SDR dongles

[WSFL333]

I've recently become interested in SDR and have viewed various dongles on Amazon. I have several general questions:

1. What are the better (or best) SDR dongles available for under $100? 

2. Are the cables and antenna included or require a separate purchase?

3. Is software included? If not, what software is needed? Free download or purchase required?

4. What computer OS is needed? I have a newer laptop running windows 11 home version.

Feel free to add and recommend additional things I have missed. I understand that this is a receive only setup and I'm not looking for a SDR transceiver

Thanks 

 

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, WSFL333 said:

I've recently become interested in SDR and have viewed various dongles on Amazon. I have several general questions:

1. What are the better (or best) SDR dongles available for under $100? 

2. Are the cables and antenna included or require a separate purchase?

3. Is software included? If not, what software is needed? Free download or purchase required?

4. What computer OS is needed? I have a newer laptop running windows 11 home version.

Feel free to add and recommend additional things I have missed. I understand that this is a receive only setup and I'm not looking for a SDR transceiver

Thanks 

 

1. I have only tried one, but I suspect nearly all use the same chipsets at that price level.
2. No. How could they?  The antennas will be different depending on which band you want to listen to.  A discone would be nice because of its wide coverage though. Plan on spending many times the cost of the SDR for the antenna. 
3. Yes. Both free and commercial software is available.
4. Software is available for all of the more popular operating systems.

[dosw]

1 hour ago, WSFL333 said:

I've recently become interested in SDR and have viewed various dongles on Amazon. I have several general questions:

1. What are the better (or best) SDR dongles available for under $100? 

2. Are the cables and antenna included or require a separate purchase?

3. Is software included? If not, what software is needed? Free download or purchase required?

4. What computer OS is needed? I have a newer laptop running windows 11 home version.

Feel free to add and recommend additional things I have missed. I understand that this is a receive only setup and I'm not looking for a SDR transceiver

Thanks 

 

I have an RTL-SDR Blog V4. The V4 has one advantage over the V3: It can do HF without the pitfalls of direct sampling. It has one disadvantage as well: It requires updated drivers (free), which means a few additional steps for first-time setup. I think it's worth the trade-off to be able to do HF.

1. There are lots of other SDRs, but most of the better ones are over $100. For "Better" you typically get broader bandwidth. The RTL-SDR, and most others in its price range will have 2.4MHz bandwidth. That means if you want to listen to GMRS in the 462 range, and in the 467 band at the same time, you would need two dongles and a way to share the antenna. For me, needing more than 2.4MHz bandwidth in my waterfall at the same time has not been a common use case. More expensive models may do better in the HF or may handle higher than 1.7GHz.
2. They sell a version that comes with some antennas. That adds about $20 to the kit, and the antennas are worth about $20 (ie, they're not great). I use a Comet CA2x4SR for 6m-23cm (the antenna can receive okay from 50MHz to 1.25GHz). And I have a home made dipole cut for 20m that seems to work relatively well for receiving from 40m up to 10m. You will need your own cables and adapters. The basic kit is barebones; just the dongle.
3. Software is free: SDR++, SDR#, SDRTrunk, SDRAngel, and other tools are all you'll need. But you do have to download and install it, and configure it for whatever SDR you own.
4. A Windows or Linux computer will be fine. There is a Linux distribution that can be run from a thumb-drive, even, that is made specifically for simple SDR use. It's called DragonOS: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/dragonos-debian-linux-with-preinstalled-open-source-sdr-software/

I bought a few of the RTL-SDRv4 because I thought I was going to set up trunk-tracking for my area, and it spans more than can be covered with one or two dongles. I really don't use more than one or two, though. Almost always, one is sufficient. I've found that when I do use two, I have one set to 2m, and one set to 70cm, to listen to uplinks and downlinks simultaneously on ISS fly-overs.

For antennas, a discone that covers from HF to GHz range is a really good way to go. Here's one that I am considering: https://www.amazon.com/300-Watt-Broad-Band-Scanner-Stainless-Transmit/dp/B00QVNI1V0?ref_=ast_sto_dp . Since you're only receiving with an SDR, it doesn't matter as much that the antenna has a higher SWR in bands that interest you, as long as it receives reasonably well.

