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RTL-SDR.COM
RTL-SDR (RTL2832U) and software defined radio news and projects. Also featuring
Airspy, HackRF, FCD, SDRplay and more.
* Home
* About RTL-SDR
* Quick Start Guide
* Featured Articles
* Tutorials
* Air and Marine
* ADS-B Aircraft Radar
* ACARS Decoding
* AIS Ship Tracking
* Decoding Weather Balloons
* Satellite
* NOAA Weather Satellites
* Meteor-M Weather Satellites
* GOES 16/17 and GK-2A Weather Satellite Tutorial
* Inmarsat STD-C NCS EGC Decoding
* Decoding and Plotting GPS
* Decoding HRPT Weather Satellite Images
* Terrestrial
* P25 P1 Digital Voice Decoding
* P25 P2 Decoding with OP25
* Trunked Radio Following
* POCSAG Pager Decoding
* TETRA Voice Decoding
* Analyzing GSM Signals
* DRM Radio Decoding
* Decoding 433 MHz ISM Band Weather Stations
* Single Board Computer
* QRP (FT8, JT9, WSPR etc) Monitoring Station
* Performing Replay Attacks with RTL-SDR and RpiTX
* Radio Astronomy
* Radio Astronomy Overview
* Hydrogen Line Galactic Radio Astronomy
* Other
* Measuring Filter Characteristics & VSWR
* SpyServer Tutorial
* Using the V3 Bias Tee on PiAware
* Properly Positioning a Preamp/LNA
* Product Reviews
* SDRs
* Airspy HF+ Review
* Airspy vs. SDRplay vs. HackRF
* SDRplay RSP1A
* SDRplay RSP2
* FlightAware ADS-B RTL-SDR
* Outernet Dreamcatcher
* LimeSDR Review
* LimeSDR Mini
* ThumbNet N3
* Airspy Mini
* PlutoSDR Unboxing
* PlutoSDR Tests
* KiwiSDR Review
* FlightAware Prostick vs Prostick Plus
* HackRF PortaPack Review
* SpyVerter Upconverter
* 9A4QV Folded Monopole ADS-B Antenna
* FlightAware ADS-B Antenna and Filter
* Outernet LNA and Patch Antenna
* moRFeus Review
* Interesting
* TEMPEST with SDR
* Listening to HD Radio
* Receiving Dead Satellites
* Listening to SCA Broadcasts
* Live ADS-B Aircraft Cockpit
* Transmitting with a Raspberry Pi
* Quick Start Guides
* RTL-SDR QSG
* V3 Features Users Guide
* SDRSharp Users Guide
* PlutoSDR QSG
* Direct Sampling Mod
* Roundup of Software Defined Radios
* KerberosSDR
* KerberosSDR Quickstart Guide
* Direction Finding Android Demo
* Direction Finding Android Tutorial
* SignalsEverywhere Direction Finding Tutorial
* Networked Direction Finding
* Measuring Traffic Volumes with Passive Radar
* Software
* RTL-SDR Supported Software
* List of SDRSharp Plugins
* Experimental Drivers
* Experimental HF Driver
* Manual gain controls and decimation driver
* ExtIO with Decimation & Tuner Bandwidth Controls
* Keenerds Driver
* L-Band Heat Issue Driver
* Signal ID Wiki
* Forum
* RTL-SDR Store
* Guide Book
* Contact
- Navigation - Home About RTL-SDR Quick Start Guide Featured Articles-
Tutorials-- Air and Marine--- ADS-B Aircraft Radar--- ACARS Decoding--- AIS Ship
Tracking--- Decoding Weather Balloons-- Satellite--- NOAA Weather Satellites---
Meteor-M Weather Satellites--- GOES 16/17 and GK-2A Weather Satellite
Tutorial--- Inmarsat STD-C NCS EGC Decoding--- Decoding and Plotting GPS---
Decoding HRPT Weather Satellite Images-- Terrestrial--- P25 P1 Digital Voice
Decoding--- P25 P2 Decoding with OP25--- Trunked Radio Following--- POCSAG Pager
Decoding--- TETRA Voice Decoding--- Analyzing GSM Signals--- DRM Radio
Decoding--- Decoding 433 MHz ISM Band Weather Stations-- Single Board
