The Boomer is a Bust!

[Omega-TI]

I was a little disappointed with the RTL-SDR this morning. At least with the antenna it came with, it will NOT even pick up our local AM BOOMER, (which can be received by a crystal diode radio). Now unless I'm doing anything wrong, I posted a really short video for reference, maybe I have NEWBIE IGNORANCE and am missing something.

P.S. Yes I did change the source to "Direct sampling (Q Branch)"

 

[jwt873]

What antenna are you using? If it's one of those little ~6 inch whips that come with most SDR-RTLs then, that's most likely your problem. You'll need a more substantial antenna for AM and other MF/HF frequencies.

How does it perform with local broadcast band FM stations (88-108 MHz)? You should be hearing the stronger ones there. If not, then you might have a problem.

 

[Omega-TI]

As you can see below in the 16 second clip, it does great. I'm using the dipole antenna that came with (for now) with the longer elements, extended of course.

 

[jwt873]

OK.. That flimsy dipole isn't going to serve you well down on the AM broadcast band either. It's meant for VHF.

For a quick and dirty approach, you can dig up 10 - 20 feet of wire (any old gauge) then run it out in a reasonably straight line, or tape it to a ceiling/wall/window.. Then fasten one end of the wire onto the single whip that should have come with your unit. That should pick things up significantly on the AM band.

If you don't want to be tripping on wire, you might have luck with an external AM loop antenna: https://www.amazon.com/Fancasee-Ant...ywords=am+loop+antenna&qid=1630160343&sr=8-11

There are plans to construct various loops on the net.. Just google for AM receiving loop..

 

[Omega-TI]

OK.. That flimsy dipole isn't going to serve you well down on the AM broadcast band either. It's meant for VHF.

For a quick and dirty approach, you can dig up 10 - 20 feet of wire (any old gauge) then run it out in a reasonably straight line, or tape it to a ceiling/wall/window.. Then fasten one end of the wire onto the single whip that should have come with your unit. That should pick things up significantly on the AM band.

If you don't want to be tripping on wire, you might have luck with an external AM loop antenna: https://www.amazon.com/Fancasee-Ant...ywords=am+loop+antenna&qid=1630160343&sr=8-11

There are plans to construct various loops on the net.. Just google for AM receiving loop..

Yeah, the test didn't work out too well, I wanted to see if I could pick up anything before I got a cable to hook it up to my amplified loop antenna. The problem is, I'm having some difficulty finding an SMA antenna switch/selector.

 

[PDXh0b0]

I was a little disappointed with the RTL-SDR this morning. At least with the antenna it came with, it will NOT even pick up our local AM BOOMER, (which can be received by a crystal diode radio). Now unless I'm doing anything wrong, I posted a really short video for reference, maybe I have NEWBIE IGNORANCE and am missing something.

P.S. Yes I did change the source to "Direct sampling (Q Branch)"

the crystal radio has a ferrite rod with allot of magnetic wire wrapped around it

diy passive loops receives really well
diy passive loop

going to grab one of these next time i'm down by HRO
Eton AN-200 Tunable Passive AM Radio Antenna Loop 520 kHz -1,510 kHz

 

[Omega-TI]

Yup, I have a killer amplified loop I'm waiting on a cable for. The loop rotates and slants a different angles to really pull in stations and exploit nulls. I'm looking forward to seeing the spectrum levels on screen as I pretune to the target frequency. I used this antenna decades ago for BCB-DX, now combined with the software capabilities of the SDR Sharp program it might be interesting to see what I can dig out of the ether.