The Coolest Radio You've Probably Never Heard Of
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 เม.ย. 2024
- Software Defined Radio (or SDR) is one of those things that I never knew existed as I was getting into the radio hobby. After learning about it, it's one of the coolest radios in my humble communications arsenal.
In this video I want to introduce you to SDR, and share just the slightest glimpse of what it has to offer in the hope that it inspires others to get into it and learn more.
SDR Dongle (Affiliated links. The cost is the same to you but if you use this link I may earn a small commission on the purchase from Amazon to help support this channel):
Amazon Link for RTL SDR V3: amzn.to/3px2eJg
Amazon Link for Dipole Antenna Kit: amzn.to/3wjEfRO
Amazon Link for Nooelec NESDR Smart v4 Bundle: amzn.to/3A1prYj
Related Videos:
SDR on an Android Device: • Software Defined Radio...
Shortwave / HF with RTL SDR: • Three Minute Thursday ...
Don't Kill your SDR: • PSA - Don't Kill Your SDR
SDR Installation Instructions / Tutorial:
- TheSmokinApe: • Installing RTL-SDR & S...
- ModernHam: • Getting Started with t...
SDR Beginner's Guide:
- • The Beginner's Guide T...
SDR# (SDR Sharp) Software (free)
- airspy.com/download/
Finding Radio Frequencies:
- www.radioreference.com/
- www.repeaterbook.com/ (Ham radio repeater directory)
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Back when I was a kid (1968), my dad gave me a WWII military receiver that could receive 100-400 KHz and 2.5-20 MHz. I spent hours plying the bands looking for good stuff like weather channels and other voice transmissions. Clocks in the house were set using WWV at 15 MHz. I plotted weather maps using a NOAA channel around 9.1 MHz. That old beast weighed in at around 200 pounds! Now you show me a tiny device about the size of a USB stick that can receive just about the entire spectrum! How I wish I had one of those when I was a kid...
Edit: Yes, I bought one.
I'm sure it was 200 lb of magic..
Gotta know what av dorks passion has been like? Im a major tron timeline person and synthetic devices
awesome story!
I just got a portable about the size of a walkman for my mom to give her for her birthday. It can recieve about 9 or so different bands including bluetooth, has an mp3 player, a flashlight, and can run off a nokia batery or 4 AA bateries and it has a builtin speaker! You can even use it as a power bank if you want.
tiny USB stick? Don't make me laugh lol. you need a computer and a decent antenna too.
@@remotepinecone I have a computer, and it came with a dipole antenna on a tripod with flexible legs that can either stand on a table or be clipped to something like a curtain rod.
Attention youtubers! This is how a video should be made!. To the point, condensed content, quality production over all, No ah"s, like's, or um's. Well done Tom!
I think Tom could be the reincarnation of Orson Welles...
The sad thing is that people who use ah, Um and like,May have a speech impediment or they suffer some issues with the steam. I have made videos in the past and noticed that I had a few of those issues and work on rectifying them. Speech that is absent of those fill in noises or words is the best, totally agreed
amen!
There's nothing wrong with "ah"s & "um"s
Tom just wanted to pat Tom on the back 😄
And, to boot, he doesn’t shout, wave his hands, and goes off in rants. Amd there’s no soul killing music. Well done, Sir!
there's a channel for everyone!
The reason the RTL-SDR is so affordable, is because it was originally designed for tuning into TV signals. It's one of the few devices made at a very large scale for the consumer market, and only accidentally fell into the Radio community as a super cheap, super featured RX SDR.
Do you know what software you’d use to view the TV signals?
@@jakexd5524 HDTV Player. It allows you to decode digital T/T2 television. But NTSC, PAL and other analog video signals, this device has too little bandwidth, but I saw on the Internet methods of partial decoding (Only black and white picture or sound separately)
@@jakexd5524 the TV format is different in Europe than it is here in N. America. The chip in the SDR dongle is originally meant for European TV, which won't work here in US.
@@W8RIT1 Bubble, burst.
@@imacmill NTSC in N. America, and PAL in Europe (and elsewhere)
I must say, this is one of the best presentation videos I have seen so far. Unlike most videos around that despite their title being a beginner's guide, yet you find yourself confused and lost not knowing how and where to start, this one is short, simple, and straight to the point. Well done for a great job
brains makes all the difference.
Thank you very much. Very kind of you to say :)
@@TomtheDilettante ..but the Bears suck.....,Go Pat's or Buc's Love your videos though. Were you Signal corps in the Army
Exceptional video, made by a human and not a boring AI bot. No uhs, umms, likes, or actuallys, so it was wonderful to watch!