Computer--- QRP (FT8, JT9, WSPR etc) Monitoring Station--- Performing Replay
Attacks with RTL-SDR and RpiTX-- Radio Astronomy--- Radio Astronomy Overview---
Hydrogen Line Galactic Radio Astronomy-- Other--- Measuring Filter
Characteristics & VSWR--- SpyServer Tutorial--- Using the V3 Bias Tee on
PiAware--- Properly Positioning a Preamp/LNA- Product Reviews-- SDRs--- Airspy
HF+ Review--- Airspy vs. SDRplay vs. HackRF--- SDRplay RSP1A--- SDRplay RSP2---
FlightAware ADS-B RTL-SDR--- Outernet Dreamcatcher--- LimeSDR Review--- LimeSDR
Mini--- ThumbNet N3--- Airspy Mini--- PlutoSDR Unboxing--- PlutoSDR Tests---
KiwiSDR Review--- FlightAware Prostick vs Prostick Plus--- HackRF PortaPack
Review-- SpyVerter Upconverter-- 9A4QV Folded Monopole ADS-B Antenna--
FlightAware ADS-B Antenna and Filter-- Outernet LNA and Patch Antenna-- moRFeus
Review- Interesting-- TEMPEST with SDR-- Listening to HD Radio-- Receiving Dead
Satellites-- Listening to SCA Broadcasts-- Live ADS-B Aircraft Cockpit--
Transmitting with a Raspberry Pi- Quick Start Guides-- RTL-SDR QSG-- V3 Features
Users Guide-- SDRSharp Users Guide-- PlutoSDR QSG- Direct Sampling Mod- Roundup
of Software Defined Radios- KerberosSDR-- KerberosSDR Quickstart Guide--
Direction Finding Android Demo-- Direction Finding Android Tutorial--
SignalsEverywhere Direction Finding Tutorial-- Networked Direction Finding--
Measuring Traffic Volumes with Passive Radar Software- RTL-SDR Supported
Software- List of SDRSharp Plugins- Experimental Drivers-- Experimental HF
Driver-- Manual gain controls and decimation driver-- ExtIO with Decimation &
Tuner Bandwidth Controls-- Keenerds Driver-- L-Band Heat Issue Driver Signal ID
Wiki Forum RTL-SDR Store Guide Book Contact
May 3, 2024
QCSUPER: CAPTURE 2G/3G/4G/5G RADIO FRAMES WITH QUALCOMM PHONES
In the past, we've shown how it's possible to use RTL-SDRs or other SDR devices
together with the Airprobe software to analyze data from 2G GSM mobile phones
and towers. (Note that it's not possible to listen in on conversations or read
SMS data unless you have the encryption code for the recipient phone. This is
only capable of showing cell tower basestation telemetry for example).
While not directly related to SDR, readers might be interested to know that a
new piece of software called QCSuper has been released which enables similar
analysis capabilities for 2G/3G/4G/5G signals through the use of Qualcomm-based
phones and modem hardware. To use it you will need a rooted Android phone. The
software accesses a diagnostics mode available in Qualcomm devices and makes the
data available for view on Wireshark.
[Also seen on Hackaday]
QCSuper Screenshot
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Written by admin Leave a comment Posted in Other, RTL-SDR Tagged with 2G, 3G,
4G, 5G, GSM, qcsuper, qualcomm, rtl-sdr, rtl2832, rtl2832u
May 1, 2024
ANTENNAS EXPLAINED: FINDING THE BEST ANTENNA FOR HACKRF, RTL-SDR AND OTHER
RECEIVERS
Over on YouTube sn0ren has uploaded a well produced video to help beginners to
the radio hobby understand antennas. The video explains how antennas work in
theory, and how to choose the best antenna for your SDR and application through
calculations and use of a Nano VNA.
