RTL Dongle - my first SDR receiver
On my first 'Dag van de radio amateur in 2014' I did some research on a new receiver. The Sony worldreceiver with BFO had done its job, now it was time for some serious SW listening. Having looked around and seen various offerings I decided I had to choose between a simple cheap SDR solution for my laptop or a serious second hand analog receiver from an established brand in the 80's and 90's of last century. So I took some advice from experienced ham listeners and nearly everbody favored the SDR solution to start with. So I bought an RTL dongle and a ready built converter for the frequencies below 30Mhz., all in all for less than €50.
Next step was downloading and installing various SDR software solutions on an old Windows XP computer and after taking some hurdles with finding the proper drivers, it all worked smoothly.
This was a major improvement, because now I could keep my log in a MS Excel spreadsheet and I have very detailled information on the sending station available from www.qrz.com. After having taken the call I can find the 'locator' of the station in QRZ.com and use this information in 'Voacap online' to calculate the distance between me and the sending station. Ofcourse there is also a lot of interesting information on propagation available on this site.
My antenne was a sort of 'inverted v' consisting of 2 pieces of shielded copperwire of about 3,5m. laying on the tiles of my roof with the feeder through the window. This gives good results except for the frequencies below 7Mhz. Now I happen to live 2km from a 365m high telecom node in several networks that also broadcasts FM radio from 88-107MHz. The converter for the RTL dongle uses a midfrequency of 100MHz. so the poor converterbox was completely overloaded with signals.
Next step was some experiments with a homebrew 'magnetic loop' antenne. This gave better results, however again not on frequencies below 7MHz. The best reception was on 14MHz.In the end I used the RTL dongle on the HF ham bands for only 4 to 5 months, but I heard some interesting DX QSO's:
|
| date | time | Freq. | Mode | Callsign | Land | RST | Name | QTH | km |
| 14-2-2015 | 13:50 | 24.976 | ssb | a3ds | Tonga | 58 | aly | Tonga | 16607 |
| 5-4-2015 | 21:44 | 14.165 | ssb | vk3mo | Australie - Victoria | 59 | Ian | Kyneton | 16488 |
| 30-1-2015 | 19:50 | 7.123 | ssb | du1ist | Philippines | 57/8 | Jin | Manilla | 10409 |
| 5-4-2015 | 21:37 | 14.210 | ssb | ja5aqc | Japan | 57 | Masaru | Kinuyama Matsuyama Ehime | 9211 |
| 8-3-2015 | 19:36 | 21.044 | cw | na5ar | USA - Texas | 559 | Bob | Pipe Creek | 8335 |
| 7-4-2015 | 17:17 | 21.316 | ssb | w4wz | USA - Utah | 59+10 57 |
Dave | Salt Lake City | 8054 |
| 15-3-2015 | 18:25 | 28.027 | cw | w4r; | USA - Washington | 569 | Robert | Redmond | 7860 |
| 7-4-2015 | 14:24 | 21.021 | cw | n4bp ur4igd |
USA - FL | 579 579 |
Bob | Plantation | 7446 |
