V3 R860 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO SMA Software Defined Radio (Dongle Only) (Black)

A classic SDR, very popular. I'm a beginner so I have much to learn about RX. Is fun, but my software isn't intuitive. I like the bias tee function baut currently not using that.Start of a great hobby.

I've only used this for a couple hours now, but man was this easy to set up and awesome to use. It is very fun to visually see and navigate through the radio signals. It took me less than 10 minutes using their quick start guide on rtl-sdr.com/qsgI gained confidence before purchasing this device from all the positive reviews of course and mainly their website. The website is easy to navigate and I was overjoyed to see how detailed the troubleshooting guide was, so if I ran into any problems I could very likely find a solution. It is nice to see such a detailed troubleshooting page with pretty much any possible problem that could happen with this device. Anytime I jump into a DIY project i'm afraid I will have to use google for 3-4 hours to find a solution. I only ran into one problem during set up with the software and that was on the step that said to run the batch file in the extracted folder of the SDR# software. Probably because I am on a Domain computer with security settings that prevent batch files from running. Well in that same step on their quick start guide they had a link to manually install the drivers instead which only took a minute to do. I followed the rest of the steps. Plugged in the RTL-SDR with my ICOM female SMA antenna from my HAM radio and sure enough it came alive instantly. I was amazed at how easy it was to set up. I turned up the gain in the software and I could start finding random HAMs in my area and various repeaters. I couldn't find any HF signals probably due to my antenna. Their website suggests getting a planar disk antenna or a discone antenna for listening on nearly any frequency between 25Mhz and 1300Mhz. My HAM rubber duckie antenna with this picked up a lot of signals from local FM radio, 136Mhz-900Mhz.This is definitely an awesome buy for the price of $17. I just bought a Uniden BC125AT handheld radio scanner for $110 earlier this week. It is a handy device since it is portable, but it has only a small portion of the frequency range compared to SDR. For $110 it isn't worth it for what it does so I am definitely returning it after playing with this thing. I'm excited to experiment more with it to find other neat uses for SDR.I highly recommend getting a USB extension cable for this device so you can have enough cable to work with. I happened to have a 10ft USB Amazon extension cable I bought a couple months ago that works perfectly for this. Since I am using this with a rubber duckie antenna it is about a foot long sticking out of the computer. Not an ideal location for this since it wouldn't fit well behind the computer and I would likely break it if it was sticking out the front of the computer. It would even be good for a laptop since all laptop USB ports stick straight out the side. A USB extension cable allows you to place the device and antenna in a much better location. My last recommendation for full use of this is a discone antenna as the company suggests or something better than a simple rubber duckie or whip antenna. This thing is too cool to only use it with a rubber duckie. Just buy it!

I have been trying to dial in audio for the drive-in movies for a long time. With this thing connected to my computer then from my 1/8 out to xlr cable (ballanced) to my soundboks 3. It works perfectly. Could finely tuned the input eq everything to a nice well ballanced audio with zero lag. This is the only way to go. Then use skaa to "team up" my other soundboks. Got beautiful stereo audio!!! Thanks rtl-sdr!!

Update: Audio Fix Found; reported solution to Tom The Dilettante & TheSmokinApe's videos on Youtube.Rating Update: previously, 1-star; updated to 4-stars; would have given it 5-stars if the installation process wasn't so convoluted regarding manual intervention of drivers which can cause similar problems. Performance and capabilities, as well as add-on applications are very impressive for the price. Does not substitute for a real HAM or similar high-end radio/amplifiers/huge antennas, but that's not a valid comparison to make. I know those with the high-end radios, but that's not my intentions with this device. Learning more about it, sure, but this is a great alternative that doesn't require a huge investment or giant antenna most HOAs or apartments won't allow outside/visible.Regarding the "paDeviceUnavailable" error message I was getting when I selected the RTL-SDR USB and hit "Play". That followed with crashing my audio and video on Youtube as well, where it told me I had an audio renderer error, but it also refused to play the video (without the audio) as well. The error message received on trying to play a Youtube video was regarding that renderer error but said to reboot my machine. I found that instead of rebooting I could just refresh the browser and it plays audio & video just fine.The solution so far, is this: Select Audio Output to, instead of Microsoft MME Speakers, ...to ASIO4ALLv2 (or any other output device other than the default) and it suddenly worked! I had an ElGato video/audio capture card and had to install some virtual audio devices a few years ago which may be related to the problem. Anyway, for now it works as long as I change the Audio Output to the other 'device'. Thanks for the detailed video, right to the point and with good links and content! I posted the same message on TheSmokinApe's Comments section in case anyone else runs into the same or similar issue.Previously:I have no idea how anyone got this system to work, clearly there is a major discrepancy. I have a relatively high end laptop for CAD modeling that works great but cannot get past this very simple starting point of running the SDR software initially, no matter how many instructions I follow to a "T". Another reviewer showed a completely different software package SDRConsole and that is the only way I can get this SDR dongle to do anything at all. I was a bigger fan of the originally touted software SDRSharp but it wipes out my computer's ability to even play any videos' audio when I follow all of the instructions. I will give it 1 week and will otherwise send it back baffled out how this is such a well supported SDR unit but it can cease to function on a relatively solid laptop with an experienced engineer who runs software and hardware every day as a job and at home.

There's other SDR "Dongles" on-the-market, BUT this one is guaranteed to work!. One note of caution/advice. 1)If you live in a high RF noise area, you're at a disadvantage. SO far, I've not found software with that great of a noise filtering capability to rid you completely of it. 2). You need a better antenna than the little magnetic stick mounts so often included or sold along-side these.....I suggest an SMA to binding-post adapter and just a plain piece of copper wire...18 gauge or better...Insulated or not...Atleast enough to stretch outside your window by say 3 meters or more. Listening isn't like transmitting so being "resonant" isn't as important as with a tranceiver.