> There is an essential gadget that you will want to get, to get the best
> antenna performance. But first we need to cover a bit of antenna theory,
> before we can answer the question of what antenna that is the best one for
> your HackRF Portapack, or Flipper Zero SubGHZ module, or Meshtastic, Quansheng
> UV-K5, RTLSDR or other radio devices. This video is covering the bare minimum
> basics of antenna theory for beginners into the radio hobby.
The best antenna for HackRF Portapack (and Flipper Zero, Meshtastic, Quansheng,
RTLSDR, etc.)
Watch this video on YouTube
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Written by admin Leave a comment Posted in Antennas, RTL-SDR Tagged with
antennas, hackrf, rtl-sdr, rtl2832, rtl2832u
April 30, 2024
FOBOSSDR: A NEW SDR RECEIVER WITH 100 KHZ TO 6 GHZ TUNING RANGE AND 50 MHZ
BANDWIDTH FOR $395
Recently we've seen that a new SDR from the Ukrainian company RigExpert has been
released. The RX-only USB3.0 SDR is called 'FobosSDR' and it has a 100 kHz to 6
GHz tuning range, 50 MHz of bandwidth, and 14-bit resolution. Apart from a
standard RF input, it also has two auxiliary input channels for coherent direct
sampling and clock in and out ports.
In terms of software support, the FobosSDR supports HDSDR, and interestingly a
very old version of SDR# (SDR# 1716) through a plugin. They also have a GNU
Radio block.
The design is based on the LTC2143 ADC and uses a wideband RFFC5072 mixer on the
front end which feeds into a MAX2830 transceiver chip.
RigExpert products are carried by a number of resellers across the world, but
FobosSDR does not yet appear to be available from any that we checked. So far we
have not seen any reviews or demonstrations of the product in action, but will
update if we do.
FobosSDR
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Written by admin Leave a comment Posted in Other Tagged with fobossdr
April 30, 2024
SDR# VERSION 1920 RELEASED
A few days ago SDRSharp version 1920 was released. SDRSharp (SDR#) is a popular
Windows program that is affiliated with Airspy SDR dongles, but is compatible
with RTL-SDR and various other SDRs as well. The latest version gets rid of the
relatively resource heavy Telerik UI library and replaces it with a much lighter
weight library.
The author of SDR#, @lambdaprog, notes that v.1920 reduces memory usage by 85%
and CPU utilization by 50%. The new version also improves scalability for high
sample rates and number of spectrum slices and improves plugin compatibility.
Several AOR brand SDRs are also now supported in v.1920.
On the note regarding improved plugin compatibility, we've noticed that in the
v.1920 update the IF Average plugin has begun working again. The IF Average
plugin is used for Hydrogen line radio astronomy experiments. In the past we had
to use older versions of SDR# to make it work. We have updated our Hydrogen line
tutorial to reflect this.
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Written by admin 5 Comments Posted in Applications, RTL-SDR Tagged with airspy,
rtl-sdr, rtl2832, rtl2832u, sdr#
April 18, 2024
GYPSUM: A SOFTWARE-DEFINED GPS RECEIVER WRITTEN IN PYTHON + A WRITEUP ON HOW IT
WAS MADE
Thank you to RTL-SDR.COM reader Lee. who found a recently released program
called "gypsum" which enables an RTL-SDR or HackRF to be used as a GPS Receiver
when combined with a GPS antenna. Phillip Tennen, the author of Gypsum notes
that Gypsum can obtain a fix within 60 seconds from a cold start and that it has
no dependencies apart from numpy. We want to note that it appears that Gpysum
has no live decoding ability yet, as it works from pre-recorded GNU Radio IQ
files.
In the past, we've shown in a tutorial how GPS can be received and decoded with
GNSS-SDRLIB and RTKLIB on Windows. The new Gypsum software should work on Linux
and MacOS too.
