos to how it used to be. Ok i thought it has to be interference, but i even unpluged the antenna, and even moved the SDR around the room on a Usb Extension and the Spike never gos away, stays the same height and everything no matter what i do. even if i change the frequency it stays, anyone know what this could be ?? ive used it for a few days and it never did this. Just started this today, i usually keep gain at -9.9 and go from there. The plugins im using are Ctcss and Dts decoder. any ideas here guys??

 

[SCPD]

I agree with owning at least 2 dongles.For ADS-B one dongle can be for just ADS_B and theother dongle tuned tothe aviation AM frequencies in your area. So that you can hear the aircraft on ADS-B talking and feel like your actually doing something fun.

Another reason is trunking system with a good amount of LCN's (or channels). 1 dongle's only purpose is to feed untirunker with control channel data and the 2nd dongle for voice following. I won't advocate using 1 dongle for trunking even if the whole system is within 1 to 2.4 mhz window. Just doesn't seem fair to the USB bus.

Fun Fact: RTL-SDR's are faster than your usb memory stick!

 

[thegreatpotato]

Hey can anyone answer this one for me? I really really want to pick up a Mobile signal thats 15 miles away, is it possible? what would be needed to do so? or just give up hope cause its a mobile signal and to weak to get? also trying to get a nother mobile signal thats 7 miles away, so far no dice =( . would a signal booster for a tv anntenna do anything? i have one laying around thats why im asken. also i have a amped directional Tv antenna im not useing maybe something like that?

 

[jonwienke]

Hey can anyone answer this one for me? I really really want to pick up a Mobile signal thats 15 miles away, is it possible? what would be needed to do so?

LOL

If you live in the middle of Nebraska prairie or Nevada desert where it is flat as far as the eye can see, maybe. But in a typical urban setting with any kind of hills, forget about it.

 

[bob550]

Hey can anyone answer this one for me? I really really want to pick up a Mobile signal thats 15 miles away, is it possible? what would be needed to do so? or just give up hope cause its a mobile signal and to weak to get? also trying to get a nother mobile signal thats 7 miles away, so far no dice =( . would a signal booster for a tv anntenna do anything? i have one laying around thats why im asken. also i have a amped directional Tv antenna im not useing maybe something like that?

Receiving a mobile transmission at a distance of 15 miles depends on a number of variables, and with the information you've given, I could only guess. What exactly are you trying to hear? Police, fire, or someone with a handheld FRS radio operating at 1 watt? Mobile radios operate with differing power outputs and on different frequencies. A mobile radio operating at 25 watts on VHF-HI will be heard over a wider area than the aforementioned handheld FRS radio operating on UHF at 1 watt. At 15 miles, you'd need to place a gain antenna specific to the frequency your monitoring atop a 100 foot tower! Even 7 miles would be a stretch using the best external antenna money can buy mounted high above your house. That said, you can certainly use a TV amp to boost the signal, provided it covers the frequencies of interest. I use cable TV amps, and there is a considerable improvement. But keep in mind that an amp won't magically pull readable signals out of the air if the signal isn't there to begin with. That, and an amp can actually overload and desensitize your scanner, causing a reduction of signal strength on certain frequencies.

 

[i-Scan]

thank you very much for your response. my choice in the dongles right now is purely price. i still new to it but i am enjoying it ..for the most part... I keep having strange problems, like anyone know what could cause this, ok i was using my sdr today on police bands then i installed a few plugins to SDR#. everything worked totally fine for a few hours. Then i took a break and came back to the program, restarting it it says Could not connect to SDR...so i messed with it for a bit totaly deleted sdr# re-downloaded it restarted it and it worked, but sometimes when i start it, it still says it. AND now in the middle of my frequency read out is a large spike ( added a pic) but it wasnt like this the past few days using sdr#. I found if i raise the gain the line gos to how it used to be. Ok i thought it has to be interference, but i even unpluged the antenna, and even moved the SDR around the room on a Usb Extension and the Spike never gos away, stays the same height and everything no matter what i do. even if i change the frequency it stays, anyone know what this could be ?? ive used it for a few days and it never did this. Just started this today, i usually keep gain at -9.9 and go from there. The plugins im using are Ctcss and Dts decoder. any ideas here guys??