Clicked on this vid just because you were honest by putting “probably” in the title 👏🏻 unlike most other TH-camrs
Yes, others would have put “actually” or “literally”
Glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed that
You know the probably is for if you've heard of the radio channel, and not if the channel is interesting
Same reason I like Tom Scott's videos: "Things you might not know"
Exactly my thoughts. Hes real in a world full of conceited clickbaiters
I loved this type of stuff when I was in the Army. In the Army I was a computer IT specialist, but I also worked a lot with radios and satellite communication, especially when I was setting up internet connection for a base out in the middle of nowhere in the desert of Iraq. The satellite we connected to, believe it or not, was actually the same satellite that news networks like ABC, CNN and others use, and in the case of a HUGE emergency and I was given the order to do so, I actually had the ability to kick the news networks off it and take over the satellite for military use....lol. But what I think was the coolest thing, is that I was able to see the waveform for EVERY signal being sent through the satellite, everything from the signal floor where all the background noise is at that is mostly always there, to whatever signal was being pushed through it at the time. I didn't have the necessary things to view or listen to anything other then our own communications, but I could see the signals themselves such as which one was strongest, what frequency they were using, that sort of stuff.
Thanks for your service
Go NAVY!!!!
@@b4i4getjr Oh, so you were one of THOSE people.....lol JK. Thanks for what you did too man. Oh and if you ex military too, I think you'd get a kick out of this guy's TH-cam channel, he makes fun of all the branches.
th-cam.com/users/shortsbCog5ehkHXU?feature=share
awesome dude, that sat comms monitoring setup sounds so cool / interesting to use
@@dannybeckett01 Oh it definitely was. It was the back of an entire truck full of equipment, took me a few MONTHS in training to really get a handle on what everything was and done. It was funny though, cause when we went to Iraq they said that if we were to be attacked and over ran that I was to destroy EVERYTHING in there. Most places had axes to smash things up with, but because the back of the truck was so cramped they gave me two thermite grenades and said if I had to, to pull the pins, throw em in and shut the door. Those thermite grenades would melt the whole truck to the ground....lol.
@@chrislaws4785 Thermite is some radical shiet... Is it possible to piggyback into a satellite INTERNET signal... How much $$ would it cost little ole me average JOE??
I am in the Houston area..
Tom I want to thank you, seriously thank you sir. I'm 60 and had a stroke back in 2015 which left me a little less sharp as I used to be. I was even a cable tv tech and splicer back in my days. Understanding this stuff has been a challenge but I'm slowly getting it back. Your video broke open like a stuck valve and all of the sudden things became real clear on some stuff I wasn't getting. You explain things very well and I wanted you to know how much I appreciated your video. Thanks and you have a new sub.
High praise. Thank you very much! It always makes me super happy to hear someone got something out of a video. Makes it totally worth it. I hope you get a chance to tinker with this kind of stuff and enjoy it!
This isn't a support group!
Shows off over 3k worth of equipment, "those are all cool and all, but my favorite is this little guy." lol. I've been a technician for 5 years and still rocking the Baofeng. Great video bro. 73. KD8ZZP
LOL! yeah, I know....didn't mean to come off as boastful or anything. The intent was to introduce newbies (like myself) or folks thinking about getting into radio but weren't sure where to start to what's even out there. The SDR was actually one of the first radios I got while I was still studying for my tech license to enable me to listen to local traffic and make sure it was something still worth studying for. After using it to listen for a while, I was hooked. Got my General license since then and am trying to study for the Extra but it's hard to make the time. Anyway, thank you for watching and have a good one! 73! KD9PXF
The best radio in the world is the one that gets you the contact you wanted to make. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a Baofeng if it does what you want it to do. I've been a HAM for nearly 30 years and my favorite radio out of everything in my shack is my SDRplay RSP1A--All $100 of it. :)
@@TomtheDilettante hang in there, you'll get it...It took me three years of on-again/off-again studying to finally get mine. Good luck from AA5SA!
@@AA5SA Thanks Sean. And Tom no reason at all to feel like you were showing off. I loved your radios!! I looked all of them up because I WANT THEM lol. Just "upgraded" to a Wouxen HT and got the RTLSDR installed running SDRSharp! Absolutely LOVE IT!! Have to figure out antennas to get SW and HF. Thanks all for the great responses!! Starting to work on my General and hopefully will be able to do some DXing at some point.
@@TomtheDilettante You didn't come off as boastful at all. In fact the opposite. If you've been successful in life you have something to show for it. Your equipment is or should be just inspirational to others. Put in the work and get the results. No work = no toys. Greetings from Arizona. K8MB.
I've been doing this for a long time. I used it with plugins to listen to trunked Provoice (EDACS) systems. It worked wonders for years. I was in the Vancouver, B.C, Canada location. I am now in a small town (8500) in the British Columbia Interior. It's in the Thompson/Nicola area. A town called Merritt. We love it here. We are not that far from the whole city of Lytton that burnt up in a wildfire last Summer (2021). I've been into radio since 1964. I was 4 years old, and I built a crystal radio that I seen in a Popular Science/Mechanics magazine. I figured out by changing coil sizes, I could go into SW bands. I was addicted! I am now 62, and still going at it.
I think radios were the catalyst for many of us. The idea of invisible waves carrying information fascinated a young me. I've been a tinkerer ever since.
You must have meant 14 years old. A 4 year old can barely form memories, let alone "build" anything greater than a pile of blocks. I've been around a while too and there's not a 4 year old on the planet that can "built a crystal radio" from a magazine.
Do you have a Ham Ticket if not you surely should have had one, Getting i bit late to get it now but very easy to do
@@Connection-Lost well since he has not replied back you just may have insulted him. You don't know there are genius savants out there that start much earlier than normal. He may have gotten into radios at 3 and it took until he was 4 to build a crystal radio. I know I built my first crystal from a kit at the hobby store when I was 9. It's not that far fetched that he started 5 years sooner..is it?
