Given the time of the year, I was wondering what the next best device would make sense, graduating from an SDR USB dongle (the EZCAP's, TERRATEC's, etc).
What, in your opinions, is the next best thing to go to (receive only, dc to daylight).
Thanks for your suggestions.
Tip
Totally depends on your goals and budget. If you honestly want DC to daylight, or even DC to microwave, in one package, that will not be cheap. The better AOR and WinRadio offerings with this bandwidth can run to $3000 and up.
A more cost effective solution would be multiple devices to give that coverage.
Below 50 MHz the options are many. From $60 sound card based units to multi thousand dollar SDRs. In general you get what you pay for. That is not to say some of the lower cost units don’t perform well, but it is pretty universal that they do not perform as well as higher cost models. Only you can decide where, for you, the cost / performance curves cross acceptably, but with an idea of budget others can make recommendations.
Above 25 MHz the options are few. Of course it starts at the SDR Dongle end with sub $20 cost, but can rapidly increase to, again, the multi thousand dollar level.
Another thought is how much of a turn-key solution do you want? Some of the lower cost options are very capable for the investment, but tend to be a bit more “tinkerer” oriented. Meaning the software or hardware might take a bit more effort to set up / make do what you want. If you are comfortable working with scripts and drivers at a more intimate level there are some cool potential devices out there.
T!
