RTL-SDR: The COOLEST USB Dongle (Software Defined Radio)

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  • Опубліковано 2 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 93

  • @PureAwareness76
    @PureAwareness76 Місяць тому +2

    Seen dozens of UA-cam vids on SDR for 2 years now - yours is the best as for the necessary softwares and installation! Period. Thank you! 😍
    Please, keep up the good work!

  • @clayperdue1798
    @clayperdue1798 Рік тому +22

    There seems to be a bit of a resurgence in shortwave lately. The Internet has displaced radio, but there's something fascinating about tapping into all of the various signals floating invisible around us.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому +3

      Exactly. It's just the concept of it. Radio stations pumping out tens of thousands of watts, etc.

    • @lilblackduc7312
      @lilblackduc7312 Рік тому +1

      @@SimonVideo I'm a 65yr-old Electronics Junkie who has always loved radio/shortwave. You should have listened during the Cold War in the 1980s. Wow...📻 🎼🎵🎶
      Anyway, it's not too late to dive into airwaves. I believe SWL could become more popular as countries block with their Internet walls.

    • @frequencywatchers
      @frequencywatchers 9 місяців тому

      @@lilblackduc7312 i love to listen the hams in russia and Ukraine border, They are CRAZY, i have captured some videos of it, but i guess i need to translate what they say because its CRAZY

  • @-Tris-
    @-Tris- Рік тому +17

    Someone discovered the world of SDR 😁 You will have a lot of fun with it😉
    Not a pro myself, but some tips: If you can, get your antennas outside. That's always the best option. Build or buy a 2m groundplane antenna. You can transmit on it and they are great for listening to FM Broadcast, aircraft voice, ISS, NOAA weather satellites, 2m ham band, maybe there is something on 4m in your region. And a 1/4 wave 2m antenna is also a 3/4 wave 70cm antenna, so there is even more to receive with this one antenna. To improve reception, filters and maybe an amplifier can help. I still haven't tried decoding weather satellites myself. I like the idea of having a camera in space and getting the pictures directly from it.
    For shortwave, get a magnetic loop antenna like the MLA 30+ or YouLoop for example. Fldigi might be an interesting program for you to decode some stuff. But there might also be more modern software, not sure, it works for me.
    And just as I'm finished writing, the ISS is nearby. Listening to the repeater right now 🙂

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  11 місяців тому +1

      Good to know! Thank you for all of the information. It looks like I've got a lot of things to experiment with. I still haven't been able to listen in on the ISS though

  • @lilblackduc7312
    @lilblackduc7312 Рік тому +5

    You just introduced Software Defined Radio to around ten-thousand viewers. Good job! Please, keep doing what you're doing...🇺🇸 👍☕

  • @andrewwturner
    @andrewwturner Рік тому +4

    Thank you for introducing me to these. Your video popped up on my feed. Might have to buy one!

  • @ThunderWarrior01
    @ThunderWarrior01 11 місяців тому +3

    My parents bought me a radio as a child and i loved everything about it and eventually moved up to the CB radio,that was the 1980’s. Now it’s the end of 2023 and I’m getting back into it after buying myself a small SDR portable radio and now this RTL-SDR to set up at home on a virtually new laptop that’s just not used by the person i bought it for

  • @KD9VUK-
    @KD9VUK- Рік тому +4

    RTLSDR is the gateway to amateur radio, I encourage you to look into the hobby more, a big part of it is SDR!

  • @mrni6502
    @mrni6502 Рік тому +3

    I actually thought of getting a SDR, despite living in the city, I want to be able to read signals and create a radio telescope

  • @stask4499
    @stask4499 Рік тому +1

    Thanks for the great video, I've looked into this SDR a little time ago but never got around to buy it. so, if I ever do this video will be a great guide. If your more interested in radio tech you should consider buying some secondhand ham or CB radios at a swap meet.

  • @Jellolotl7468
    @Jellolotl7468 Рік тому +3

    Hey Simon, I am trying to make the analog transmitter you featured in a other video. Am not finished yet but I just wanted to say thank you for the tutorial, very cool!