@@Connection-Lost
You are full of mis-truths !!!
There are MANY young children that possess excellent technical skills VERY early in their lives ... The word "Savant" is echoing in my brain right now ... but I'm not sure why ....
I must Google it ....
I just stumbled on to your site. The way you presented the info was great. I've got an SDR and this is the first time someone explained the software that I could really understand. And the antenna explanation was really simple. Not even the manufacture of the unit made it as easy and clearly as you did. Thanks.
I am one of those in IT who loves to delve in other fields of knowledge, and I have to say that I had never watched someone deliver so much useful practical information, at such a decent depth, rate, and clarity on something relatively new to me. I am glad I found your channel. Thank you for sharing!
Tom, you are unbelievable. Thank you so much for the helpful info to turn my computer into a receiver of numerous radio signals never before known to me.
The RTL-SDRv3 is precisely what got me into amateur radio. Now, SDR is the most important piece of part of my station. Tied into my radio’s RF-out port, I can visualize exactly what my radio is hearing, across the entire band. I’ve since upgraded to the SDR Play devices and it has turned out to be an incredible investment. It’s all point and click in SDRuno or HDSDR. Click a blank spot during a contest to find a place to “park”, click a signal if you want to make some contacts, or search the signals against the POTA database to see which activations are within reach. Amazing!
Can people track down where you are if you're 'listening' with this device? Just wondering if maybe since you're not transmitting that maybe people couldn't triangulate your location; don't want to make assumptions
@@chobai9996 only transmitted signals can be triangulated. But they might know you're using monitoring software through some online method. Not sure.
The SDR is a remarkable gadget! It has made most of the radio spectrum accessible to anyone with a computer 🖥.
Thank you very much for this. You popped up in my feed due to the mysterious ways of TH-cam. Your video was engaging and inspiring. And now I have one of these dongles and got it working. I followed the instructions on the online quick start guide and it worked absolutely fine. I got the FM channels dead easily and I also found some ATC and heard one end of a ham radio conversation. I'm looking forward to exploring more. My ambition is to tune in to UVB-76.
I used to build tube receivers, record Morse on a reel to reel,slow it down and decode it.That was many years ago.
This tech is awesome.
Lol toy might be showing your age a bit but that's damn cool man.
Helpful
My first radio was a crystal detector set. That was around 60 years ago.
I used to practice morse code in the Royal Air Force. A few hours of number cipher is SO MUCH FUN......
@@Tsamokie Same here
You can also use a Raspberry Pi with an SDR dongle, for a neat, ultra-compact setup!
what SDR app software can you use on the Pi?
@@Solstice42 RTL-TCP works really good and its super easy to set up.. also if your using the pi as the device you are interfacing with GQRX works well on most linux distros
Please explain what you need to do this
Like the HackRF portapack
Whats a Raspberry Pi? Im seriously new to all this lol. But I really want to learn. Thanks for any advice/help
Cheers mates
The video is brilliant in two ways....how to get started but also why the metric system is so brilliant.
Your honesty is refreshing.
"I'm no expert on this, but this other guy is so set it up the way he says so you don't screw your stuff up."
TH-cam would be incredible with more honesty like this. Thank you.
I have used RTL-SDR tuners for several years now. I have used it to monitor many different things. Some of the things I find coolest are more of the digital uses. One such use is ADS-B, which allows you to track aircraft. As to listening to public safety communication, more and more public safety entities are going to digital trunked radio systems. In the past, most public safety agencies were using traditional FM radio transmissions. Each channel requires a unique frequency; with a repeater, it is two frequencies per radio talk channel. If you need more channels, you will need many more frequencies. The chances of each frequency being used for a city simultaneously is pretty low, but a city or county is going to need several police talk groups, many fire talk groups, including numerous tactical groups. You also have parks and recreation, animal control, street maintenance and any other service you can think of that wants to communicate on the radio. This quickly escalates. With a digital trunked radio network, you can have a system with 5-30 frequency pairs for hundreds, if not thousands of unique talk groups. If the audio is already a digital signal, you can easily add encryption and it makes absolutely no difference in the audio quality for the end user, albeit, with an SDR you can't hear it. I have been using SDRTrunk (github.com/DSheirer/sdrtrunk) to listen to my city's radio network. I have also used the same software to feed the audio to Broadcastify, so people that do not have such a setup can take advantage of my SDR radio. Yes, there are radio scanners that can listen to these systems, BUT SDRTrunk is far superior than a much more expensive dedicated digital trunk-tracking scanner. Why? Because with the scanner, you can only hear one conversation at a time. With my setup, I can listen to all I want to listen and I will never miss any traffic. Broadcastify has two different platforms for sharing and listening and I simultaneously provide audio to both platforms with SDRTrunk. One plays all police primary channel audio and all fire talkgroups. If two are broadcasting at the same time, one platform will cache the audio until the conversation is finished and then play the cached audio. The other Broadcastify platform is the new Calls platform. This allows the listener to choose which talkgroups they wish to listen to, not just one audio stream. If there is an exciting fire incident and you don't want to be interrupted by an unrelated report of a neighbor complaint on the police primary channel, you can choose to only listen to fire traffic.