I also bought a few attenuators (40dB, 20dB, 10dB) so that I can plug directly into the SDR and measure power output (after calculating the power offset). But an SA like the TinySA or a power meter like the SW102 are probably easier to configure to work for this purpose. There is some overlap between a spectrum analyzer and an SDR, though. But an actual spectrum analyzer will sweep larger ranges more easily. Later I added a HamItUp Nano up-converter, even though the SDR has HF capability, because the HamItUp seemed to reach a little better into the lower ranges. You may eventually spend a little to get some band-reject filters for FM Broadcast and AM Broadcast. I don't use them all the time, but sometimes they're useful.

It's just another avenue of exploring the radio hobby. You can start out with nothing more than an RTL-SDR and the antenna you already own, whatever that is, and an adapter. And then grow from there.

 

 

[WSFL333]

Thanks for the information regarding the discone antenna. I forgot that I have one in the garage. My other problem is I'm running out of places to install another antenna.

I already have the vertical antenna for HF ground mounted in my yard and a dual band vhf/uhf on a pole mounted to my garage. I need to find a spot for the discone.

While I've been licensed for about 15 years my main interest has been in the HF bands but lately I've become interested again in the uhf bands and see that there has been so much advancement in affordable hardware that I don't what to play with first.

[gortex2]

20 hours ago, WSFL333 said:

I've recently become interested in SDR and have viewed various dongles on Amazon. I have several general questions:

1. What are the better (or best) SDR dongles available for under $100? 

2. Are the cables and antenna included or require a separate purchase?

3. Is software included? If not, what software is needed? Free download or purchase required?

4. What computer OS is needed? I have a newer laptop running windows 11 home version.

Feel free to add and recommend additional things I have missed. I understand that this is a receive only setup and I'm not looking for a SDR transceiver

Thanks 

 

1 - Really depends on you plans. For most stuff at home I run the cheap RTL noolec dongles. Last one was $35.00 on jungle site. For work I run the Airspy as its a much better unit. But its over $100/

2 - Nommally no cables come with the USB dongle. Lots of places sell a kit you can order but most have a SMA connector. So any SMA adapter to your antenna cable works fine. 

3 - No software is included with many of them. Each manufacturer has some flavor of software. Depends on your use case. I use SDR TRunk at home for TLMR stuff as well as on the road. There are lots of software packages online.

4 - Any flavor of windows will work. I run stuff on PC's as far back as W7 to my current W11 PC. Even run a few application on a rasperry pi.

All in all it really depends on what your plan is with an SDR. Most are narrow banded and can only pick up 2-3 mhz at a time. So for TLMR in VHF UHF a single dongle may not work for listening to more than control channel. I run 2 dongles on most of my TLMR applications. The air spy is a wider band and thats why I use it for work stuff. IF we knew what your looking to do it would be easier to give you ideas.

[WSFL333]

At this stage I'm just trying to learn everything I can about the SDR capabilities. I have also developed a renewed interest in the UHF radio spectrum, so I want the ability to see activity in the various UHF bands. 

[dosw]

1 minute ago, WSFL333 said:

At this stage I'm just trying to learn everything I can about the SDR capabilities. I have also developed a renewed interest in the UHF radio spectrum, so I want the ability to see activity in the various UHF bands. 

Keep it simple: Get an SDR that allows from HF to upper UHF without needing to drop into direct sampling in the HF range. An example of that is the RTL-SDR v4. Direct sampling is poorer performance, so a model that doesn't require it for HF is nice to have. And that dongle is about $40 last time I checked.

A single unit will give you 2.4MHz swaths of waterfall to watch, to see activity happening. And you can very easily move through the bands looking at the activity you might want to listen to. You'll learn to spot SSB, FM, AM, and digital transmissions; they all have characteristic looks in the waterfall. And you'll learn how to tune in and listen. There's a steep curve the first few days, and then it gets pretty easy.

[WRXB215]

@dosw Are there any similar units that can transmit without the price going through the roof? Thanks.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WRXB215 said:

@dosw Are there any similar units that can transmit without the price going through the roof? Thanks.

How much power do you want and what bands do you want to transmit on?

[dosw]

1 hour ago, WRXB215 said:

@dosw Are there any similar units that can transmit without the price going through the roof? Thanks.

Nooelec makes the HackRFOne, which starts around $320 and transmits at up to 15dBm (31.62mW, .032 watts, which is less than 1/10th the power of an FRS radio on channels 8-14. Any meaningful transmission would require an amplifier which will carry its own separate cost, and would mostly only be permissible on amateur radio frequencies (with appropriate amateur license).