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому +2

      Yeah! Thank you for your comment

  • @weinvent1867
    @weinvent1867 4 місяці тому

    Hello Simon!! I just stumbled upon your channel and i am amazed! You have amazing videos and as a ham radio operator i enyoi them very much. Love from S5 :)

  • @synchro505
    @synchro505 Рік тому +3

    This is awesome. Best video of its kind that I've seen as a beginner's tour through SDR radio. It's great that these devices are so inexpensive. Hopefully there's decent software for Mac as well.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому +2

      Yeah! I love it. I've used "Gqrx" on Mac and I liked it

  • @raatzie
    @raatzie Рік тому

    Great video, very helpful and entertaining. You deserve a lot more subscribers. I am going to have a look at some of you other videos.

  • @iggr415
    @iggr415 Рік тому

    Hey, just wanted to give you some feedback on your channel! I found it because of your video on the TV transmitter you built and I find your videos really interesting (speaking as someone who loves retro tech). Thank you for the awesome work!

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому

      Awesome! Thank you for your comment!

  • @KarlWitsman
    @KarlWitsman Рік тому +1

    Welcome to the hobby! Please do try putting out a long wire antenna and listening to some shortwave and ham broadcasts. You'll discover a whole new world out there.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому +2

      Yeah I used a bunch of cat5 haha.. didn't work well but I need to look into it more.

    • @KarlWitsman
      @KarlWitsman Рік тому +1

      @@SimonVideo Even some old speaker wire does wonders.

  • @kyftbruh
    @kyftbruh Рік тому

    That looks cool ngl, for real u could basically hunt for some stations in AM (only in Canada) but It’s pretty nice to listen a bunch of radio frequencies in your computer.
    Edit:OMG I REALIZED IM SECOND!1!

  • @mikeh8416
    @mikeh8416 9 місяців тому

    SDR Console is the best tuner I've found. Though there are others that have more specific uses (like SDR ANGEL for getting aircraft mapping), SDR Console has the most modes available including SATELLITE scheduling so you can AUTOMATICALLY get weather satellite passes, and with it ported to wxtoimg, you can even see the weather image!
    What I use mine for MOSTLY is as a digital trunking scanner. Yes, a police scanner that does DIGITAL TRUNKING so you don't have to dump $600 into a stand alone scanner. You do need 2 dongles, but it's really cool how it works. The software is SDRTRUNK.
    As with everything EACH of these have a learning curve, but they're a hell of a lot of FUN!!

    • @spraitukas
      @spraitukas 2 місяці тому

      Yeah FUN, like spending 2 hours trying to figure out how to change the frequency before giving up 😂

    • @mikeh8416
      @mikeh8416 2 місяці тому

      @@spraitukas
      Which one can't you figure out?
      SDR Console couldn't be easier, I had it running in under 5 minutes INCLUDING saving favorites.

    • @spraitukas
      @spraitukas 2 місяці тому

      @mikeh8416 Both. Could not find a way to tune in 99.5Mhz FM 😂 Sdr++, sdrshark and sdr touch are the only ones I was able to use. I tried almost all from the supported software list. The experience made me reconsider sdr as a new hoby 😅 not what I expected. It's like 10% RF stuff and 90% software coding. That's not fun. Otherwise I would be stuck with these wonderfully intuitive and not broken GUIs that are olympic winners when it comes to hiding something obvious in plain sight 🤨

  • @The_ZeroLine
    @The_ZeroLine 11 місяців тому

    Learning about the F-35’s ability to passively monitor air defense and frequency hop somehow ended up bringing me here. The frequency hopping part obviously.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  11 місяців тому +1

      UA-cam algorithm is weird 😂

    • @The_ZeroLine
      @The_ZeroLine 11 місяців тому

      @@SimonVideo Honestly, I think searched software-defined radio to learn what SDR was about and you popped up.

  • @koolsteins
    @koolsteins Рік тому

    10:45 - You’re most likely referring to shortwave/HAM radio transmissions when it comes to broadcasts that use USB/LSB.