Listening in on other people's broadcast to me it's Quite voyeuristic just creepy behavior. Like haven't you anything better to do other than spy in on conversations not intended for you .
@@gregorybathurst7171 bro ham is public space just like internet and some want to put rules on those invaluable decentralized systems.
I went to the link and got a 404, guess it's not there anymore....
@@Miami7try typing in the url
@@gregorybathurst7171 ALL public service frequencies should be left UNENCRYPTED, then leave police, fire, sheriffs, federal law enforcement, and any I may have missed complete clarity an openness for the accountability to taxpayers. Only when authorized, encrypted traffic for undercover only. Anyone transmitting on Public frequency groups should know not to broadcast sensitive information. You should think like an adult.
Extremely well presented video -- many YTers know what they know but are not adapt at communicating it, you, OTH, have a great presentation style. Keep it up!
He constantly puts objects between his mouth and the microphone, muffling some sound. You can stop riding him and start riding a bike
You got me all hyped up with your great YT vid! Just ordered the RTL-SDR V3! Thanks!
Sunday I watched HRCC about SDRs. Monday TH-cam sent me to this video. What a great, brief, snippet of the joy of SDR for this newbie HAM.
It looks to me that SDR is how I bring my budding shack with my used radios within reach of 2022’s these newfangled and extremely useful waterfall displays.
Thanks for a very functional and inspiring vid, Tom.
I don’t remember how I stumbled on your channel but I don’t believe I have landed on a TH-cam channel where the host/presenter just gets on with it and doesn’t waste the viewer/listener’s time. You, to me are my new standard as to how to properly do a presentation. (obviously I have subscribed)
Bravo!
Cheers from Victoria, British Columbia
But it would be good if he spoke more slowly. Serious and good speakers speak more slowly.
As a longtime ham, I’ve always thought of SDR as expensive huge clunky, though powerful, devices. I had no idea how much things have changed. I’ll be picking one up once I can find one that includes the antenna like yours (even the eBay link is out of stock now).
WOW! So glad your post was recommended! I bought a RTL-SDR for school project and have it setup for FlightAware. I still keep it up on my TV when not actively using it for something else.
I had no idea I could do so many more cool things with the RTL-SDR I already use. This is def going to be a weekend project.
Thank you for sharing.
Not sure how I stumbled on this video but it was so cool! Never knew there was such a thing as a radio hobby. Got yourself a new subscriber!
Thanks for posing this. When I was a kid I had a very old SW radio that I used to listen to worldwide radio stations on (long before the internet), and had a great time with. I heard of SDR recently, then filed it in the back of my mind. You reminded me that I wanted to look into this, and I am ordering an SDR system right now!
That was an enjoyable and approachable presentation. Bravo. Even though part of my career involves tracking semiconductor trends, the thought that you can get a complete SDR, that small, ready to use, that can hit 1.7GHz for $40 just blows my mind.
I've been doing SDRs for 1/3 century, but not everyone has my experience. One of my MSEE projects was a direct synthesis tuner up to 1 GHz (child's play, today, but back in 1989 it took a custom chip in an exotic technology called "ECL logic" to achieve the 3GHz clock needed. In 1989 CMOS was a "cute" low power technology that wasn't really fast enough to do much of anything) so $12 in 1980 money for twice that bandwidth without a stack of 12x9 inch PC boards and a 100W power supply is just incredible.
For me, it's always easier to accept dramatic progress in fields I haven't worked in. Electric vehicles and autonomous cars going mainstream? Sure! SDR, speech recognition, or portable computers going from $5,000, 25lb, power-sucking boxes to $30, pocket sized, battery-powered devices? How? I worked on that: you "need" a lot of stuff to make it work!
Cheers, friend with a cool last name ;)
@@kirillvishnevsky6327 Same to you. Glad to have you in the clan.
You know if it's possible to "upgrade" the receiver to be able to listen to things from across the world? Is it as simple as just changing out the antenna for something with more "umph", or would it be too complicated to use with an SDR set-up as an amateur?
@@chobai9996 I believe you've replied to the wrong comment.
@@josephwisniewski3673 no, just thought since you said you were skilled in this that maybe you would know lol
Great video. I've been using ssr for years now and it's just amazing. You can even listen to and decode police, fire and ems digital radio. Also the mention about screwing up your computer drivers is very true. If you do it wrong you may just discover you can't use your mouse or keyboard. It's nothing that will permanently damage anything but it's rather annoying.
Back when I was a high school student, I got one of my dad's old Heathkit general receivers working again. That radio was a little bit older than me and I remember picking up AFRS with it. I still have a Heathkit, not the same one, and a Realistic DX-440 but I'm in a condo and have no room for a proper antenna.
I just bought one, too.
Thanks for sharing this info. In the 1960's when I was a kid I had a multi-band shortwave radio and it had all of those types of frequencies and I remember way back then I paid over $100 for that radio. For less than $40 you showed me I can use a usb device to do the same thing. Amazing! Now I can revisit my old hobby.
