Tagged: upconverter

The Effect of Noise Produced by the RTL-SDR

Over on YouTube Adam, the creator of the LNA4ALL, LNA4HF and UP100 upconverter has uploaded a video showing that the noise that is produced by the RTL-SDR dongle itself can degrade performance when combined with an LNA and/or upconverter.

Most commonly we’ve seen people mount the RTL-SDR dongle together with an upconverter and/or LNA in the same shielded box right next to each other. However, these results show that the RTL-SDR should be shielded separately from the LNA and upconverter for best performance.

Unshielded DVB-T dongle may cause the problems

Ham it up Upconverter 3D Printed Case YouTube Giveaway

Over on YouTube Eric William has posted a video about his competition where he is giving away two 3D printed ham-it-up upconverter cases. The ham-it-up is an upconverter that can be used with the RTL-SDR to allow it to receive HF (0-30 MHz) frequencies. To enter the competition you simply need to go to Erics web forum and post about what you use SDR for in the competition thread. The competition is open only for North American viewers and ends on May 19 2014.

RTL-SDR + Upconverter vs. Portable Shortwave Receiver

Akos from the SDR for Mariners blog has put together an article doing a comparison between the RTL-SDR + ham-it-up upconverter and a Grunding G8 Traveler II Digital conventional portable hardware shortwave radio.

His results show that the RTL-SDR and portable receiver are comparable in terms of performance, with a slight edge to the RTL-SDR. He adds that software tweaks available in SDR# can improve the voice quality for the RTL-SDR. However his final recommendation for general shortwave listening is that the portable is still the better option due to it’s ease of use.

RTL-SDR + Upconverter vs. Portable Shortwave Radio
RTL-SDR + Upconverter vs. Portable Shortwave Radio

SiDRadio: RTL-SDR Kit including Preselector & Upconverter

The Australian Silicon Chip magazine has written an article about a kitset for a 100KHz to 2 GHz receiver based on the RTL-SDR that they are selling. Note, you will need to pay in order to be able to read the entire article.

Completing the kit gives you a radio with two antenna inputs, a 5-band preselector, an RF amplifier and an upconverter for the HF bands.

SiDRADIO Overview
SiDRADIO Overview
SiDRADIO
SiDRADIO

 

Upconverter Comparison: Nooelec Ham it Up vs SDR Up 100

A few weeks ago Akos from the SDR for Mariners blog did a review of the SDR Up 100 Upconverter, and he promised to compare it with the Nooelec Ham-it-up Upconverter when it arrived. He has now done the comparison, and written about it on his blog.

For each test he used a gain of 0dB and the same 20 foot random wire antenna. Interestingly, his results show that the SDR Up 100 significantly outperforms the Ham-it-up upconverter. We believe that this may be as the SDR Up 100 has an LNA built into it whereas the Ham it up does not.

Update: Akos has now included comparisons with various RTL gain settings.

upconverterCompare
SDR Up 100 vs Ham It Up
Nooelec vs Up 100 comparison
Comparison Images

Review of the SDR UP-100 Upconverter

Akos from the SDR for mariners blog has written a review on the SDR UP-100 upconverter. The SDR UP-100 is a 50 USD upconverter for the RTL-SDR and similar software defined radios which is made by the same person behind the LNA4ALL low noise amplifier. Upconverters allow the RTL-SDR to receive between 0 and 30 MHz, where ham radio, military, marine and many other interesting signals exist.

In the review Akos tests the SDR UP-100 with a 6 meter random wire antenna and an RTL-SDR. His results show that the upconverter works well as expected. In the future he hopes to compare the SDR UP-100 with the Ham-It-Up Upconverter from Nooelec.

SDR UP-100

Version 5.0 of the CT1FFU Upconverter Now Available

Version 5 of the popular CT1FFU HF upconverter which is often used with the RTL-SDR and Funcube software defined radios has been made available for sale. A ready built and tested version 5 CT1FFU upconverter will cost you 55 Euros. See the circuit diagram and technical specs in this pdf file.

The upgrades include

– Smaller size PCB

– 4 new holes for screwing PCB

– MiniUSB connector

– 2 led 5V indication USB/ Phantom Power

– It runs with phantom power directly from Fun Cube Dongle’s SMA cable

– USB power for generic RTL TV dongle sticks

– Separeted antenna inputs HF/6m and VHF/UHF

– Automatic internal relay antenna switch: HF or Bypass VHF and UP

– WFM broadcast filter avoiding saturation of SDR front-end

– LED indication for converter running

– DBM diode ring mixer 7 dBm: This ensures exellent HF reception performance

– LO on 106.250 Mhz or 65.520Mhz: This avoids interference from WFM radios

– Tests made by hams worldwide reveal exceptional clean reception on HF

– Technical assistance after selling

– Either ready built and tested or as KIT easy to build by yourself

– Worldwide shipping and tracking is included in advertised price

– You can now choose the LO freq: 106.250Mhz or 65.520Mhz models

RTL-SDR Panadapter using RANVerter and Cheap Ham Radio

YouTube user ranickel and creator of the RANVerter HF upconverter for software defined radios has posted a video showing how to use an RTL-SDR dongle and RANVerter to create a panadapter for an old and cheap Heathkit HR-10 “beginners receiver” ham radio.

He connects the mixer stage of the HR-10 via a capacitor to his RANVerter which then connects to a RTL-SDR dongle.

RANVerter Panadapter

Cheap and Easy SDR Panadaptor for Older Receivers