Zero Success With RTL SDR V4 On Medium Wave

SatHunter

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Very pleased with my RTL SDR on VHF/UHF frequencies including air band. Shortwave reception is just. so so. But I’m not sure why I’m getting virtually nothing on medium wave. I live between 2 powerhouse AM stations that pin the needle on analog and digital radios. I only barely get a signal on 980 kHz & the rest of the band flatlines. I tried different antennas but I was sure my 60 ft long wire would pick something up. On YouTube I see a lot of users posting radio reception on the AM band with SDR & they get literally dozens of stations with a very decent signal. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have a Ham It Up unit that I never really tried but I’m hoping I’ll get a better result than with the V4. Using the latest SDR# software.
 

below500kc

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I have excellent BCB reception w/ a V4 and an e-probe antenna. Make sure you lower the gain setting for bcb signals.
Running the V4 in linux using GQRX as the sdr software.
 

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PDXh0b0

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What does the 60 ft longwire consist of ?

Some of the banana binding posts have factory error of red/black mixed up.

Easiest thing would be to put wire in a nooelec 9:1

An antenna that doest take allot of space
Loop on the ground, you can make something like a 2:6 isolation transformer or just use the nooelec 9:1(I've used both successfully)
 

SatHunter

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I have excellent BCB reception w/ a V4 and an e-probe antenna. Make sure you lower the gain setting for bcb signals.
Running the V4 in linux using GQRX as the sdr software.
Looking great! Thanks for the advice. I lowered the gain and got about 10 signals now (all local). I’ll have to play around with antennas - we are in a very high noise neighbourhood. I’ll have to give it a try in Linux as well. What is the proper bandwidth for AM band? Mine is set at 8000
 

PDXh0b0

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Looking great! Thanks for the advice. I lowered the gain and got about 10 signals now (all local). I’ll have to play around with antennas - we are in a very high noise neighbourhood. I’ll have to give it a try in Linux as well. What is the proper bandwidth for AM band? Mine is set at 8000
The log is very low noise

The bandwidth is determined by one's ears imo 😀 I use 8 -11 , sometimes in sdrsharp I'll use dsb modulation over am
 

SatHunter

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What does the 60 ft longwire consist of ?

Some of the banana binding posts have factory error of red/black mixed up.

Easiest thing would be to put wire in a nooelec 9:1

An antenna that doest take allot of space
Loop on the ground, you can make something like a 2:6 isolation transformer or just use the nooelec 9:1(I've used both successfully)
Thanks my friend! I ordered the 9:1 last Friday but it won’t get here till next week because of the long weekend. No, actually the long wire is a very high performance antenna and works great with all of the shortwave and ham equipment. The problem most times are overhead power lines running crisscross across the back yard. Also surrounded by light standards out front that generate a ton of noise
 

SatHunter

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The balun showed up this morning. I made it into a dipole with 2 33 ft long wire antennas. Big improvement on 20m! Hearing lots of Morse, voice & SSTV. Short wave is also substantially improved. Medium wave has more signal but it is mainly bringing in local stations a lot better. A favorite radio station that is 190 miles away on 660 kHz that comes in fine on every radio I own isn’t even detected in SDR#. It is obvious that my antenna arrays aren’t ideal for getting the most out of SDR
 

PDXh0b0

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The balun showed up this morning. I made it into a dipole with 2 33 ft long wire antennas. Big improvement on 20m! Hearing lots of Morse, voice & SSTV. Short wave is also substantially improved. Medium wave has more signal but it is mainly bringing in local stations a lot better. A favorite radio station that is 190 miles away on 660 kHz that comes in fine on every radio I own isn’t even detected in SDR#. It is obvious that my antenna arrays aren’t ideal for getting the most out of SDR
You could always make a ferrite antenna to compete with purpose built radios
 

EAFrizzle

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You might be surprised how well a CB mag mount antenna does on MW at night. Stick it on anything ferrous (A/C condenser, pizza pan, etc.) I know a guy who uses a Wilson 1000 in a cast iron skillet  indoors for MW and SW listening.
 

SatHunter

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You might be surprised how well a CB mag mount antenna does on MW at night. Stick it on anything ferrous (A/C condenser, pizza pan, etc.) I know a guy who uses a Wilson 1000 in a cast iron skillet  indoors for MW and SW listening.
Sounds great. It’s worth a try. I have a trunk full of CB antennas including mag mounts so I’ll make this my weekend project 👍
 
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