Great video, I’ve got every SDR, ham, scanner and cellular radio interceptor known to man, but I really love the way you produce and narrate your videos, awesome great job..!!
WHATS THE POINT. USELESS HOBBY
What a video, clean crisp, no nonsense,fast and to the point, this is the way it's done right
Nicely presented... Thanks for sharing this. I remember exploring radio bands as a kid (I had a 4-channel crystal handheld , in fact, and remember my dad using Radio Shack tube testers when I was really young... lol). Police/fire, railroads, atc... even AM skip... It only became worse when I entered radio in '83 and spent nearly 15 years at different stations off and on... As if I reeeeally needed another 'rabbit hole' to dabble with today... pffft... lol Love the technology we have today, though I do miss some of the old stuff (fewer and fewer people remember the smell of dust burning off hot tubes these days lol).
Been wanting to try an SDR but felt intimidated. This video convinced me to try it out. Saved it for another viewing later and will follow the instructions. Thanks much!!!!
Thanks for watching and the kind words! I totally understand the intimidation factor. There's so much this stuff can do and so much to learn it's hard to know where to start. I just said screw it...picked one up...and started playing with it. I still have a lot to learn but thought it was cool enough to share with others so voila...video LOL. Good luck giving it a shot! I highly recommend perusing TH-cam for other videos on the subject so you can formulate your own version of what might work best for you. I'm far from an authority on the subject and I rely on content from others a lot to guide my own tinking :) Have fun!
Jjjiì
Just try it. It's not much of an investment and the results are pretty impressive. You can do it.
I'd avoid the RTL type sticks as you have to go through a weird installation process which stops the default drivers and uses something called ZADIG. Go for a more sophisticated SDR like the SDRPlay DX. One easy install, works like a charm.
@@andyhowlett2231 why are u scared of technology?
Your videos are those among the few channels I watch, where I hit the Thumbs Up button before I even watch the video. Because I already know I'm going to like it. Another awesomely informative video, thanks for the upload Tom!
Ha! Thanks man! Really appreciate your support! I took a risk on this video because it's not exactly "new" technology...just "new to me" :) There's bound to be some viewers that are like "what's next? electronic mail?" LOL. But, it's cool to me and so far it seems those checking out the channel are diverse enough that it's bound to be interesting to someone so yeah... Anyway, thanks as always and have a good one!
@@TomtheDilettante can you use this on an Android tablet is 10.0?
Tom you are a natural teacher/leader. Excellent job explaining what I once thought of as a complicated subject.
Thank you for this video.
I am not too much of a radio hobbyist, but I always liked listening to a scanner I found in my basement. This SDR setup is definitely an upgrade. Almost immediately bought one on pay day this week. Already having tons of fun with it.
I live near Chicago as well, so bonus points for that 😅😅
From a Lisle, IL resident I really enjoyed your video. I have had the SDR dongle for a year but have not had the time I would like to play with it. I hope to catch the local municipal depts. when I get better at using it.
Well done Tom! Great information on how to get started with a SDR. Liked, subscribed and looking forward to your content.
Oh My Gods. This is amazing! Thank you for introducing me to SDR. I have long been a scanner enthusiast but have not spent the money to replacer my scanner nor time to find all the frequencies around me that I am interested in. Radio reference is an an excellent resource too!
Thanks for a great introduction to SDR! I bought a dongle years ago, never got it to work worth $#!7 and gave up. You've made it look achievable and provided specific brands and programs which is a huge help. I will definitely give it a shot. And BTW, do you happen to know whether this SRD combo is compatible to receive wsjt-x signals? That would be an even bigger bonus (although of course more complex than only listening to audio). Thanks again -- great job!
many free software programs available for different modes of operation
SDR is a wonderful thing. The moment I've learned about people downloading SSTV images from the International Space Station I set myself a new challenge of learning about radio and build my own antenna. My first antenna was a QFH antenna which I still use to listen to ATC, track flights through ADSB, download weather images from NOAA satellites and occasionally, if there's an event, download images from the ISS. RTL-SDR is a wonderful little dongle. I really recommend a HackRF for more experienced users.
I am really interested in the ADS-B aspect, do you have any links where I can start? Thanks
You have a fantastic presentation style, Thanks. Love you're workshop too.
Is he a workshop?
Great video, and got my interest all over again. I was really into this in the 80s and 90s and my Sony 2010 works like it always did. I spent hours on it and a couple of scanners, but now this takes it to the next level and I'm going to have to buy that little gadget and get the software! Thank you!
Very well done. I know all of this as an experienced radio guy, yet i was hooked. Nice job.
Cheers - stumbled on your site and this was an interesting topic - made me a subscriber too!
These are truly awesome devices. Monitoring my gas and water meters in real time is nice. Sniffing smart electric meters is a whole other level though. The confidence of new radio folks have in the antenna length formula always gives me a chuckle.
Can I contact you somehow and pick your brain a little?
what does monitoring the gas meter look like?
