Welcome to the DDRC Website!
|
Low cost SDR unit
You need a DVB-T Usb receiver with RTL2832U / Elonics E4000 or RT820 chipset, a reasonably fast computer, Windows OS, cable and aerial.
SDRSHARP software can be quite heavy on CPU resource.
Operating systems, XP, WIN7, also working on Vista, and Win8. Success has been had from dongles using the R820T chip. Google for R820T, NooElec have several offerings.
These newer dongles using the
R820T chip seem to be more sensitive, though
can easily be overloaded if you use a pre-amp.
It is recommended that you do not install the TV software and driver CD that comes with the unit, cancel out the windows install driver questions, then run the Zadig program to install the RTL driver - see links below. UPDATE there are newer versions, if you have XP, make sure you download the XP version !.
The tuneable range is 51MHz to around 2.2GHz with a gap around 1107-1244MHz, and can be used with an upconverter for lower frequencies.
There are several new low cost 50MHz upconverters available. The one pictured below from Cosycave does not seem to be available any longer as their website appears to be down
With a little careful adjustment of the audio from SDR# , you can decode ACARS data using Acarsd software (free) zipped download here
UPDATE There are now programs to use these dongles to receive the ADS-B aircraft transmissions on 1090GHz, once you have your dongle working as an SDR, download the following, Virtual Radar Server download (home page Virtualradarserver Web Page) and the RTL1090 program here RTL1090 Software Other ADSB software - ADSBSCOPE to display aircraft on map.
|
search ebay for HF upconverter such as the Ham it up v1.3
