RTL-SDR

>>59479921
I bought a cheap one but the cheap antenna broke. Can't even find one to get because ham's are so autistic about their antennas.

>>59479940
just use a DIY dipole like I do.
Grab a cork, grab two telescopic antennas from scrapped radios, buy 5 meters of 50ohm coax and solder the wires to the telescopic antennas. There you have a perfect anntenna, I use mine to receive police and stuff at 170~MHz ish frequencies.

Or just hook it up to a TV antenna, like I'm doing right now.

>>59479975
See that's what I'm talking about. Scrap this, make that, works best for this frequency.

I just want a link on amazon to buy something.

>>59479921
I got one of these but i'm in a really shitty area and would probably need a fuck-off massive antenna to pick up anything, which probably also means getting a real radio. It's a shame i have no idea where to buy radio equipment and there isn't anywhere this side of the country to visit.

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Rate my ham, faggots.

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>>59480003
then get an old yagi, the rectagle-style one work great for a magnitude for frequencies.

Also, dipole from telescopic antennas can work for many freqs since you can make them longer or shorter. The gain losses are minimal anyway, even ADS-B works on my antenna (and that's 1090MHz).

>>59480027
same thing, get a cheap TV antenna, direct it around.

Anyway, here's my setup and I can receive a lot, airplane voice, DVB-T TV, police, airplane positions and so on. as you can see that's not much at all.

>>59480047
would eat

>>59480111
https://www.amazon.com/Stellar-Labs-30-2435-Outdoor-Omnidirectional/dp/B00DHHOZBI

Looks like this fm antenna.

>>59480204
RTL-SDRs input is 50ohms, so look for an unit that has 50ohm impedance. Also get a 50 ohm cable.

It will work without it, but there will be gain losses.
Eventually you could get a matching transformer (75 to 50 ohm). RF is a tough subject.

I'll try looking for a 50ohm antenna on amazon.

>>59480204
>>59480271
This one is 75 ohm.

>>59480363
seems like they don't really sell 50ohm antennas in the US.
Like I said, it will work with the dongle, but directional antennas will perform much better.
$10 isn't a lot of money and a matching transformer will cost only a little.

>>59479921
> Not buying an upper class transceiver that has SDR support

Wew lads, enjoy having to put up with upconverters, bad solder joints and QRM by nearly moving your laptop charger too close to it

>>59480429
I'm already receiving HF down to 225KHz (40db SNR) without any upconverter, hooked directly to the 75ohm line from an old yagi that's sitting on the roof. The only thing I did was soldering a piece of wire to one of the pads.

>>59480483
That implies an upconverter on board, otherwise it won't work with the RTL SDR dongles, doesn't matter which chip is soldered one. Also the affinity of them isn't really good at all. Also they pop like popcorn for me in a 24/7 environment. I mean they are good for starting, but in the end, if you want to go deeper, you will be frustrated with all the effort and money you need to put into it.

>>59480575
Google what direct sampling is. I'm using the most basic chink dongle there is, R820T2 tuner.
If you power it from a clean source then it works wonders on HF.

>>59480602
>Direct sampling

This won't work with atleast basic filters in general a filter chip on board for HF.

> Clean source

It's USB, that alone makes it QRM prone.

You can't beat a standalone transceiver with filters and chokes on the mains side

>>59480745
Can't please the hams. For a beginner it's enough, really. Also, even a beginner is able to make a linear 5v power supply if wanted to get rid of some noise.

Sure, it doesn't work as well as a $1000 transceiver, has harmonics from xtal and isn't as sensitive, but it's enough to experiment and get hooked on.

>>59479921
>explain yourself.
I have this thing called the internet.

>>59480972
Yes I can agree with you on that, but as I said, if you get deeper into it, you will start to cry. Because you burn more and more money to get it working to your pleasing and in the end you just see it wont work properly and then will go out and buy a good one. I'm living in a very QRM prone environment, internet over powerline, LCDs, power supplies, etc. So I just went out and bought a good one, it saved me alot of headache and possibly money in the long run. I was just giving a head up there, if you get into it, you will soon see, those dongles arent any good at all for more advanced usage (TETRA decoding, splitting out multiple stations on same frequency, decoding stuff in general).

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>>59479921
I have a KX3 instead.

TV dongles are good for news because of the low cost, and I can see them being useful with the down converters, but I am like 500 yards from a military base and their radar (when it gets turned on) desenses cheap receivers.

>>59482474
Good for beginners I meant to say here.

I might get a TV stick just for the broad bandwidth to use as a panadapter though.

>>59480411
>they don't sell 50ohm antennas in the US
you are retarded. plain and simple.

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>>59479921
What's there to explain?

>>59480111
>would eat
>ham

Took you serious up until this

I had one, but I thought it was pretty shit.

Are there any other better options for a little bit more money?

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>>59479921
What dongle do you recommend

DS-150S COMET + SDRPlay 2

Does this combo work well? I'm about to buy it

Looks like one of my neighbours is using wireless headphones while watching [spoiler]porn.[/spoiler]

https://streamable.com/5p6cn

GT-3TP + stock antenna

>>59479921
When HAM radio is too popular