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Old 09-01-2017, 10:43 PM  
2MuchMark
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 48,562
Quote:
Originally Posted by lezinterracial View Post
just bought an SDR (Software Defined Radio) dongle
Any experience with this?
Hope to pick up local Sheriff. Maybe local PD that is now on digital radios, I don't know.


https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-...4&keywords=sdr

Congrats on your purchase! I have a couple of these... here's some notes on it:

The small antenna that it comes with works pretty well for turning in planes and passenger jet talk between them and the airport tower. And if you want to do something really cool, try running this: http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/ it turns your SDR into a virtual radar server.

The SDR is a really wide-band radio so it would be helpful to have a wide-band antenna. One that works well is called a Planar Disk Atenna, and you can build one yourself with a couple of pizza pans. http://www.wa5vjb.com/references/PlanarDiskAntennas.pdf

For some reason I had a hard time getting anything interesting below 30Mhz. I was hoping to pickup some CB and Shortwave stuff but all I get is noise. I tried using a "Ham It Up" converter https://www.amazon.ca/NooElec-Ham-Up.../dp/B009LQT3G6 but it did nothing from what I can tell. Maybe you will have better luck.

It's a fun hobby. Enjoy!
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