Next Upgrade For Clarity and Range

[davbay1]

Hi everyone!

I’m just getting started on my SDR journey and want some advice on my next step.

I currently have SDRtrunk monitoring 850-855 frequencies that are P25 Phase I.

I am using a Nooelec NESDR Smart v4 with the bundled UHF antenna. It’s been working good so far. However, I want to make the reception clearer and increase the range a bit.

What should I upgrade next to achieve that. Should I buy a different antenna? Maybe a Remtronix rem-810s? (Ideally an indoor antenna, don’t have easy way to make it an outdoor antenna)

Or should it be a new SDR receiver such as a RSP1A?

I appreciate any insight.

Also, just a side question, as an indoor antenna, where should it be positioned? Up against a window or just move around the room until a good spot is found?

 

[dave3825]

Antenna will increase reception. Ideally outdoor would be better but anything would be better than the bundled sdr antennas

 

[mmckenna]

Very often, the best 'bang for your buck' will come from an upgraded antenna.

Indoors can work, especially in the 800MHz band, but you'd want the antenna near a window facing the system you want to hear.

Outdoors will almost always be better, if there is anyway to make that happen.

Don't discount the importance of the coaxial cable, either. Unless you can put the RF Dongle right at the antenna, you'll need some amount of cable. At higher frequencies like this, you'll want good coaxial cable. Longer cable and higher frequencies will negate all your antenna gain quickly.

 

[davbay1]

Very often, the best 'bang for your buck' will come from an upgraded antenna.

Indoors can work, especially in the 800MHz band, but you'd want the antenna near a window facing the system you want to hear.

Outdoors will almost always be better, if there is anyway to make that happen.

Don't discount the importance of the coaxial cable, either. Unless you can put the RF Dongle right at the antenna, you'll need some amount of cable. At higher frequencies like this, you'll want good coaxial cable. Longer cable and higher frequencies will negate all your antenna gain quickly.

Thanks for the advice.

My window is about 10-15ft away from where the computer is located. Is it better to use a longer USB extension cable to get the SDR dongle closer to the window? Or shorter USB cable and a longer coaxial cable?

Thank you!

 

[mmckenna]

Thanks for the advice.

My window is about 10-15ft away from where the computer is located. Is it better to use a longer USB extension cable to get the SDR dongle closer to the window? Or shorter USB cable and a longer coaxial cable?

Thank you!

Use a longer USB cable.

 

[bharvey2]

I ran a setup similar to yours for quite some time. I live in a fairly populated area and as such, I had a lot of RF interference to overcome. Fortunately, I had one primary system of interest and the closest tower for that system wasn't too far from me. (Perhaps 4-5 miles as the crow flies up an a hill visible to me from the roof) I ended up installing a high gain yagi for the 800mhz band (on the roof) but since the system of interest was in the upper 700mhz, it worked well enough. Feedline was about 50ft of RG6 Quad feeding a splitter at two SDRs at my desk. I used 3ft USB extension cables between the SDRs and the computer. When I was done, I had near perfect decoding rates.