  • @jimlynch9390
    @jimlynch9390 Рік тому

    IF you tune to the band from 7.0 Mhz to 7.3 Mhz you will hear cw in the lower section and lsb (lower side band) in the upper section. If you tune to 14.9 to 14.350, you will again hear cw and other digital signals in the lower section and usb (Upper side band) in the upper section. The difference is by convention only. It has to do (partially) with some of the limitations of very old radios that are no longer used. These are the 40 and 20 meter ham bands which will be have signals more often than the others. 40 is open around the clock, mostly, while 20 is daylight hours only unless you have more sophisticated receivers and antenna systems.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому

      Interesting.. Thank you for your comment! I'll have to try that out

  • @lutello3012
    @lutello3012 5 місяців тому

    Just ordered one. They should make a stereo receiver that looks like a classy 1970s Pioneer or Marantz but with a tuning display like this. Kinda sacrilegious if you like analog tuning but it would be awesome in it's own way.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  5 місяців тому

      Yeah that would still be pretty cool

  • @DanFrederiksen
    @DanFrederiksen 11 місяців тому

    Good video, maybe mention the spectrums it can listen to. There are limits. The music playing over your voice is probably not necessary in this type of video.
    You may have heard of UFOs, I figure that they have a standing EM wave on the hull so the typical 10-15meter scout craft saucer might well have a primary tone around 20Mhz and with the power levels they run it could be loud and detectable for hundreds of km. Try to look for a main tone between 5 and 40MHz that's not audio, video or digital and it should have complex upper harmonics because they have to match the 3D mass distribution near them. If my speculations about how the physics works is correct which of course it is :)
    It might well be possible to tell from the radio signal the exact size of the craft and even eventually recognize the different designs and modes of operation.

  • @leondasbrot
    @leondasbrot 7 місяців тому

    could you make a video about ads-b?

  • @TheGmr140
    @TheGmr140 10 місяців тому

    Rtl sdr is a cool little unit 😊

  • @oluscano
    @oluscano Рік тому

    Is there any way to make an SDR receiver like this with the raspberry pi without the RTL-SDR just by putting a wire on the GPIOs pins like you did on the fm transmitter with the raspberry pi?

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому +1

      I did a quick search and I don't think you can.. but I would look into it yourself

    • @Coowallsky
      @Coowallsky Рік тому

      No. You can marry a Raspberry Pi to several SDRS (and many better than the dongle used in this video).

  • @kannacat1
    @kannacat1 Рік тому

    Hi! Really interesting videos, you're very impressive with how much you know at a young age. Keep it up!😀 I'm curious how old you are and are you thinking about ever making a discord server by chance?

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому

      Thank you! At the moment I'm not planning on setting one up but it would be cool in the future

    • @kannacat1
      @kannacat1 Рік тому +1

      Oh okay gotcha, also you sound like about early high school age. It took me till college to really get into electronic stuff

  • @MrSnacko
    @MrSnacko Рік тому

    When I try the AM, my Sampling Mode is disabled, so I cannot change it to Quadrature sampling..

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому

      Hmm.. did you press the stop button first? It won't let you change when it's in use

    • @KD9VUK-
      @KD9VUK- Рік тому

      Your SDR needs to support direct sampling

  • @thomasdouwes
    @thomasdouwes Рік тому

    If you haven't already tried, you can receive APT and LRPT weather images from satellites at 137MHz with that dipole.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  Рік тому

      oooooh cool! I'll try that out

    • @thomasdouwes
      @thomasdouwes Рік тому

      @@SimonVideo I can recomend not using WXtoImg, it's on all the online guides, but its abandonware and will make your life much harder trying to get it working right. NOAA-APT or satdump will work much better.

    • @mikeh8416
      @mikeh8416 9 місяців тому

      @@thomasdouwes I keep hoping someone will take over wxtoimg. I REALLY like being able to virtual cable directly to it and watch it draw LIVE..
      Maybe the others will allow audio input eventually.

