Does the idea of adding the following to your PC for under £10 appeal?
- Software-defined receiver covering 24MHz to 1.85GHz (FM, AM, SSB, CW)
- DAB Digital Radio
- Freeview Digital TV with programme guide
- ADS-B Aircraft virtual radar receiver
- TV and radio recorder
All of the above is possible with this cheap little USB dongle!
The Realtek RTL2832U Radio & TV Dongle
This is marketed as a “Mini Digital TV USB Stick” and comes with a basic remote control and a tiny digital TV aerial. It’s supplied with Blaze software for use with digital TV and radio. If you’re happy to install a few bits of other software, the receiver can be opened up to a host of other possibilities, great for use with amateur radio!
The Realtek RTL2832U Radio Tuner USB Stick
I picked one of these up at the Rainham Radio Rally for a little over £18. Online, it’s even cheaper. At the time of writing, it’s available from Amazon priced from around £10 – here are the listings:
Realtek RTL2832U Availability |
Software Defined Radio: Installation
Go to rtlsdr.org/softwarewindows and download the package SDR~ (SDR Sharp). Ignore the first step about installing Zadig, as it is installed as part of the main SDR# installation.
You’ll need to download a zip file, and extract three files using an unzip application. Unzip the files to a folder called /sdr-install/ and run the file install.bat – This will go online and download the latest versions of all the files you need.
Now, plug in the dongle. Windows will try to find a driver. I let Windows install whatever driver it wanted, as apparently the SDR software can use its own drivers.
Next, go to the /sdr-install/ folder and look for /sdrsharp/ – In there, run the Zadig.exe file to install drivers. Zadig detected two devices when I plugged the dongle in, and I selected the first one “Device 0″. Can’t see “Device 0″? Go to Options > List all devices, and look for the Realtek device there”
Installing the Zadig drivers for use with SDRSharp
The driver installation app is rather chatty, as installers go. It points out, while it’s working, that Microsoft doesn’t pass back information about the process, so can’t estimate installation time. To kill the time, it has a chat. Nice touch
Installing Zadig – Very chatty installation program
Using the dongle as a Software Defined Radio
With the driver installed, and the operator suitably amused, time to run SDR#, using the sdrsharp.exe file
The interface started up, and to get things running, there are two things you need to do:
1. Set the software to work with the dongle. From the box on the top left, select “RTL-SDR/USB” and hit Play
2. At this point, I could see a signal in the waterfall, but not hear anything. If you get the same, go to Configure, where you’ll file that the RF gain is set to zero. Slide up the gain, and it all starts working.
Starting up SDRSharp and selecting the right SDR
Here is my first screenshot, showing stereo audio from commercial radio station Heart FM on 96.3MHz. The software even decodes the RDS station name and “now playing” information.
Heart Essex on 96.3MHz showing on the Realtek SDR
Broadcast radio working fine, and nice audio, especially when connected to a decent rooftop antenna. Now to try the ham radio frequencies. I gave 2 metres a try:
SDRSharp showing the output of the GB3DA repeater on 145.725MHz
Having problems with SDR#? Try a different USB port, or try reihnstalling Zadig
RTL1090 Aircraft Tracking
The dongle can get aircraft signals (ADS-B) on 1.090GHz. This is done using an application called RTL1090 (download from rtl1090.web99.de – note the Readme.txt contains info about extra files you’ll need) When you install this, it just brings in raw data.
RTL1090 showing incoming ADS-B data on 1.090GHz
You need an app called ASDBscope to get a map (download from here)
When I start ASDBScope, I get a Registry Error (Win code error: 2) message, but this doesn’t seem to cause a problem.
Three other settings had to be changed:
1. Under Other > Network > Network Setup – Press the “RTL1090″ preset button
2. Same screen set URL IP address to “127.0.0.1″, and ‘Close
3. Tick Other > Network > Raw Data Client Active
Live aircraft information on 1.090GHz displayed on ASDBScope
Digital TV
To get digital TV to work, it’s a case of installing the drivers found on the supplied mini CD, and then installing the Blaze software application. As this is the purpose for which the dongle is designed, this is not too fiddly, and should present no problems.
I connected the dongle to a standard TV aerial (as opposed to my ham radio antenna) for this test. The first thing that Blaze does once it find the dongle, is perform a channel scan, and it correctly found all of the Freeview channels on offer in my area. Access to the Freeview channels was pretty straightforward, and the Blaze software supports access to the electronic programme guide, has recording facilities and lets you capture screenshots of live TV
Watching Freeview Digital TV via Blaze on Realtek USB stick
DAB Digital Radio
As with digital TV, you need the drivers and Blaze software to be installed from the supplied mini-CD. This presented no problems.
From Blaze, switching to DAB digital radio for the first time caused the Blaze software to start another scan. The scan took quite a while as it scanned quite a wide range of frequencies. After several minutes, it returned a list of 88 received DAB stations from several multiplexes. Audio quality was very good, and the app has a pretty good interface, as pictured here:
Realtek USB stick playing Absolute Radio DAB station
Switching between radio and TV
It’s not immediately obvious how to switch from Freeview TV to FM and DAB. The trick is, to press the green ‘TV’ button in Blaze to get to a menu that allows you to select the different services. Here’s a screenshot:
Blaze: Switching between TV, Radio and DAB
Antennas and the Realtek USB Stick
With a tiddly, and cheap, 12cm of antenna supplied, I wasn’t expecting much, and it was only when I was able to connect the dongle to a decent antenna that it started to open up more to me.