For your intended scope of SDR I think you did a great job of being able cover a fair amount without getting way off base or wasting time. I think you are a YT natural. Cheers
Very gracious of you to assemble all this for us, thanks! I never know it existed, now I want to try it out. Cheers
Glad your channel showed up in my feed, really good info! Nicely presented. (gonna explore your other videos) I'm a ham and engineer and you touched on everything that's important, including getting the antenna tuned for the frequencies your interested in. I was wondering if you would go over that detail, I was pleased you did. At 8:30 on the station your tuned into on the right side of the spectrum, you can clearly see the digital sidebands of that station, broadcasting HD Radio, or IBOC. With those flattop signals with the FM carrier between the two. The other FM's in view don't have a hybrid digital signal included. Unfortunately the software can't tune into the digital HD Radio signals, mostly because of licensing issues.. I suspect there is professional software that could, but never looked into it. These SDR dongles are quite flexible, as one of the comments below says, you can monitor aircraft ADSB transponders with the same exact dongle, just different software!
Very interesting, cheers! Didn't know these things existed until yesterday, may dip my toes in. I have to say you are a ringer for a young Orson Welles :)
$10 to see him say: "Rosebud."
I had an old book of mine in my hand the other day - SOS at midnight form Walker A. Tompkins -, one of my childhood's favorites that made me dream and inspired me a big time, and I felt myself rehooked right away! I ordered an SDR the same minute. Thanks for introducing!
Matin borlin Hoai yau
My first time seeing one of your videos. I never heard of SDR. You got me interested. Thanks for the good information!!
Thank you Tom for the SDR receiver stuff. I've been on Ham radio for about 40 years and have tried almost everything WB6TA. Now that I am house bound and all caught up with Netflix, this looks like something fun..
you finished Netflix!? That's an impressive feat :) my "watch list" just seems to keep growing. And then there's TH-cam with a bottomless pit of interesting content...hard to stay focused. Glad you enjoyed it! I plan on doing more with SDR as I learn it myself. I'm currently working on a video showing how I was able to get it to work on my Android phone thanks to viewer comments. 73! KD9PXF
@@TomtheDilettante Hi there. Speaking of rabbet holes; I was checking out videos on my new Midland Radio, and your video came up. Q) Can I use this on my tower
computer? ( Old school I know) Also, looking forward to your video on Android phone.
@@t3ck3r how is a proper computer "old school"?
@@fiverZ I thought everyone used cellphones and laptops now days. I don't know many people that use towers anymore.
I'm getting one! I'm taking the Technician exam next week and currently have the FT-3DR handheld. As a Chicago native, I'm glad to see you're holding up: I was in elementary school at the time of the 1967 blizzard.
Good luck with technician ham I need to study for general class. I have a chinese hand held.
@@lb3406 Thanks! Good luck with your General: I'm studying for it now. KN6NPZ, 73!
@@darylnd I will when I take care of family issues. My wife's father just passed away.
@@lb3406 My condolences to you and your family. I lost my father-in-law in 2013, my father in 2014.
@@darylnd I lost my father before the turn of the century in 1999. My father in law was the last oldest child of his family and lived the longest at 88 and a half. My mother in law took good care of him with meals and snacks kept the weight off most of his brothers were overweight when they died. Thanks it's hard on my wife especially when we drive and pass by where he worked. I may try a different route.
Well done video Sir! You took a complex topic and made it easy to comprehend and understand. I definitely will be saving this video! 👍
I have listened to many TH-cam videos. As to voice, presentation and easy to listen to, I found yours to be one of the best
Some radio restoration people use these as signal analyzers to help with their alignment & calibrating a sets RF & IF transformers. Now I know how to do this on the cheap too. Thanks
Nice. That makes sense and seems like yet another practical application of this little thing :) Thanks for sharing!
@@TomtheDilettante I got my dongle in the mail with the antennaá today I tried to dl drivers but my antivirus blocked them as a threat 22/10/21 Australia
@@chrissymonds1845 I’m sorry to hear that. I think mine warned me of the same. You should be able to circumvent your antivirus settings on your own computer is you would like to proceed.
@@TomtheDilettante I took the dongle to a tech to see if he could find a way to patch it or bypass the antivirus. I am not that savvy with computers
@@chrissymonds1845 try it upside down you're in Australia for God's sake
I learned something today. A good way to end a Friday.
I recently ordered the RTL SDR Blog V3 after a few tries with downloading the software I finally got it set up but I was having problems with the USB extension which didn't allow the dongle to work. I replaced the USB extension plugged in the dongle and it worked! I was inspired by your video to try this out, got some learning how to operate the radio but that's all part of the fun, thanks to your video!
This is EXCELLENT!!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge, I can't wait to get started!
I don't know why the Google algorithm dropped this in my feed but it is the best video I've watched in a while. Tom, your delivery is refreshingly direct, concise, and informative. I'm SO tired of videos that spend 12 minutes of noise to deliver 30 seconds of signal. Your signal-to-noise ratio was very satisfying and you *definitely* met your stated goal of whetting my appetite to dig deeper.
Also, as other comments have stated, that live visualization of broadcast bands was revelatory. At 50+ years old, I've never seen it illustrated so well. Yes, I understand that was the software doing the work but, darn it, *you* shoved me down the rabbit hole.
Keep up the good work, whole I head over to Amazon to start yet another new hobby.
