RTL-SDR BlogV3 R860 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO HF Bias Tee SMA Software Defined Radio with Dipole Antenna Kit (Black)

The media could not be loaded. Managed to pick up HF on the 10 6 & 2 meter bands as well as shortwave and some strange show on MW hosted by two women who were playing songs about aliens and talking about Area 51. Luckily I happened to have 10 meters of 24 awg stainless steel 430 laying around so I wrapped this around my centre dipole and ran it from the house outside and all the way along my washing line. So I managed to get some good reception, great fun I can’t wait to built a 1-30mhz HF antenna then I should be able to listen to some interesting stuff. Just to mention the heat issues around this dongle when I was playing around with FM and tuning in some local radio stations my dongle did get quite warm although after I attached the wire to my centre dipole, ran it outside and switched to HF there was no noticeable heat generated after this? In fact the unit kept quite cool. To get the HF bands check out the v3 user guide it’s linked at the bottom of the quick start guide and all the info like enabling the Q Band and attaching a wire to your dipole is there. I’m looking forward to building a 9:1 unun which should be with me tomorrow, thanks Amazon I’ll get my soldering iron out ready. Build quality is also great and this is very much a genuine RTl-SDR it’s also very easy to use although I can imagine this hobby could become very addictive. So don’t expect to stop your purchase at this kit which is great value as you get quite a bit of stuff for your money. As mentioned though you will soon be on the hunt for an upgraded antenna, depending on what you want to do with your new SDR that is. I would definitely recommend this product as a start and am going to have another play with it as soon as I’ve finished this review. Have fun.

I’d been reading up on SDR for a while. A SDR project book turned up so I took the plunge.Great little kit. Everything you need - read the blog and maybe get the book too. If you are going shortwave put up a reasonable aerial. Plenty of resources out there (plenty of helpful radio amateurs and clubs too). A great starting point for listening to stuff on a budget. I will be buying again as part of other projects.

My one was all good. It wasn't a clone, but its not R860 chip its an R200T or very close (ive used it once). But the Dipole antenna is all working and wired correctly, (no resistor but apparently thats in the usb part now).It works well on airspy and gqrx on Linux Mint & Ubuntu based Distros.Nice little hobby kit. You will eventually need a better antenna but as a whole its a good kit. Id like to know why it has a different chip in it though, hence the 4stars...?

Do you love anything to do with Space? I studied Astronomy and I loved the Radio Astronomy modules but did you know, that you can do NEO Radio Astronomy with this item and not require a huge Radio Telescope/Dish in your backyard to listen to passing Satellites?If you know a little about Radio Waves, Antenna configurations, you can use this as your learning curve.I received this amazing kit and by the evening, was listening to NEO Satellites, just by plugging this into my laptop, configuring and orienting my antenna and picking up NOAA 19 Weather Satellite, which is 850km altitude and well over 2,000kms away from me, travelling at 27,000km/h.I listened to the whole Satellite pass from AOS to LOS and the quality of the signal was excellent, even with the supplied dipole, in the correct configuration and orientation. (See photo of screenshot of the Satellite’s signal).I then started tracking other Satellites in the VHF wavelengths and these were great too.This kit is amazing if you are interested in Space and Satellites, I highly recommend this if you’re beginning your journey into Radio. Simple to setup. Download the software and in no time, you’ll be listening to Radio Sounds.Incidentally, I also bought a separate antenna kit, just so I could have both antenna’s fixed to my window, instead of swapping out the elements. I can just swap cables (see photo).

Was easy to set up, and works really well, with the provided aerial kit.

Newbie in radio systems bought this RTL-SDR dongle and tried to get it to work on my iMac, has a virtual windows 11 running, it had problems with the drivers being recognised, so tried setting up on my laptop, followed all the instructions from RTL website and works a treat not fully explored everything thing yet but learning each day.I personally think it worth the money, I have a friend who has CB radio set up and they have spent thousands.

WORKED OK

Not great at picking up shortwave. Get an all in one radio instead.

Works really well, with an understanding that I am just beginning to learn how to use it. The set up is a little difficult on a PC, but after you get past that part you will learn more each time you use it. So far it is well worth the price, and the more you learn the more you can do with it. Also I find that the phone app for android and or iPhone is the easiest way to get started, the set up is much easer than PC set up but you do sacrifice some functions that are available on a good PC.

Bought for my teen and she told me it's exactly what it's advertised as (the real deal), works great and the info on the website was super helpful to get it set up

Questa chiavetta mi ha soddisfatto. E' arrivata anche in breve tempo e la sto usando con soddisfazione

I was initially skeptical about the authenticity of this product, but it turned out to be genuine. I cross-checked all the details on their website and verified the PCB using the provided image, which was a great relief.As others have mentioned, the product doesn’t come with a manual, but their website offers plenty of helpful resources. Software support is somewhat limited on Mac, and I encountered issues while trying to record signals from RF switches using Universal Radio Hacker. The problem, however, was traced to a faulty USB hub I used to convert USB-C to USB-A. When I switched to Windows, everything worked perfectly.Overall, a solid investment!

Funkar men såg efteråt att det fanns siter där den var mycket billigare