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Back in 2015 this title would've read, "Listen to HD radio with a $8 RTL SDR dongle". First we ran out of E4000 tuners for the rtl-sdr dongles... but there wer

Back in 2015 this title would've read, "Listen to HD radio with a $8 RTL SDR dongle". First we ran out of E4000 tuners for the rtl-sdr dongles... but there were R820T. Then then R820T ran out and R820T2 replaced them. Then a proliferation of slightly less task specific R828D variants. The price steadily increased. Then the pandemic hit and it spiked even more. At $8 a pop you could afford to use many of them mod them, etc. But at $30 you pretty much treat it like any other SDR.

greesil 3y ago
I was originally going to have $20 in the headline and then I did a price check on Amazon. Man, the times have changed.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  I'm pretty sure the price has gone up because Amazon charges a huge markup/fees. If you buy it from the source, it's now $9. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003302259707.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003302259707.html
  - argilo 3y ago
    Models targeting the SDR market (e.g. from RTL-SDR Blog or NooElec) do have some improvements compared to models sold as TV tuners. Most importantly, they often include a more accurate crystal oscillator, which is useful when receiving narrow-band signals.
  - superkuh 3y ago
    I was ready to say you've made my day but unfortunately those rtlsdr dongles use the mostly unwanted Fitipower FC0012 tuner and not any of the better Raphael tuners (R820T2/etc) that are most common and expected for rtl-sdr dongles. The frequency range supported and the rtl-sdr software ecosystem for FC0012 are minimal. Elonics E4000 (E4K) 54 - 2200 MHz (1100 MHz-1250 MHz gap) Rafael Micro R820T 24 - 1766 MHz (>1500 MHz is bad w/o tuner cooling) Rafael Micro R820T2 24 - 1766 MHz (>1500 MHz is bad w/o tuner cooling) Rafael Micro R820T2 13 - 1864 MHz (mutability's driver) Fitipower FC0012 22 - 948 MHz Fitipower FC0013 22 - 1100 MHz (FC0013B/C, FC0013G has seperate L band input) FCI FC2580 146 - 308 MHz and 438 - 924 MHz Looking around on aliexpress most at that price at FC0012 tuner based (even if they say R820T). There are a couple actual R828D dongles but the price shown seems to be one time thing "welcome deal"/75% off and the actual price is more like $25. Dang. Still, I'll keep my eyes on aliexpress now as well as ebay, so thanks.
H8crilA 3y ago
You're all correct, except there are not that many $30 SDRs out there. Most of them start at around $200 and end in very very high thousands. Also, most SDRs have clearly superior capabilities to the RTL-SDR, though often those capabilities are not required. BTW, for simple AM/FM demodulation I cannot recommend enough the handy https://github.com/charlie-foxtrot/RTLSDR-Airband https://github.com/charlie-foxtrot/RTLSDR-Airband. Most of the LiveATC.net feeds run on it, for example. It can be used for any AM/FM audio, for any number of simultaneous channels, even on a weak machine like a raspberry pi.

greesil 3y ago

I was originally going to have $20 in the headline and then I did a price check on Amazon. Man, the times have changed.

londons_explore 3y ago
I'm pretty sure the price has gone up because Amazon charges a huge markup/fees. If you buy it from the source, it's now $9. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003302259707.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003302259707.html
- argilo 3y ago
  Models targeting the SDR market (e.g. from RTL-SDR Blog or NooElec) do have some improvements compared to models sold as TV tuners. Most importantly, they often include a more accurate crystal oscillator, which is useful when receiving narrow-band signals.
- superkuh 3y ago
  I was ready to say you've made my day but unfortunately those rtlsdr dongles use the mostly unwanted Fitipower FC0012 tuner and not any of the better Raphael tuners (R820T2/etc) that are most common and expected for rtl-sdr dongles. The frequency range supported and the rtl-sdr software ecosystem for FC0012 are minimal. Elonics E4000 (E4K) 54 - 2200 MHz (1100 MHz-1250 MHz gap) Rafael Micro R820T 24 - 1766 MHz (>1500 MHz is bad w/o tuner cooling) Rafael Micro R820T2 24 - 1766 MHz (>1500 MHz is bad w/o tuner cooling) Rafael Micro R820T2 13 - 1864 MHz (mutability's driver) Fitipower FC0012 22 - 948 MHz Fitipower FC0013 22 - 1100 MHz (FC0013B/C, FC0013G has seperate L band input) FCI FC2580 146 - 308 MHz and 438 - 924 MHz Looking around on aliexpress most at that price at FC0012 tuner based (even if they say R820T). There are a couple actual R828D dongles but the price shown seems to be one time thing "welcome deal"/75% off and the actual price is more like $25. Dang. Still, I'll keep my eyes on aliexpress now as well as ebay, so thanks.

H8crilA 3y ago

You're all correct, except there are not that many $30 SDRs out there. Most of them start at around $200 and end in very very high thousands. Also, most SDRs have clearly superior capabilities to the RTL-SDR, though often those capabilities are not required. BTW, for simple AM/FM demodulation I cannot recommend enough the handy https://github.com/charlie-foxtrot/RTLSDR-Airband https://github.com/charlie-foxtrot/RTLSDR-Airband. Most of the LiveATC.net feeds run on it, for example. It can be used for any AM/FM audio, for any number of simultaneous channels, even on a weak machine like a raspberry pi.