RTL-SDR Blog V3 R860 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO SMA Software Defined Radio (Dongle Only) (Black)

I am extremely impressed with this receiver. I have been involved with ham radio and short wave listening for over 50 years and have worked in the two-way radio field almost that long. I put the RTL-SDR through its paces both on the test bench and in my home ham station. I am amazed at how well it performs. One thing must be understood. It doesnt matter if the radio is a $20 USB dongle or a $5000 deluxe receiver; the radio is only as good as the antenna you connect it to. At home I connected the RTL-SDR to the same antennas I use with my $1300 Icom transceiver. I could find no signals, that I could hear on the Icom, that the dongle couldnt hear. Also, with the adjustable bandwidth control in the SDR# software, the dongle did almost as good of a job of separating signals in the crowded ham bands. The receiver is NOT a no brainer. You must be able to follow the setup instructions on the quick start page. You need decent antennas appropriate for the frequency ranges you want to listen to. An antenna that works great at VHF and UHF scanner frequencies is useless for reception at short wave or AM broadcast frequencies. A basic understanding of how communications receivers work helps a lot. You will however need to learn the software and a lot of its features are not intuitive. The RTL-SDR is, in my opinion, the most bang for your buck of any receiver ever made. Bob Mason WB8CAC

This flavor does not include any antennas, so if that is important to you make sure you order one that includes it. Works as expected. Im currently running this on a Raspberry Pi as an APRS iGate. This does get warm, hence the metal enclosure on it. I had an antenna to use with this, but still needed to purchase an adapter cable to get this to mate up to the antenna. This was my first adventure into an SDR, so I have to say overall I am happy with it. I bought this, built something with it, and it worked, so I have mark that as a successful first attempt.

This is the RTL-STL dongle to get for sure. I had a previous one that finally burned out. But this one the frequency is perfect. I no longer have to use offsets to get it set correctly to match my yaesu rig. Works fantastic.

I give it 5 stars for being exceptionally high value. Im not saying its the greatest radio receiver - it takes considerable tweaking to get it to do what I want. But for the money...it receives FM music stations, ham and local emergency team communications, and I suppose it will receive weather, police, and maritime activity once I get that programmed in. So far Im mainly using it with the software called HDSDR - I get slow waterfall displays that show traffic activity across a range of frequencies, say 2 MHz wide, with a single image showing activity during say 1/2 hour. For finding vacant channels to use for 2-way communications without interference by others, I think this will be much better than using a regular scanner.

Read up on line about Software Defined Radio before purchasing. This is a very good value for entry Software Defined Radio. Less expensive items feature non standard antenna connections. More expensive provide means to transmit as well as receive with wider bands of investigation and broader frequencies, up to 6ghz. Most SDR devices work with the same software. SMA connector, metal enclosure with shielding and advanced means to modify make this a great choice. With this, you will be able to receive many types of radio signals. Software can be arcane but this can include audio as well as digital messages and images from satellites and other devices. To fully explore the capability, expect a pleasant but extensive learning curve but with modest rewards for less effort. Look at the package including antennas from the same vendor. You will need an antenna with this particular unit.

Still trying to figure out how this happened! This is the fourth RTLSDR Blog dongle Ive purchased. Experience has taught me this dongle is very susceptible to voltage surges. BUT, for the price and capability of this dongle, it is best! Ive tried most every flavor of SDR software out there and SDR # (Sharp) is my choice for running this dongle. If youre interested in Software Defined Radios, I would recommend this dongle. (watch out for knock-offs)

These are great SDRs, I have two of them are couldnt be more pleased. They are very versatile and can be used in numerous tech projects. I would recommend them to anyone wanting to try out SDR.

Ive tried many different settings and done a lot of research on this and I am disappointed in the receive quality. I have even hooked it to my transmit antenna and seen very little difference in gain. Signals have to have the meter on the radio pegged in the corner before you can hear them on this SDR. Maybe my expectations were too high but I am pretty bummed about its quality of receive and dont even use it anymore.

This is the real deal. Not a fake or clone.

WOW, this is a very stable unit. I was looking to add to my RTL collection and came across this little jewel, man Im glad I did. Plugged the unit it and set the ppm to 76 like all the other units before, clock showed freq way off. Figured give it time to warm up and it would drift. After an hour, I came back and it was still off. Time to test the unit, after being plugged in and receiving for over an hour, I had to set the ppm to a -2. Clock showed in sync and all was good. Checked it after another hour, no drift. Big turn on, the SMA connector. The turn off, the SMA connector is only soldered on one side. How I found out was the hard way. I have a filter that is connected directly to the unit and it started to bend. Took the cover off the unit and found one leg of the SMA connector had broke loose from the board. Fired up the soldering iron and soldered all the joints to the board. Took a dowel rod and zip tied it to the filter and the dongle. Hopefully it will work. Would I buy again? You betcha I would and will. I never, ever write reviews, but this one was worth it.