LOL! thanks for watching and the kind words! Yeah, the TH-cam algorithm is a mystery as well but I'm glad folks have enjoyed and found value in the content so far. It's been fun. Enjoy exploring fun radio stuff :) I've got lots more to learn myself but that's the fun part!
You HAVE whetted my appetite indeed, good sir.
Nice, thanks mate!
I bought a cheap SRS usb dongle a few years ago and never got it working. After watching your video, I had it working in minutes, lol. Thx again!
A great video that I happened to stumble upon! I'm going to give that set up a shot; and you have quite the Man Cave going on there💪💪keep up the good work man average folks need the knowledge.
First time i watch this channel, I'm subscribing, he explains very well!
Same here. Even if I understand it, sometimes I get lost in the weeds.
We used to do this in the early 2000's when the waves for dishing out and changing in Mississippi and Pennsylvania with our toughbooks. Came in handy on deployments. I still have a great SDR ant. Cost me $11.99 back in the day. Every Com Operator needs one. Love it.
Thanks, as someone just starting to take interest in ham radio and considering getting licensed, I found this video extremely helpful. I've just been trying to play around and learn by using a Baofeng to receive. Each book or video I've looked into for getting a Technician license just uses a "memorize the question pool answers" approach; but I don't just want to pass a test. I want to understand what I'm doing, why, and how it works. Watching this video gave me the idea that I could use this SDR setup as a sort of learning sandbox. I can make sense of all the nuance a lot faster if I can see visualizations of what I'm doing instead of only being able to listen.
Tom, I gotta admit man, you may be the smartest dude I've ever seen on YT. And I watch a lot of YT DIY videos, true crime, documentaries, just a lot of stuff. This was a fantastic video dedicated to something other than mugging for the camera and showing how to do your nails or make up. Bravo man.
The visualization of all frequencies in itself is mindblowing to see.
Oscillator??
@@shawnstone4949 Spectrum analyzer
@@dobdoa3691 Ahh thanks!
wow. amazing delivery. you're 100% going to have a successful channel. :-)
What an incredibly well-made video about something I had never heard of! I gotta get one.
I have an RTL-SDR like yours ($35) and had SDR# installed and all working beautifully. Windows had an update today and installed a nice RTL2832U driver for me; Microsoft is so good at these things. It took me hours to get it working again. The good news: 1. I’ve wanted the new version of SDR# anyway since I saw yours and 2. Now I’m real good at installing SDR#.
do you have an update I just got mine in the mail 10/22/21 but I can't find a driver that works my laptop won't me download the drivers says its a security threat and blocks the app
@@chrissymonds1845 Download SDR# from the airspy link in the notes to this TH-cam video and download the User Guide. It has instructions for using zadig to install the driver. Zadig is the software tool you use to replace the Windows driver that doesn’t work.
@@19mitch54 thank you got it
Thank you for this. Very interesting. I'll pass this to a family member who messes around with ham radios. By the way, ever heard of Radio Garden? You can listen to radio ( FM and such) by rotating the globe and select stations from different countries. Pretty neat!
You describe and explain in detail and make it simple to understand. Thank you. 🙂
Hi Tom, of the many different topics that i usually watch on TH-cam, this is one of my favorite topic. I used be an electronics hobbyist during my school days. It was a pleasure watching this video, very informative and very well articulated. Good video, great work and thanks a ton. Regards karunakaran.
I remember back when I was reading about directional antennas for wi-fi (look up "cantenna" and "war driving" for reference), the info I found sounded like the 'weakest link' of a typical external WiFi antenna setups was the coaxial cable between the antenna and the (WiFi) transciever.
For instance, from what I read, connecting an external antenna to your computer's WiFi adapter using 15 feet of a common coax type used for WiFi (LMR100) loses roughly 6 dB of the signal picked up by the antenna. Since each 3dB of signal loss roughly cuts signal strength in half, this 15 feet of this particular cable type only delivers about 25% of the signal captured by the antenna to the WiFi adapter.
In the event that a setup like the one used in this video leaves one or more desired transmitters simply too weak to pick up with this radio, you might want to try replacing the coaxial cable with a $6 USB extension cable (A-male to A-female) which will allow you to move the dongle closer to the antenna, and allowing you to connect the antenna directly to the USB dongle (simply getting rid of the coax cable in between).
Even if this does not allow you to listen to radio signals that were too weak before, a USB extension cable like this will most likely exert less mechanical stress on your computer's USB port than a big, fat dongle does over time, and will be less likely to block access to adjacent USB ports on the same computer. If you've ever had a USB port on a laptop become useless after using a big dongle with it over time, you know how much leverage a long dongle like that can exert on a USB port that is anything but simple to replace for most people.
Good tip! Thanx.
good grade of cable well wort the money i also use a CMC-RF isolator big game changing noise reduction common mode choke is like a filter @@danschultz7029
I've been looking into SDR off and on for a couple of years, finally ordered a Nooelec NESDR Smart v4 bundle earlier today
I’d like to know how it works with Linux
@@andrewcool4587 I haven't tried it yet but I will be. I ended up ordering a 2nd to get SDRTrunk working on Windows 10 for now
@@andrewcool4587 All the RTL based devices work just fine with Linux; they have for years.