With Realtek chipset in SDR# go into the "Radio" settings. Near the bottom check the "Correct IQ" box to remove the center spike.

 

[slicerwizard]

I really really want to pick up a Mobile signal thats 15 miles away, is it possible? what would be needed to do so?

Pfft - that's trivial. Just move yourself into the penthouse unit in a 30 story building. If you want to monitor mobiles, get your antenna waaaay up high. There are few substitutes for height.

 

[slicerwizard]

I won't advocate using 1 dongle for trunking even if the whole system is within 1 to 2.4 mhz window. Just doesn't seem fair to the USB bus.

Not fair how?

 

[thegreatpotato]

wow thank you !!!

With Realtek chipset in SDR# go into the "Radio" settings. Near the bottom check the "Correct IQ" box to remove the center spike.

thank you so much !!!!! this was annoying me !! man thank you !!!

 

[thegreatpotato]

ummm ok now im trying to use the SDR# scanner plug in. How do you set the ranges? I set it to what i want ( 3Mhz -12Mhz) and yeah i used 3.000.000 and i get huge long error window. Ive searched for how to use the scanner and really nothing is telling me much and the videos are all of people running it and are of no help. im really not one of those people that are to lazy to google stuff, ive been searching for over 2 hrs now and not finding much about frequency input.

 

[jonwienke]

Use commas instead of periods. Or just type in the number. And make sure your SDR actually can tune those freqs. Most RTL-SDRs can't go below 24-25 MHz.

 

[thegreatpotato]

thanks to member geraldw3210 i can mess with trunking now ! he sent me a radio and i owe him one for this !

so has anyone ever set up a Amp to there antennas? i had a tv antenna with an amp not in use so i set it up and it seems my signals are way clearer then they were b4, like the one noaa weather frequency comes in pretty clear now, it used to be hard to hear and a lot of static. im also getting some signals in areas i didnt have them before. So now i have my discone and a directional hooked up and it seems to work.

 

[fleef]

Hello all, ive been wanting to buy an SDR for a good wile, now looking in to them im seeing a lot of the ones on Ebay do not say there for US countries. Im trying to find a decent radio for around 10 -20 bucks. can someone help me for choosing one i could use ? Im in the East US in PA. i found one that says it has some kind of addon box you have to solder together yourself. I know how to solder well so the DIY seems cool to me. Would it be worth it to get something like that ?? here is a link to the box

NEW 100KHz-1.7GHz full-band software radio HF FM AM RTL-SDR Receiver kit | eBay


ive found the one people on here are saying is a good SDR the one with the metal case for about 21 bucks on ebay, but it dont list if it works in the USA. I just want to buy something i can actualy use and start messen with this stuff, any help would really be great. Please help a noob !!

Yes they ALL work in USA. You aren't using it to watch television (DVB) you are using it as an SDR! So don't worry if anyone says "DVB does not work in US"- you aren't using it for that. GO AHEAD and buy the ones from China, they ALL come from there. That is where I got mine. It took about, say, 10 days to get here or so. It WILL get here. China ships things here all the time by the millions.

DO NOT INSTALL THE CD that comes with it. Do NOT. That is for TV only and if you do install it, you won't be able to use your dongle for SDR!! the computer will use the software for TV and then you are "humped" (to use a Scottish expression). I use SDR Sharp. It looks complicated- Don't sweat it, just follow the instructions Step By Step and you WILL "get it". I did, and I am a girl and not an engineer (I only think like one, wink wink)

the little SDR USB dongles get HOT HOT HOT! You can build it a new housing some one made one out of an Altoid's tin even. Keep it cold you'll know its hot by touch or by your computer acting all funny and freezing up. The housing in the dongles suck big time.

If you want it to fiddle around trying to decode police frequencies forGET it- you can only decode one channel at a time and the work involved is not worth it just break down and buy a real scanner yes they cost $$$.

I use my little USB it is great fun I even discovered our condo complex gate code being transmitted, well just about anything. They are fun for people like us who get a kick out of discovering frequencies out there floating in the ether.

There are other software programs that will work with the little USB thingie. Reddit.com's sub-reddit for RTL-SDR is a huge huge help.

