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P1080898RTL 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.


P1090044Next 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 Callsign Land RST Name QTH km
8-3-2015 w9zcl
w7kcn
USA - Ilinois
USA - Washington
579
579
Bill
John
Mount Prospect
Bellingham
6648
7770
14-3-2015 ve3crg
nu1o
Canada - Ontario
USA - Massachusets
579
579
Brian
Chris
Carleton Place
Longmeadow
5713
5707
25-2-2015 4x1ah
4l8a
Israel
Georgie
589
589
Jacob
Vaho
Tel-Aviv
Tbilisi
3270
3194
25-3-2015 ea6nb
ct1rvm
ua9adp
Spanje - Balearic Islands
Portugal
Rusland
599
579
589
Jaime
Gomes
Kzantsev
Palmanyola
nr Lisbon
Chelyab
1388
1844
3645
13-2-2015 ea3je
kk4owz
Spanje
USA
59
55
Lou
Joe
Barcelona
North Chesterfield
1205
6366
14-2-2015 pa3hcm
ve2bwl
rk4hyt
Nederland
Canada
Rusland
599
589
579
Ernest
Guy
clubstation
Everdingen
Magog
Syut
10
5454
6176
 
and I heard some serious DX stations:

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.