I love the rabbit hole reference. Wonderful video. I started with a Nooelec Smart SDR. Now I have the Nooelec smart, Nooelec SmarTee XTR, 4 RTL-SDR v3's, MSi-SDR, Airspy Hf+ and a RSPduo. I have two RSP1A's and a HackRf One on the way. 4 antennas with splitters and 4 satellite dishes. I listen to the world, decode data and images from satellites, read messages meant for ships, track aircraft using ADS-b (local) and ADS-C (over the oceans), listen to emergency services on P25 trunking.... the list goes on.
Hey Tom, thanks for a great little intro! When I would be out ocean kayak touring on the coast, I would have the VHF weather report going... funny how relaxing I found that. What a great price point to tinker with.
You remind me of Orson Welles!! Wonderful voice and presentation 👏
That's really cool. My grandfather was really into Ham radio and I regret not learning about it before he passed in 2019.
Seriously, it's not that difficult to get started in Ham radio. Yes you have to study for your ticket but most of your learning comes after that. Give it a go I've been a Ham for 18 years now & I'm still learning, I've made friends all over the world, made my own gizmos, antennas etc. You may be entitled to inherit your Grandfather's callsign, now that would be cool. 73's De M0NJE (England)
hello - your granddad probably left some stuff behind that you can explore and research at leisure.... hence, your
granddad lives.... 73, Bill, KE1LC
"When a person dies,
a library burns down." ...
One of the coolest things I've seen. Very informative video! This may become the next hobby that I don't really have time for ;)
Excellent presentation. Professional. Upbeat. Informative.
Many years ago I worked at 5th group in a signal detachment.
Your presentation reminds me of the 18E's who are commo masters.
Great job!
Thanks.
Wow, thank you!
Some 15 years ago, maybe longer, I studied like crazy and passed my Ham Radio test (on my first try no less) as a "General" licensed user. I have never used a ham radio though, never spoken one word on the air. LOL I ordered this within the first 3 minutes of watching this video (right when the radio was shown) and then finished watching it. The presenter is very gifted. Subscribed and thumb up. Cheers
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it. I have a "General" license as well and it's pretty fun connecting with random folks around the planet. You should jump on sometime...who knows, maybe we'll catch each other :)
Blade Runner you and me both. I was in a situation where I needed emergency communication access and passed my technician and took the general course; but I had a conflict on the test date for the general and never took the general test; and still have not gone on air. I need to start all over and get my tush in gear,.
Great video, I am glad people are promoting our dying hobby.
P.s. for the receive only, you don't really need to calculate the length of your antenna. This is very important for the transmit, because of the SWR. Just stretch the antenna as long as they are and you will be golden. As a matter of fact, just stretch a peace of wire as long as you can and that will be more than enough for RX, receive. TNX and 73, de KB9K
Roger that! Thanks for the correction. I'll have to start experimenting with that. Not that I don't believe you, I'm just a visual learner, so I'm likely gunna experiment with different antenna configurations to see how it affects receive signal strength and clarity. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me and others!
Tom, you’ve got the right equation for antenna length - but you have made a common error. You are ignoring the length of the center connector. The correct length is the overall length of the antenna, including the center connector. That said, antenna length is only critical when the antenna is used for transmitting (the correct length minimizes “standing wave reflection”). For reception almost any length will do, the longer the better.
After watching your presentation, which was well presented, I went an ordered my RTL-SDR I already have a Sony ICF-SW7600GR, but this SDR looks and works so awesome, I couldn't resist! Thank you.
I find myself once again down a rabbit hole. My list of projects keeps growing :-). Thank you for the excellent content!
Very welcome! Thank you for watching! I hope you find it as entertaining as I have.
I am absolutely getting into this. Thank you for this highly informative and excellent video!⚡️💚⚡️🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟👍🏻🍻💻 📻
Thanks for sharing the info! Very engaging presentation. I was already familiar with the SDR dongles, but never took the plunge. Much more inexpensive than buying a communications receiver for the casual listener. Also, I do believe you can decode digital transmissions like P25 Phase 1, NXDN, D-STAR, and others (as long as they're not encrypted). I guess I know what I'll be buying myself for my birthday!
Congrats on a great introduction. You really made it clear how easy it is to start out with it.
great video, clear and concise with visual aids. I am going to get the parts mentioned and start listening!
How cool this is aside… I just want to appreciate how good you are at producing high quality videos. Not often you see this level on TH-cam. Also… you wouldn’t know about military transitions e.g fighters, assuming they are 100% inaccessible. And do you know any cool stuff to listen to in the UK? Thanks
As an extra class operator and a Ham for 20 years, that is out right the best intro SDR radio I have ever seen - I have had no desire to play with SDR, but this is a true game changer. I'll buy one for GP.
Try a LimeSDR or Mini, you will get board with this restrictive device
Agreed!
de W5JN (Licensed since 1976...just after the dinosaurs died out...)!
Do you mean,bored, ? @@cedricvillani8502
@@cedricvillani8502 $1000 cheap VS $50. for the sdr in this video.
Well done (clear, succinct, etc.). Thanks for taking the time.
Just discovered this channel and subscribed. Really interesting topic. Going to buy this SDR and get started.
I've had one of those RTL SDR modules sitting in my drawer for several years. Maybe I should use it.