| 8-3-2015 | 20:12 | 21.041 | cw | kb4mrx | USA - F | 579 | Dave | Loxahatchee | 7393 |
| 13-12-2014 | 15:20 | 21.012 | cw | j300eme | Grenada | 579 | 7381 | ||
| 18-2-2015 | 19:42 | 14.027 | cw | w4bqf | USA - Georgia | 579 | Chester | Hahira | 7252 |
| 8-3-2015 | 19:27 | 21.044 | cw | ku4xo | USA - South Carolina | 579 | Matt | Simpsonville | 6880 |
| 7-4-2015 | 14:58 | 21.265 | ssb | aa4v | USA - South Carolina | 57 | Steve | Isle of Palm | 6871 |
| 8-3-2015 | 20:18 | 21.041 | cw | w4fde | USA - South Carolina | 579 | Lawrence | Lyman | 6852 |
| 21-2-2015 | 15:15 | 28.028 | cw | n4cw | USA - North Carolina | 589 | Bertrand | Raleigh | 6815 |
| 14-2-2015 | 14:45 | 24.890 | cw | k9ljn | USA - Ilinois | 599 | Gary | Rockton | 6685 |
| 16-3-2015 | 20:05 | 14.004 | cw | kk4unz | USA - North Carolina | 579 | Tucker | Efland | 6574 |
| 22-2-2015 | 19:07 | 21.001 | cw | nr4m | USA - Virginia | 599 | Steve | Locus Grove | 6558 |
| 21-2-2015 | 15:24 | 28.000 | cw | nr4m | USA - Virginia | 599 | Steve | Locus Grove | 6558 |
| 5-4-2015 | 21:27 | 21.244 | ssb | kb9jx | USA - Wisconsin | 59 | Rod | Barnes | 6519 |
| 22-2-2015 | 18:50 | 21.019 | cw | w4rm | USA - Virginia | 589 | William | Nokesville | 6516 |
| 21-2-2015 | 15:37 | 28.051 | cw | w4rm | USA - Virginia | 569 | William | Nokesville | 6516 |
| 14-2-2015 | 14:15 | 24.982 | ssb | kc8uwz | USA - Ohio | 59 | John | Glouster | 6493 |
| 14-2-2015 | 14:55 | 24.895 | cw | k8cw | USA - Ohio | 599 | Fred | Mansfield | 6423 |
| 14-2-2015 | 14:00 | 24.954 | ssb | ab4jk | USA - Virginia | 58 | Robert | Hopewell | 6358 |
| 22-2-2015 | 19:01 | 21.012 | cw | k3lr | USA - PA | 589 | Tim | West Middlesex | 6265 |
| 22-2-2015 | 18:53 | 21.022 | cw | k3rv | USA - Virginia | 589 | Carl | Vienna | 6236 |
| 22-2-2015 | 18:37 | 28.034 | cw | w3lpl | USA - MD | 559 | Francis | Glenwood | 6191 |
| 22-2-2015 | 19:10 | 21.001 | cw | w3lpl | USA - MD | 559 | Francis | Glenwood | 6191 |
| 8-3-2015 | 19:42 | 21.048 | cw | wa3a | USA - PA | 579 | Stephen | Spartansburg | 6169 |
| 8-3-2015 | 20:18 | 21.034 | cw | w3kl | USA - MD | 589 | Jeffrey | Westminster | 6169 |
| 21-1-2015 | 17:23 | 21.014 | cw | ny3a | USA | 589 | Glen Rock, PA | 6130 | |
| 25-2-2015 | 17:48 | 21.239 | ssb | ve3yj | Canada | 57 | Rocco | Guelph | 6076 |
| 14-3-2015 | 14:44 | 28.016 | cw | ve3ej | Canada - Ontario | 599+20 | John | Grassie | 6066 |
| 13-3-2015 | 18:45 | 21.013 | cw | k3md | USA - PA | 579 | John | Winfield | 6060 |
| 21-2-2015 | 15:32 | 28.009 | cw | k2qmf | USA - New York | 599 | Salvatore | Baiting Hollow | 6044 |
| 8-3-2015 | 19:52 | 21.050 | cw | w2yj | USA - New York | 579 | George | East aurora | 6033 |
| 22-2-2015 | 18:45 | 21.040 | cw | xl3t | Canada - Ontario | 579 | Ron | Islington | 6018 |
| 8-3-2015 | 20:27 | 21.052 | cw | n2bsa | USA - NJ | 569 | Gregory | Little Egg Harbor | 5996 |
| 16-2-2015 | 19:30 | 14.020 | cw | n3sq | USA - PA | 569 | Elk Mountain Radio Soc | Clarks Summit | 5945 |
