RTL-SDR V3 Help

[danp89zz]

Hello All

I have recently purchased RTL-SDR V3 along with a cheapish dipole antenna for use at home. I am very new to SDR but I have used a handheld scanner for a while now. So please forgive my ignorance on this topic. I am trying to listen to aircraft on the civil band.

The problem I am having is that when I am picking up audio transmissions the voice is very clear but its almost drowned out with noise. I have a small handheld Uniden UBC125XLT with a Watson W899 on the window and its picking up the same transmission very clearly.

I am using the Airspy Sharp software. The waterfall is yellow/orange with a clear red line when the aircraft is transmitting. The legs on the antenna are extended to 60cm each. I am listening on AM with a bandwidth of around 15000, order of 1000 and the RF Gain Set to around 33dB.

Any Help with this problem will be greatly appreciated.

 

[dave3825]

I am using the Airspy Sharp software.

post screenshots of the screen with the Airspy settings.

I am listening on AM with a bandwidth of around 15000, order of 1000 and the RF Gain Set to around 33dB.

90000 or 10000 would be better.

Gain--- set it to zero. slowly raise it just to where you see the noise floor start to rise. That's basically where you want to be.

For best results all around, an outdoor antenna mounted high will achieve some nice results.

You can play with all these (circled) as some can clean up the audio a bit.

 

[Ubbe]

9000 in bandwidth are more appropriate to use and you can go lower but will be cutting off the highest audio frequencies, where the most of the noise are. I use 36dB gain in FM and in AM I can go higher. You have the AGC enabled of course and there's some settings there like hangtime that shouldn't be too short. Scanners doesn't have noise reduction but you can apply a little in SDR# to improve audio but too much and it will only sound worse.

/Ubbe

 

[dave3825]

90000 or 10000 would be better.

9000 in bandwidth are more appropriate

Lol, yeah, that should have read 9000.

 

[danp89zz]

Thank you for your replies. I have followed the advice and the transitions are much clearer. I think I will be investing in an external antenna as suggested. Thank you again.