SDR Problem

[danesgs]

well, I am not unfamiliar with RTL-SDR dongles, SDR# software and Zadig config, but for the life of me I cannot get more than one FM station to "barely be heard, WMZQ FM 98.7 and nothing at all on 162.550 Manssas VA NWS weather. The Nooelec folks sent me another dongle with the same results. Tried all 3 antennas and no change. HDSDR, SDR@, Cubic SDR all get the same results. What is going on here?

 

[dlwtrunked]

well, I am not unfamiliar with RTL-SDR dongles, SDR# software and Zadig config, but for the life of me I cannot get more than one FM station to "barely be heard, WMZQ FM 98.7 and nothing at all on 162.550 Manssas VA NWS weather. The Nooelec folks sent me another dongle with the same results. Tried all 3 antennas and no change. HDSDR, SDR@, Cubic SDR all get the same results. What is going on here?

You almost certainly have not turned but the gain in SDR#. You have to do that; find the slider and move it. You have to do that with HDSDR also. Or it if you are close to a transmitter, you may have the gain too high and the SDR is overloading. Something is wrong. What 3 antennas--if the ones they send, those are crap.

 

[rbm]

Here are some typical settings that I use for SDR#. (I still use an older version)

This is with an outdoor antenna so you may not see the same signal strength.

Make sure that 'RTL-SDR' is selected as the Source at the top, left.

Rich

Broadcast FM:

http://i.imgur.com/27s3DIb.jpg


NOAA Weather:

http://i.imgur.com/84t5zz2.jpg



.

 

[krbvroc1]

well, I am not unfamiliar with RTL-SDR dongles, SDR# software and Zadig config, but for the life of me I cannot get more than one FM station to "barely be heard, WMZQ FM 98.7 and nothing at all on 162.550 Manssas VA NWS weather. The Nooelec folks sent me another dongle with the same results. Tried all 3 antennas and no change. HDSDR, SDR@, Cubic SDR all get the same results. What is going on here?

I have the same Nooelec USB dongles. As some other people mentioned, be sure you are setting the gain.
I even found that checking the 'RTL AGC' and 'Tuner AGC' boxes worked well for me.

I had best results with the telescoping antenna raised. You might also double check your bandwidth wideband versus narrow depending on what you are tuning.

I did sit my stock antenna on a metal pan / upside down cooking pot which helped.

 

[spongella]

You mentioned trying three different antennas, what are they? Success with dongle reception is no different than any other receiver for the most part, that is, you need a decent antenna; outside antennas are better than inside, higher is better than lower heights, bigger antenna is better than smaller, and your antenna should be designed for the frequency range you're listening to. Hope this helps.

With all the dongles you've gone through, appears they are not the problem.

 

[MineralMan]

Set Your RF gain higher

Click the cogwheel in SDR# and set the RF gain in the configuration box to 35 dB or so, and your problem will be solved.

well, I am not unfamiliar with RTL-SDR dongles, SDR# software and Zadig config, but for the life of me I cannot get more than one FM station to "barely be heard, WMZQ FM 98.7 and nothing at all on 162.550 Manssas VA NWS weather. The Nooelec folks sent me another dongle with the same results. Tried all 3 antennas and no change. HDSDR, SDR@, Cubic SDR all get the same results. What is going on here?