| 27-12-2014 | 13:48 | 28.027 | cw | ve3ej | Canada - Ontario | 58/59 | 5944 | ||
| 28-1-2015 | 15:05 | 21.239 | ssb | ve3bv | Canada | 57 | Bruce | McKellar | 5907 |
| 14-3-2015 | 14:54 | 28.030 | cw | k2twi | USA - NJ | 579 | Theo | Montvale | 5870 |
| 8-3-2015 | 20:48 | 14.172 | ssb | ny6dx | USA - New York | 59 | John | Jericho | 5858 |
| 23-12-2014 | 17:30 | 21.034 | cw | w1aw/3 | USA - Maine/Connecticut/New Hampshire/Massachusetts | 569 | ARRL HQ Operators club | Newington | 5736 |
| 8-3-2015 | 19:47 | 21.058 | cw | ve3yf | Canada - Ontario | 579 | Michael | Petawawa | 5734 |
| 8-3-2015 | 20:33 | 21.039 | cw | nv1q | USA - MA | 569 | Juergen | Westfield | 5714 |
| 24-3-2015 | 12:35 | 28.031 | cw | j28nc | Djibouti | 559 | Christian | Djbouti | 5592 |
| 31-1-2015 | 14:19 | 28.433 | ssb | k1zr | USA | 58 | Shane | Sandown | 5560 |
| 22-2-2015 | 18:58 | 21.019 | cw | va2wa | Canada - Qubec | 589 | Victor | Boucherville | 5517 |
| 16-2-2015 | 11:18 | 28.447 | Rusland - Aziatisch | 59+20 | alex | 5150 | |||
| 8-3-2015 | 20:46 | 14.127 | ssb | vy2tt | Canada - Prince Edward Island | 57 | Kenneth | Bloomfield station | 4861 |
| 14-3-2015 | 15:13 | 28.011 | cw | vy2zm | Canada - Prince Edward Island | 599 | Jeffrey | Souris | 4762 |
| 8-3-2015 | 20:40 | 14.142 | ssb | vy2zm | Canada - Prince Edward Island | 55 | Jeffrey | Souris | 4762 |
| 4-4-2015 | 13:18 | 24.893 | cw | 7z1hl | Saudi Arabie | 599+10 | Harry | Ryad | 4646 |
| 15-2-2015 | 19:23 | 14.217 | ssb | 9k2rx | Kuwait | 58 | Basil | Mubarak al Abdulla | 4320 |
| 25-1-2015 | 16:35 | 14.001 | cw | 9k2mu | Kuwait | 589 | Murtada | Kuwait | 4313 |
| 5-4-2015 | 9:30 | 24.895 | cw | r120ru | Rusland | 579 | Yanf info Ltd | Tarko-sale, Yamalo-nenetskiy | 4195 |
| 7-4-2015 | 14:48 | 21.214 | ssb | vo1fb | Canada - Newfound land | 59 | Jo | st. John's | 4070 |
| 15-3-2015 | 18:42 | 18.074 | cw | ox3xr | Groenland | 579 | Peter | Nuuk | 3459 |
| 18-2-2015 | 19:50 | 14.011 | cw | 4z1ps | Israel | 589 | Simi | Holon | 3276 |
| 5-4-2015 | 22:10 | 14.034 | cw | 4z4dx | Israel | 599 | Dov | Ramat Hasharon | 3266 |
| 14-2-2015 | 15:05 | 24.904 | cw | ea8/dl2rns | Spanje - Kanarische eilanden | 599+ | Norbert | 3183 | |
| 8-3-2015 | 10:33 | 14.019 | cw | ea8fc | Spanje - Kanarische eilanden | 559 | Tony | Telde - Gran Canaria | 3169 |
| 30-11-2014 | 17:48 | 14.052 | cw | ea8ah | Kanarisch eilanden | 599 | Pekka | Las Palmas | 3163 |
| 14-2-2015 | 12:45 | 28.446 | ssb | ea3jk | Spanje | 59 | Las Palmas | 3154 | |
| 5-4-2015 | 9:46 | 21.014 | cw | ua4pn | Rusland | 579 | Genady | Naberzhye Chelny | 3073 |
| 14-2-2015 | 23:10 | 7.158 | ssb | rj4p | Rusland | 55 | Igor | Naberezhnye Chelny | 3071 |
| 7-4-2015 | 14:10 | 28.026 | cw | ra4i | Rusland | 599 | Paul | Samara | 3001 |
Now I'm only using the RTL dongle without the converter for reception om 2m. and 70cm. ham bands.