What's more, Phillip has written an incredible 4-part writeup on how Gypsum was
implemented from scratch. In the write-up, Phillip introduces GPS and explains
how it can even work with such weak signals that appear below the thermal noise
floor. He then goes on to explain how the detected signal is decoded and turned
into positional information, and how challenging it was to propagate the
accurate timing information that calculating a solution requires. The write-up
is presented with clear visualizations to help readers intuitively gain an
understanding of the advanced concepts involved.
Gypsum GPS Satellite Tracking Dashboard GUI
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Written by admin Leave a comment Posted in Applications, Digital Signals,
RTL-SDR, Satellite Tagged with global positioning system, GPS, rtl-sdr, rtl2832,
rtl2832u, satellite
April 18, 2024
USING A LIMENET MICRO TO IMPLEMENT AN AMATEUR RADIO DMR TIER III TRUNKED RADIO
BASE STATION
Thank you to Adrian Musceac (author of QRadioLink) for submitting his article
about how he implemented an amateur radio DMR Tier III Trunked Radio Base
Station with a LimeNet-Micro software-defined radio. DMR Tier III is a digital
voice trunked radio system that employs Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
technology. Tier III is largely based on Tier II, but adds trunking abilities
which enable efficient channel access and resource allocation.
The LimeNET Micro is a software defined radio based on the LimeSDR, but it has
some upgraded specifications such as an embedded Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+
that make it easier to deploy as a base station.
Adrian writes:
> The Tier III extension (trunked radio) to the DMR standard is defined and
> specified by the European Telecommunications Standards Insititute (ETSI) in
> the TS 102 361-4 document.
>
> The project uses LimeNet-Micro, LimeSDR-mini or Ettus USRP hardware to set up
> such a base station for experimental and amateur radio digital voice
> communications purposes. The core components of this project are MMDVM,
> MMDVMHost (both under the form of forks supporting communication via ZeroMQ
> and pseudo-TTY), GNU Radio, DMRGateway, QRadioLink and the DMR trunked radio
> controller GUI.
>
> Since DMR trunked radio is not very well known and used in the amateur radio
> world, I hope this will bring some new information to amateurs interested in
> these digital voice communication technologies. All code used is available as
> free and open source software (FOSS). A demo of the project used with real
> world amateur radio communications can be found on the page.
DMR Tier III system software architecture
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Written by admin Leave a comment Posted in Applications, Digital Signals,
LimeSDR Tagged with DMR, limesdr, trunking
April 17, 2024
DISCOVERY DISH APRIL MANUFACTURING UPDATE
This was posted over on our Discovery Dish Crowd Supply updates page and we are
cross-posting here too.
It’s been over a month since our last update so we thought we’d share some of
the recent progress. As mentioned in our last update, during the month of
February all manufacturing was shut down due to the Chinese New Year holiday. In
early March, staff returned to the factories and began making progress on
finishing Discovery Dish.
NEW LOGO!
We have a snazzy new logo, and we are working on obtaining some stickers to
include with the feeds.
DISH MANUFACTURING PROGRESS
The molds for the dish stamping machine were successfully created in March and
the test stamps have come out great. The manufacturer is still tweaking the
secondary mold that stamps the mounting and connecting holes, but we expect that
to be completed shortly. Once that is done and tested, we can begin stamping the
dish segments en masse.
The Dish mounting system was also finalized and we added 45-degree markers to
it, which can help with aligning skew.
We are still awaiting the results of the anodizing tests, but they should be
completed by the end of this month. Anodizing the dish is important as the dish
must be a dark non-reflective matte color, so that it does not focus hot
sunlight onto the feed point plastic head.
FEED MANUFACTURING PROGRESS
PCB UPGRADES
While waiting for the manufacturers to finish up with the molds, we’ve been
further refining the PCB feed. Our final version of the PCB has now moved to a
PTFE substrate with significantly lower loss at higher frequencies. This has
yielded an over 1 dB increase in SNR at the GOES 1.69 MHz frequency.