  • @willemdosestuff6525
    @willemdosestuff6525 Рік тому

    7:31 yo i love that song

  • @Desert-edDave
    @Desert-edDave Рік тому +1

    Best investment for the price is the RSP1A from SDRPlay(even though they are horrible developers) and an MLA-30+ antenna for up to 30MHz and a cheap little *real* discone for above 30MHZ...

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  11 місяців тому

      I'll have to check that out, thanks for letting me know! Why are they bad devs?

  • @Sonnell
    @Sonnell 11 місяців тому

    Try to use AGC, as I saw, you overdriven it by setting the gain manually. I think AGC is a lot better than always getting it wrong ith the manual control.

    • @SimonVideo
      @SimonVideo  11 місяців тому

      Interesting.. I never had good luck with agc for fringe stations but I'll give it another shot

  • @YCbCr
    @YCbCr 10 місяців тому

    Pair it with a phone and an USB-OTG adapter, get SDR Touch and go! No PC needed. :)

  • @mattslivar5174
    @mattslivar5174 Рік тому

    I like handheld ham radios to listen 😂 I don't have any interest to get the licence so sdr is a gamechanger for me my first sdr radio was rtl sdr v4

  • @veedreen
    @veedreen 6 місяців тому

    So I could turn a computer into a police scanner???

  • @davidhumphrey1558
    @davidhumphrey1558 Рік тому

    Hahaha he said plug in your dongle.

  • @trisiegt
    @trisiegt Рік тому +1

    That's it! I NEED to purchase this now!
    btw im first please pin me

    • @LumaControl
      @LumaControl Рік тому

      You're in luck, the V4 just released and not only is it a little cheaper, it's supposed to have some much needed features that the V3 doesn't have. I just missed out by about a month, unfortunately, but even the V3 is lots of fun.

    • @Diygary
      @Diygary Рік тому

      @@LumaControl V4? I just ordered the V5 a couple of moments ago. I hadn't seen any V4's on amazon.

    • @LumaControl
      @LumaControl Рік тому

      @@Diygary Uh oh, did you get that link from rtlsdrblog?? I bought mine from aliexpress through their shop to make sure I got a legitimate one… for some reason there’s a lot of fake units available. Or did you get a nooelec neSDR? There’s a v5 model of that one but I meant the RTLSDRBlog one

    • @Coowallsky
      @Coowallsky Рік тому

      @@Diygary You're referring to the Nooelec V5

  • @johnr2391
    @johnr2391 Рік тому +2

    This things been out for years. And no this is not the "coolest"

    • @YCbCr
      @YCbCr 10 місяців тому +1

      It's cool enough when one discovers that it could be run with an USB-OTG adapter from any phone, using for example SDR Touch. SDR at your fingertips :) Might be a bit noisy though.

    • @mikeh8416
      @mikeh8416 9 місяців тому

      22 yr old hot blondes are the coolest, but SDR is DEFINITELY #2!!

    • @austinthornley1272
      @austinthornley1272 9 місяців тому +1

      And you're the cool expert commenting on ameture radio UA-cam videos?

    • @johnr2391
      @johnr2391 9 місяців тому

      @@austinthornley1272 yes, as you are. Not sure the point you are trying to make, if any?

    • @austinthornley1272
      @austinthornley1272 9 місяців тому

      @johnr2391 you can't hurt my feelings, I have a wife and kids. I'm assuming you don't

  • @frequencywatchers
    @frequencywatchers 11 місяців тому

    Let me Tell You One Thing, YOU DON`T DISCOVER RADIO WORL,D AND SDR, IT DISCOVERS YOU AND LET ME TELL YOU. IT WILL TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE !!!

  • @ArclampSDR
    @ArclampSDR 9 місяців тому

    Use SDR++ its way better

  • @williamduncan7401
    @williamduncan7401 10 місяців тому

    just get a much better Nooelec for cheaper

    • @mikeh8416
      @mikeh8416 9 місяців тому

      I have 2 RTL dongles I bought over a year ago, they're on 24/7. My MORE EXPENSIVE Nooelec died after 8 months. The ONLY advantage the Nooelec had was a wider bandwidth. I'll stick with RTL, they just keep working.