RTL-SDR-V4 not receiving on HF

[VK2AGL]

I hope this is a good place to post this .... ?

I have had the RTL-SDR-V4 for alittle while....not my first SDR ...I have 3 Noolelec running on SDRTRUNK happily.

I think I have now tried all the options to get the V4 to work on HF and have failed miserably....grrr

I have tried SDR#, SDR++ and HDSDR...I believe I have correctly installed the correct drivers in each of these packages, am using the latest versions for each and running the latest Windows 11 software.

Removing the random length wire antenna causes the noise level to drop dramatically so it seems to be receiving...I can hear the local FM stations at good strength... and "just" hear the local AM stations.

But that is it !!....I have tuned up and down the HF bands, including the amateur band and nothing.

I have played with RF and IF gains...plus AGC....noise goes up and down....signal on the AM and FM stations go up and down...but still no other signals..



Before I give up ....anyone here got a constructive suggestion to help getting it working ?

Many Thanks in advance

 

[kdeke]

Maybe already done, but did you check RTL-SDR Blog V4 Users Guide?
For rtl-sdr v4 you need to replace the standard rtlsdr.dll in use by rtl-sdr v3, by a different driver (with the same name), that solved a similar issue for me.

 

[radar_hunter]

Drivers and libraries must be up to date for blog v4 as already said.

Using the AGC functions of RTL-SDR is generally not recommended in SDR use. They are meant for DVB reception which is the original purpose of the RTL chip.

Do you have another receiver that you can compare?

Did you make sure to buy a genuine v4 and not a fake one?

 

[PDXh0b0]

Download & extract the release.zip

Release RTL-SDR-BLOG Windows Release V1.3.5 · rtlsdrblog/rtl-sdr-blog

Windows dll and exe programs for the modified rtl-sdr-blog drivers. Has support for the RTL-SDR Blog V4 dongle which is based on the R828D tuner. V1.3.5 Tweak registers and VGA gain settings to im...

github.com

Open the folder, there is an x86 and x64 folder, open the x86 folder, copy the rtlsdr.dll and past it into your sdr# folder

Go back and open the x64 folder, copy the rtlsdr.dll and past it into your sdr++ folder

Hdsdr, get the latest ExtiO

Release Release v2023-11-06 · hayguen/ExtIO_RTL

Precompiled ExtIO-DLL with README for Winrad/HDSDR

github.com

 

[Omega-TI]

Did you go into the settings and change your sampling mode from "Quadrature" to "Direct sampling (Q Branch)"?

 

[SignalPatcher]

Use SDR Console.
After installation, under "HF Upconverter" set "Enable".

 

[ind224]

I'm new to SDR and using the same device you are I find band changes require a confirmation the bandwidth is correctly set and at times IF noise reduction has to be used like it or not or you get no audio.