RTLSDR4Everyone: Testing the Nooelec and RTL-SDR Blog Metal Cases
Over on his blog rtlsdr4everyone, author Akos has been testing the metal cases produced by Nooelec and RTL-SDR Blog (this site!). In his post Akos compares the Nooelec aluminium enclosures for the MCX based RTL-SDR dongles and for the ham-it-up upconverter, and also our aluminium enclosure for our SMA RTL-SDR dongles.
In his post Akos discusses the pricing, size, durability, heatsinking, shielding, and various other aspects of the cases. He also does a toughness test where he runs over each case with a car – all cases pass the test.
We’d like to add that all our dongles now come with an aluminium enclosure standard, but if you have one of our older models you can upgrade to the aluminium case for $4.95 including shipping from China. Akos writes that our cases can also potentially be used with other (non-SMA) RTL-SDR dongles too with a few modifications. Also the heatsink Akos adds to the cases is probably a bit of an overkill as in our tests our metal case with thermal interface pad is enough to almost completely solve heat related issues at L-band frequencies. Adding a small additional heatsink should be sufficient if there are still problems.
Akos also adds that he has updated his review of the Balun one nine with a YouTube video showing the difference in reception between a long wire antenna with and without the balun used.