 

[fleef]

Hello all, ive been wanting to buy an SDR for a good wile, now looking in to them im seeing a lot of the ones on Ebay do not say there for US countries. Im trying to find a decent radio for around 10 -20 bucks. can someone help me for choosing one i could use ? Im in the East US in PA. i found one that says it has some kind of addon box you have to solder together yourself. I know how to solder well so the DIY seems cool to me. Would it be worth it to get something like that ?? here is a link to the box

NEW 100KHz-1.7GHz full-band software radio HF FM AM RTL-SDR Receiver kit | eBay


ive found the one people on here are saying is a good SDR the one with the metal case for about 21 bucks on ebay, but it dont list if it works in the USA. I just want to buy something i can actualy use and start messen with this stuff, any help would really be great. Please help a noob !!

Yes they ALL work in USA. You aren't using it to watch television (DVB) you are using it as an SDR! So don't worry if anyone says "DVB does not work in US"- you aren't using it for that. GO AHEAD and buy the ones from China, they ALL come from there. That is where I got mine. It took about, say, 10 days to get here or so. It WILL get here. China ships things here all the time by the millions.

DO NOT INSTALL THE CD that comes with it. Do NOT. That is for TV only and if you do install it, you won't be able to use your dongle for SDR!! the computer will use the software for TV and then you are "humped" (to use a Scottish expression). I use SDR Sharp. It looks complicated- Don't sweat it, just follow the instructions Step By Step and you WILL "get it". I did, and I am a girl and not an engineer (I only think like one, wink wink)

the little SDR USB dongles get HOT HOT HOT! You can build it a new housing some one made one out of an Altoid's tin even. Keep it cold you'll know its hot by touch or by your computer acting all funny and freezing up. The housing in the dongles suck big time.

If you want it to fiddle around trying to decode police frequencies forGET it- you can only decode one channel at a time and the work involved is not worth it just break down and buy a real scanner yes they cost $$$.

I use my little USB it is great fun I even discovered our condo complex gate code being transmitted, well just about anything.

looks like I posted before reading all the other posts.... oh well

There are other software programs that will work with the little USB thingie. Reddit.com's sub-reddit for RTL-SDR is a huge huge help.

 

[thegreatpotato]

indeed

Receiving a mobile transmission at a distance of 15 miles depends on a number of variables, and with the information you've given, I could only guess. What exactly are you trying to hear? Police, fire, or someone with a handheld FRS radio operating at 1 watt? Mobile radios operate with differing power outputs and on different frequencies. A mobile radio operating at 25 watts on VHF-HI will be heard over a wider area than the aforementioned handheld FRS radio operating on UHF at 1 watt. At 15 miles, you'd need to place a gain antenna specific to the frequency your monitoring atop a 100 foot tower! Even 7 miles would be a stretch using the best external antenna money can buy mounted high above your house. That said, you can certainly use a TV amp to boost the signal, provided it covers the frequencies of interest. I use cable TV amps, and there is a considerable improvement. But keep in mind that an amp won't magically pull readable signals out of the air if the signal isn't there to begin with. That, and an amp can actually overload and desensitize your scanner, causing a reduction of signal strength on certain frequencies.

Thank you! thats exactly what i figured but wasn't 100% sure on. I am trying to receive a 25 watt Police ban, but like that other guy said about hills and things i figured that to but wanted to make sure. I just wasnt sure how other bands carry considering my experience with radio is Am /Fm BTW, would the mobile police 25 watt still be broadcasting on the NFM signal?

 

[thegreatpotato]

the little SDR USB dongles get HOT HOT HOT! You can build it a new housing some one made one out of an Altoid's tin even. Keep it cold you'll know its hot by touch or by your computer acting all funny and freezing up. The housing in the dongles suck big time.

If you want it to fiddle around trying to decode police frequencies forGET it- you can only decode one channel at a time and the work involved is not worth it just break down and buy a real scanner yes they cost $$$.



I checked my SDR and after hours of use its only slightly warm, as for the scanner, my mother wanted one so i gave her my Uniden BC355N bearcat cause for ease of use i was just using my Amazon Alexa as a scanner and its only off by a few seconds for the broadcasting. I just got in to SDR for the fun of it to see whats out there thats about it. =D