Frugal Radio: Review of our RTL-SDR Blog L-Band Patch Antenna
Over on YouTube Rob from Frugal Radio has uploaded a video reviewing our new L-Band Patch antenna which we released for sale late last month. The patch is currently on a release sale for US$44.95 including free standard airmail shipping to most countries. We will be ending the sale this Wednesday at which point the price will go to US$49.95, still with free standard airmail shipping to most countries. The patch can be purchased from our web store at www.rtl-sdr.com/store.
In the video Rob demonstrates the patch receiving Inmarsat signals strongly, and decodes a few AERO signals using JAERO. He shows that the patch works on any RTL-SDR with bias tee capability as well as an Airspy Mini. Lastly he compares the unit against the SDR-Kits patch.
We note that we are also supplying a kit for a giveaway to Frugal Radio subscribers that we will announce in an upcoming video coming out a few days time.
UPDATE: Giveaway information now available in the latest video below.
I’m very happy with this antenna. Signals from Inmarsat, Iridium and GPS are very strong. The EbN0 for AeroH+ 8400bps is around 10dB, 10500bps is around 6dB with full decoding. I am in the UK.
What satellite are you using and what is the elevation from your location?
Thank you for your help and the others that have helped me, in case I forgot to mention it.
Iridium signals use the opposite polarisation?
What is the maximum current required by the patch antenna?
What is the EbNo: shown in Jaero for the 600bps, 1200bps, 10500bps and voice 8400bps?
If the patch antenna is used outside in the sun and it being black, wouldn’t it get hot?
If it did get hot would it be possible that permanent or temporary physical damage due to distortion could occur?
Also would it affect the patch antenna’s performance including the electronics in the preamp?
How would that antenna work around 1680 MHz? The radiosondes used by our nearest weather service office use frequencies from 1676 to 1682 MHz. I was going to try to build an antenna for receiving them, but if the filtering on the patch antenna isn’t too tight I may give that a try first.