[NLRS] A must have: RTL-SDR, the poor man's spectrum analyzer

[David Palm]

I was just discussing these with Karl (WD9BGA) and I thought I'd pass this
on to those who aren't already aware of these amazing SDR dongles.  For $8
*shipped* you can get one of these.  Here's just one of many vendors on
EBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-Digital-DVB-T-SDR-DAB-FM-HDTV-TV-Tuner-Receiver-Stick-RTL2832U-R820T2-SS-/221724993710?hash=item339fd6e8ae

Frequency coverage is 24 - 1766 MHz, so it covers a bunch of ham bands up
through 1296 MHz.  I have two, this model and an older model with slightly
different frequency coverage which I modified to sport an SMA connector.  I
use mine all the time when working on do-it-yourself projects to see if I'm
getting some RF output.  I regularly listen to FM broadcast stations while
at work and I plan to hack my FT-817 and FT-897 to get a panadapter output
using this to display the spectrum (see
http://www.w1ghz.org/small_proj/FT817_Panadapter_board.zip).

They are pretty deaf, so a preamp and external antenna would help a lot.
Be sure that yours has an ESD protection diode before connecting to an
outside antenna (see e.g.
https://radioscanning.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/rtl-sdr/)

Free SDR software lets you decode AM, narrow and wideband FM, SSB, CW, and
a host of digital modes.  You can get downconverters to let you listen to
HF frequencies and up converters to let you listen above 1766 MHz.

For the price these are pretty much a "must have" for every ham.

73,

David  W9HQ