Outernet SDRx Clearance Sale $15: RTL-SDR with built in L-band LNA and Filter
Recently the Outernet project transitioned from using RTL-SDR dongles and C.H.I.P single board computers to using their Dreamcatcher board, which is an RTL-SDR and computing board all in one. In between the transition they also produced a number of ‘SDRx’ dongles. These were custom RTL-SDR dongles with a built in L-band LNA and filter. As they no longer need the SDRx they have them on clearance at their store.
The clearance price is $15 USD which is an excellent deal. Remember though, that the SDRx is limited in frequency range – it is designed for receiving L-band satellites between 1525 – 1559 MHz and the filter will cut off all other frequencies.
Just add a simple L-band tuned antenna to the port and you should be able to receive Inmarsat and a signal like STD-C, AERO or the Outernet signal. A suitable antenna might be a homebrew patch, helix, cooking pot antenna or even a small tuned V-dipole antenna can work for the stronger AERO signals.
We also see that the price of their L-band Outernet active ceramic patch antenna has been dropped down slightly to $25 USD. This antenna is bias tee powered and can be used with a V3 dongle or their Dreamcatcher hardware. The Dreamcatcher itself is also now reduced in price to $59 USD.
We have a review of the Dreamcatcher and active ceramic patch antenna available here.
We also now list Outernet products in our store. These are commission sales so we receive a little bit per purchase which supports the blog, and the items are shipped by Outernet within the USA.
If you were unaware, Outernet is a free L-band based satellite service that provides content such as news, weather data, APRS repeats and more. Currently you can get about 20MB of data a day. Outernet receivers are also all based around the RTL-SDR, allowing for very cheap receivers to be built
$5.87 shipping for me to New York as first class package, good deal in my opinion.
The SDRx can be modified to be a full/normal RTL-SDR by adding another SMA connector, bridging a solder-jumper and removing one other SMD component. In one test case it worked better (ADS-B tested) than a regular RTL-SDR. http://forums.outernet.is/t/sdrx-to-rtl-sdr/3927 has a link to the instructions and some test results.
Unixpunk, are there any mods for the Dreamcatcher? I was thinking it ought to be possible to remove the SAW filter if it is a discrete component (separate from the LNA).
There are 2 SMA ports on there, 1 bypasses the LNA+SAW and has a bias-t enabled and the other is just the LNA+SAW, no bias-t. Maybe the LNA_BYPASS port would work for your needs assuming you’re not using an antenna that is a dead-short. I don’t recall if you can disable the bias-t on the LNA_BYPASS port or not though if that were to be a complication for you. HTH
you will have to pay the same price for shipping though…
So to have it at the excellent price of $15 it should be supplied free of charge 😀
That is still a pretty good deal IMO. I’d buy one if I didn’t have an Outernet kit that includes RTL-SDR and Outernet LNA separately. It’s probably the cheapest way to get into Inmarsat receiving.