SDR Newbie

[Ensnared]

I am wanting to get into SDR, but I don't know of any brands to buy. I found one with an antenna. It looks like a 800 mhz small antenna. I would appreciate any feedback.

I want this for two reasons. I want to analyze a ProVoice and DMR system in my area. When I'm through, I want to be able to listen to the traffic. So, should I buy one with an antenna attached?

 

[ka3jjz]

You really should include the URL of the site so that all of us can see what you're seeing...but to answer your question about having the antenna attached, I'd say 'heck no'. Getting the antenna out in the open as much as possible, away from the noise and other slop your PC might radiate (they all do, in one form or another), is the best first step in getting a quality signal. And you would want a quality signal to be decoding things like ProVoice and DMR.

These little $20 devices, as I understand it, takes some setting up, but once done, it looks to be a heckuva way to get your feet wet...Mike

 

[dlwtrunked]

I am wanting to get into SDR, but I don't know of any brands to buy. I found one with an antenna. It looks like a 800 mhz small antenna. I would appreciate any feedback.

I want this for two reasons. I want to analyze a ProVoice and DMR system in my area. When I'm through, I want to be able to listen to the traffic. So, should I buy one with an antenna attached?

The only reasonable think to do is to get a coax adapter to use your own antenna or to cannibalize the connector on the coax for the antenna it came with to make your own. I have bought many of these and honestly now simply throw that antenna it came with in the trash.

One with the antenna attached? Not seen one but "no". You want to be able to use something versatile of you own choice.

 

[slicerwizard]

I want this for two reasons. I want to analyze a ProVoice and DMR system in my area. When I'm through, I want to be able to listen to the traffic. So, should I buy one with an antenna attached?

Well, they're rather useless without antennas. You didn't say how you were planning on getting signals into them.

With these ones, you can adjust the antenna lengths to tune them for different bands.

Buy RTL-SDR Dongles (RTL2832U) - rtl-sdr.com

 

[ChrisABQ]

You will need 2 for this. The $25 RTL-SDR dongles work great for me monitoring a Edacs ProVoice system in Albuquerque, NM.