New to sdr

[darkwolf]

There's so many to choose from out there which one are the best I mainly listen to aircraft uhf vhf federal uhf vhf digital - analog frequencies any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you in advance.

 

[darkwolf]

Also I will be using Windows 8.1

 

[toastycookies]

the best is going to cost thousands of dollars.
are you sure you want the best?

 

[darkwolf]

Ok maybe the cheapest way could be a way to go

 

[toastycookies]

do you want an actual radio or just one of the cheap dongles?

 

[radioshane]

d

is the Watson w sdrx1 easy to use?
and iv'e been told it has a sma plug on it if so is it easy to convert the plug to make it a bnc plug?

 

[ka3jjz]

The cheapest would likely be one of the RTL-SDR dongles (I believe- I could be wrong here - that you would need 2 of them if you were to do trunktracking...).

And before you think that there aren't any apps for this, check out...

rtl-sdr.com - RTL-SDR (RTL2832U) and software defined radio news and projects. Also featuring Airspy, HackRF, FCD and more.

which has numerous different kinds of applications, including aeronautical (use the search topics on the right, about 3/4 way down the page). And see the 'big list' for all the apps that have some functionality - either with piping or directly interface - with these little sticks.

Mike

 

[frazpo]

I have had hours of fun just setting up different sdr projects. I am an aviation fan so decoding ads-b has been the most fun. Here is one of the cheap dongles that are used.

http://www.amazon.com/NooElec-RTL-SDR-RTL2832U-Software-Packages/dp/B008S7AVTC

You can find them cheaper then that though.

 

[toastycookies]

what do you use for an antenna?

i've been looking into dedicating an older machine for ads-b and noticed all the serious people used QFH antennas, usually homebrewed from some pvc and copper piping for that and the sat's.

 

[frazpo]

what do you use for an antenna?

i've been looking into dedicating an older machine for ads-b and noticed all the serious people used QFH antennas, usually homebrewed from some pvc and copper piping for that and the sat's.

Toast im going PM to not hijack the thread.

 

[darkwolf]

Toasty I guess I don't understand when you say radio or dongle as I understand you need a dongle to listen to a radio correct me if I'm wrong

 

[toastycookies]

the dongles are the "cheap" way to get into it.

they have full stand alone radios that do not require computers attached or anything else.

the flex radios are a good example of "stand alone" SDR.

FlexRadio Systems

but I think what you have in mind are the low cost dongles that have exploded in popularity and are very low cost, which ka3jjz linked a great site worth checking out.

you can find them as cheap as $5-8 on ebay, or some china export site or you could spend a little more and get something a little higher quality with better tolerances sold and supported by a US distributor.

I would recommend getting something from the following site @ NooElec - SDR Receivers - Software Defined Radio

one of the RTL2832 + R820T models should be what you are looking for.

If you want to do anything under 30mhz you are going to need an upconverter.

Oh, and get a decent antenna from the start. Not the cheesy one that comes in the remote package deal.

 

[darkwolf]

Toasty and everyone else's input thank very much

 

[Yagi23]

If you want more dynamic range than you can get with the RTL2832 + R820T, I would look at either the SDRplay RSP or the Airpsy. I have both and they deliver considerably better performance than the above platform. The SDRplay platform has HF support, but has a coverage gap between 380 MHz and 430 MHz. The Airspy has no gap, but also has no HF support. At least with the two units that I have, the SDRplay is by far the more sensitive of the two (by around 3 dB in fact) and is fabulous for DXing. Whatever you get, have fun

 

[radioshane]

d

well according to the flex radio web site it doesn't do uhf that's not good it's a shame the uk forum people on transmision1 never talk about this radio!
can you put decoding software on to it?

 

[Yagi23]

well according to the flex radio web site it doesn't do uhf that's not good it's a shame the uk forum people on transmision1 never talk about this radio!
can you put decoding software on to it?

Well, as I said, there is a gap in coverage between 380 MHz and 430 MHz, so perhaps that is what people are referring to. That apart, the coverage is contiguous from 100 KHz, right up to around 2 GHz.

The Airspy doesn't have this gap, so if that is crucial to you, that might be the one to go for. But as I also said, I find the sensitivity of the SDRplay to be much better and of course it has HF support - which the Airspy doesn't.

I understand that the SDRPlay uses the same tuner as the Funcube pro+ and the CommRadio CR-1a, but somehow the SDRplay team have managed to reduce the size of the gap from what occurs on these other two devices.

In terms of software, all of the decoding software runs on the host PC. Supported software includes SDR sharp, HDSDR, SDR-J and SDR Console. They also claim to have a replacement for the osmosdr mirisdr_2.lib for Linux platforms like GNU Radio coming soon. They also provide free DAB/FM and DVB-T decoders, but beware, you need a decent PC with Windows media center if you want to run the DVB-T software. It works pretty nicely though and I have been using mine as a Freeview recorder

 

[darkwolf]

I'm very surprised by the size of the antenna I was expecting a larger antenna we'll how it works out I give you guy's my thoughts on what i received

 

[darkwolf]

I'm also in search of freeware programs

 

[blangell]

I'm also in search of freeware programs

Hey Darkwolf have you been here??? The BIG List of RTL-SDR Supported Software - rtl-sdr.com