Antenna supplied with the Realtek RTL2832 tuner
The supplied antenna is unlikely to be great for reception unless outdoors or at a prime location, so I was quick to get a decent connection. The connector on the USB stick and supplied aerial is tiny. I’ve seen it before on sat navs and some pocket TV sets, and I’ve today discovered that it’s called a “mini TV MCX” connector. The good folk at the Rainham rally didn’t have one, but Maplin did – and with a lead on the end too. Their part: L59LN has a MCX plug on one end, and a UHF TV coax on the other. This is available here: Portable MCX Adapter Cable at Maplin.
Maplin’s Portable Digital TV MCX Adapter Cable
Obviously, this is perfect for TV and DAB radio reception, but as mine was more for ham and VHF work, I snipped off the UHF coax plug and replaced it with a BNC, which I could then connect to a more useful antenna. Worth a try if you want some decent results.
Connecting the Realtek RTL2832 USB stick to a decent antenna
Summary
For £20, this is an awesome toy… dare I say it, far more useful than a £100 Fun Cube Dongle, that was very tricky to set up, and not able to access as much in the way of content. For under £20, you can’t go wrong!
Any questions or comments? Please add them below and I’ll try to help.
Pete M0PSX
Just thought about trying this out. What antenna did you use for the radar part.
My test of virtual radar was done using a loft-mounted 2m/70cm colinear antenna, which is normally used for ham radio. It works with the supplied antenna too, but not as well as with my loft antenna
Oh cool, i will now have to make sure my 2m radio is running for tonight to ask more on the mnn later
m6gyn
Great write up Pete! I shall be trying the radar side of things with my EzCap RTL-SDR soon. These sticks are also capable of picking up the High Altitude Balloons as SDR# has a SSB/USB mode. From what I’ve heard it is worth replacing the antenna connector with an edge-mount SMA connector if you are handy at soldering!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coaxial-Antenna-Cable-Adaptor-DVB-T/dp/B005HBRO2O/ref=wl_mb_hu_m_2_dp Just found a link for the connector from ebay for thoses who like to bulk order in one hit
thanks for a very thorough write up Pete,I missed Rainham this year but have the same item on order coming from Singapore for £13 inc!
Can’t wait,Mac G6NLZ
Hi Pete,
These are interesting devices, and I do like the 2-3mhz bandwidth spread on them.
I own one of the original FunCube Dongles (4th one shipped when they first became available) and I think you are being a bit unfair with your comparison between the devices, personally I found the FunCube Dongle much, much easier to install than the RTL devices.
(Admittedly, the RTL stuff has got a little easier over the past year to run).
There is quite a difference in price, however when you think of all the band filters that are in the FunCube dongle compared to none in the RTL devices, as well as the FCD having 24bit audio compared to 8bit on the RTL devices (giving the FCD a much, much better dynamic range) – they’re not really comparable to the capabilities of the FCD.
Some of the funds from the sale of FCD’s also helps out Amsat UK.
However, as a taster for getting into software defined radio, yes – the RTL devices can be great introduction to the capabilities of this method of reception.
Simon Brown – creator of Ham Radio Deluxe has also added support for RTL dongles in version 2 of his SDR software – I would also recommend a look at this, link here:- http://v2.sdr-radio.com/
Best 73′s
Matty
MD0MAN
Hi
I have been using one of these to listen to the satellites as you can watch a very large bandwidth at a time. I do get interference from time to time, so SAW filters would improve this. For a cheap route into SDR this is a must, you can get one for under £10.00 delivered from https://www.cosycave.co.uk/product.php?id_product=287
Tom
Hello mate
Please remove the lupo link you have listed at the top, it does NOT have a Realtek RTL2832U chipset, I have learnt the hard way :-(
Nice overview. I have exactly the same RTL-SDR stick and get SDRSharp to work so I can receive FM, 2m repeaters, aircraft communications etc. I also have the Blaze HDTV player (ver 6.0), but I see that you managed to switch it from TV to DAB, that doesn’t seem to work for me. How did you do that?
Hello.
What about sensibility vs Funcube and other SDR. Can I use it to receive ham satellites.?
Thanks in advance.
co8tw(at)frcuba.co.cu
Juan Carlos, CO8TW.
after all the site i visited this is the most straightforward and clearest
Going to uninstall a whole load of stuff on 2 PC’s and do what you did.
Thanks.
Anyone help with this ?
When I run the SDRSharp.exe file I receive the error message ” error loading.Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation”.
I also do not see the option RTL-SDR/USB in the “play” drop down menu.
Many thanks…Bert.
Hi, great info!
Do You have any solution on how to plot AIS-signals with the device?
TNX es 73 de SM2SYV
Good write-up, Pete – My dongle arrived today, cost all of £4.99 from Amazon using one of your links above. Installation was exactly as you described: Windows 7 found the dongle and I ran Zadig. Both HDSDR (my favourite app) and SDR# work well with this dongle.
Now looking forward to running a cable from the FT-950 IF output so I can use it as a Panadapter :)
Peter,
Very well presented but all a bit too complex for me!
What happens when an EasyJet hits one of these Balloons?
John G8DET.
Hello John,
Yes, balloon tracking with a dongle is a bit tricky to set up, and with so few flights, you have to try to get it right first time.
We had Chris M6EDF on the Monday Night Net tonight, explaining the issue with Easyjet. You have to apply for a waiver with the CAA to be able to send off a balloon, you have to check the predicted flightpath to keep it away from London and major airports, and you have to call the local airfields before launch so they can advise local pilots.
All interesting stuff!