SDRplay ? ..in fer a penny etc

[Vipersan]

Having used various dongles in the past ...for general surfing and of course NOAA ..
..and in light of the recent highlighted project relating to inmarsat ...
I thought about it for at least a week ..finally taking the plunge after reading reviews and watching youtube vids..
The unit aint cheap (about £130 delivered) ....but then ..in relative terms as to frequencies covered by SDR and its price relative to a high end radio..
Well ....call it a late Christmas present to myself..
So ..
I'm hoping this thread will become active with recommendations for console software ...preferably windoze based ...and just general info ...hints n tips ..
rgds
VS

Lucky guy ..
Like me he has a CR100 ..
Nice

 

[TJExcalibur]

Having used various dongles in the past ...for general surfing amd of course NOAA ..
..and in light of the recent highlighted project relating to inmarsat ...
I thought about it for at least a week ..finally taking the plunge after reading reviews and watching youtube vids..
The unit aint cheap (about £130 delivered) ....but then ..in relative terms as to frequencies covered by SDR and its price relative to a high end radio..
Well ....call it a late Christmas present to myself..
So ..
I'm hoping this thread will become active with recommendations for console software ...preferably windoze based ...and just general info ...hints n tips ..
rgds
VS

Lucky guy ..
Like me he has a CR100 ..
Nice

Had a look on YouTube. Looks very interesting. What antenna does it use?

 

[Vipersan]

Had a look on YouTube. Looks very interesting. What antenna does it use?

Whatever antenna you choose I guess buddy ..
since coverage is from about 100khz ...to 2ghz ...
whichever aerial is most suitable..

 

[scopus]

Wow, looks great. I remember years ago using a fairly cheap Binatone world band receiver listening to aircraft and in them days the police on bandII, great fun..
I can see a lattice tower going up in the back yard Evan...

 

[Vipersan]

Wow, looks great. I remember years ago using a fairly cheap Binatone world band receiver listening to aircraft and in them days the police on bandII, great fun..
I can see a lattice tower going up in the back yard Evan...

I rather fancy the neighbours ..or worse ..the local council would have other ideas about that mate..

 

[2cvbloke]

You can use little USB sticks that have a Realtek RTL2832U & R820T chipsets for SDR, far cheaper (though a bit noisier usually) to start off with...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221844814526

And of course there's dedicated websites for the use of them Realtek chipset receivers...

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/

 

[Vipersan]

You can use little USB sticks that have a Realtek RTL2832U & R820T chipsets for SDR, far cheaper (though a bit noisier usually) to start off with...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221844814526

And of course there's dedicated websites for the use of them Realtek chipset receivers...

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/

Indeed you can ...and I have quite a few of these ...
but just figured Id treat myself to a dedicated SDR ...rather than an adapted realtek chipset stick..
great as an introduction ...and have had some great success with the polar orbiting noaa weather sats ...and slow scan imaging ..
But ..sadly these dongles dont operate at low frequencies...thus are fun ..but a bit limiting.

 

[2cvbloke]

I'm waiting for one of the things to arrive myself, want to read the data sent out by them flying machines overhead given Newcastle International isn't that far away, that and I want to play with making aerials for different frequencies (got a reel of Twin & Earth mains cable, so plenty of antennas-to-be in that reel)...

 

[Vipersan]

I'm waiting for one of the things to arrive myself, want to read the data sent out by them flying machines overhead given Newcastle International isn't that far away, that and I want to play with making aerials for different frequencies (got a reel of Twin & Earth mains cable, so plenty of antennas-to-be in that reel)...

Indeed ...one of the reasons I invested 2CV ...
be very interested in your antenna designs..


Not the perfect solution ...but I find my weathersat quadhelix (circular polarised) antenna does pick up quite a lot of Manchester airport traffic coms..
even though the polarisation is a long way out..
rgds
VS

 

[2cvbloke]

be very interested in your antenna designs..

So far I made a dipole for my TV, tuned to about 746MHz (will need to be rebuilt when the 700MHz band is sold off for mobile data), but I want to try and make a quadrifiliar helical antenna (had to use the full name, makes it sound more technical!!) for weather satellites, but those tend to be quite big, so it's a "we shall see" thing for the moment...

 

[Vipersan]

So far I made a dipole for my TV, tuned to about 746MHz (will need to be rebuilt when the 700MHz band is sold off for mobile data), but I want to try and make a quadrifiliar helical antenna (had to use the full name, makes it sound more technical!!) for weather satellites, but those tend to be quite big, so it's a "we shall see" thing for the moment...

View attachment 91429

yep ...it is a bit of a technical mouthfull ..which is why I abbreviated ..
This is the one I built :-
Robert's home page

Nice guy Robert ...
exchanged many interesting emails with him..

 

[Vipersan]

A review of the SDRplay RSP software defined receiver
Worth a read I think..

 

[Archive-8]

Do these boxes work with data eg pocsag or flex?

 

[Vipersan]

Do these boxes work with data eg pocsag or flex?

Obviously I can't confirm this Chris ..but since there are decoders out there for other SDR devices ...I see no reason to think the SDRplay would not ..

 

[Archive-8]

Obviously I can't confirm this Chris ..but since there are decoders out there for other SDR devices ...I see no reason to think the SDRplay would not ..

Will have a look on eBay

 

[Vipersan]

Got a knock on the front door about 8PM ...
..it was DHL ...
Had to delay my bath ...which have now run for the second time ...
gonna jump in and have a soak ...but 1 hour late ..
Toys ..
dont u just love 'em ..
here are a couple of pix ..
All installed ...and HDSDR working ...but not tested as yet ..
Bit of a job lashing various antenna connections in a chain ...but I have an sma to coax on order ..
later dudes..

 

[Channel Hopper]

Whatever antenna you choose I guess buddy ..
since coverage is from about 100khz ...to 2ghz ...
whichever aerial is most suitable..

On/near the focal point of a rather large dish with decent dual tracking .

From somebody close to here

Sat-Elite | Just another WordPress siteSat-Elite | Just another WordPress site

 

[Vipersan]

Already hit a few problems regarding the choice of software to use with this unit..
Previously my only contact with SDR was via SDR# ...
Nice well supported software with many plugins making it useful for weather sats ..pager morse plugins etc..
..and it would seem that previous versions of SDR# also supported the SDRplay hardware ..
SDR# then started to produce their own high end dongle called Airspy ...and dropped any support for SDRplay in the more recent software distros..
..one might say a war going on ...or a hissy fit ...or somesuch.
Anyway SDRplay now steers you toward HDSDR .....whereas you buy Airspy and are steered toward SDR#
Unless I can get my hands on an earlier version of SDR# which did support SDRplay ...then my choice of software is more limited ...and I loose athe ability to use the extensive range of plugins..
Has anyone got early versions of SDR# ?
Tried to find an archive on the web ..but so-far drawing blanks.
cest la vie

 

[Vipersan]

Ok ...after at least 4 hours of searching found this version of SDR# which I suspect might be the last one to support SDRplay..

SDR# version 1361
But it IS in the list of supported hardware..
I've yet to get it working ...but at least offers me a lifeline.

rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

Sorted ..
Its good to have choices..
;)