The change to PTFE was not without problems. An interesting RF engineering
problem occurred with the move to PTFE that we wanted to share. When moving to
PTFE the only changes to the board layout are PCB trace width changes to keep
the impedances matched. Other than that, the boards and layout are essentially
identical. However, we discovered that the dual LNA design started oscillating
when we moved the PTFE substrate. Oscillations can occur with LNAs when RF
essentially bounces back and forth between the two LNAs, which causes undefined
behavior in the LNA, such as poor gain, multiple spikes in the spectrum, and
unexpected current draw values.
We found this quite odd because oscillations were not occurring in the original
FR4 PCB, and the QPL9547 LNA is advertised as ‘unconditionally stable’ which
means that it should never oscillate. However, we found that unconditionally
stable guarantees may not apply to two-stage designs. In the end, the fix was
simple, we just needed to add a damping resistor to one of the inductors on the
circuit which reduces its Q-value. It seems that the change from FR4 to PTFE
effectively increased the Q-value of this inductor so much, which in turn
induced an oscillation in the circuit.
DISCOVERY DISH FEED HEAD ENCLOSURE
We’ve also refined the entire feed assembly. The feed arm pipe now has a ruler
laser etched onto it so that mounting it at the correct distance is easy. A skew
angle guide has also been added around the neck. A thumbscrew locking mechanism
has been added to the feed head neck too, so that skew can easily be adjusted
without the need for a screw driver or Allen wrench to loosen the set screw.
The PCB enclosure has been slightly refined and the injection molding die is
currently in production and due to be completed in mid-May. While waiting for
the die to be made, we’ve been testing different plastic mixes for the head
enclosure to make sure that they are UV stable. The plastic mix has certain
strict requirements and choosing the correct mix is crucial. It has to be
RF-transparent with a low relative permittivity value, it has to endure direct
sun, UV damage, and freezing weather, as well as be water-proof too.
S-BAND FEED
Previously as noted in prior updates we were testing an S-band feed with the FR4
substrate. But we found that there was too much loss and the SNR values we got
were not great. The move to PTFE substrate means that our experimental S-band
feed is now working very well. We will be releasing this in the near future as
an additional feed product that can be used with Discovery Dish. This feed will
have a frequency range of 2.2 GHz - 2.3 GHz. This covers the main S-band weather
satellites, other satellites like Coriolios and JASON as well as the many
dump-only S-band satellites that transmit signals only over certain regions.
As requested by most people interested in an S-band feed, the S-band feed will
not include a downconverter, so to use it you will either need an SDR like the
HackRF which is capable of tuning to the S-band, or a third-party downconverter
product.
DISCOVERY DISH OUTDOOR METAL ENCLOSURE PROGRESS
Our enclosure set is now complete, and the final packing has almost been
completed. The user manual can be found here Discovery Dish Outdoor Enclosure
User Manual.pdf.
The final set consists of:
* 1x Metal Enclosure
* 3x Custom metal cable glands
* 1x Vent
* 1x Electronics mounting board
* 1x Pole mounting set (with hose clamps)
* 1x Wall/DIN mounting set
* 1x 10 mm x 10 mm x 8 mm thermal pad (to be placed under the electronics
mounting board)
* 1x 10 mm x 10 mm x 3 mm thermal pad (to be placed under electronics on top of
the mounting board)
* 1x Set of various screws and washers
(Note that there will be some minor changes from this image in sets going out of
customers - the hose clamp will be shorter, and the mounting rails will be
longer)
METEOR M2-4 LAUNCH
We mentioned in our last update that a new weather satellite Meteor M2-4 was due
to launch. The launch was successful and the satellite is now in orbit. The
satellite was briefly turned on after launch, and we were able to receive HRPT
images from it in the L-band. However, now it is currently in a testing phase so
the transmitters are often turned off. We don’t know how much longer it will be
in testing, but we assume it won’t be more than a few more months.
GOES-U / GOES-19 LAUNCH UPDATES
We’ve been keeping an eye on the expected launch date for the next GOES
satellite. Currently, it has been delayed from April 30, 2024, to the new date
of June 25, 2024, when it will be launched on a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space
Center, Florida.
ELEKTRO-L4 UPDATES
In the last update, we mentioned that we were having some problems getting
SatDump to receive Elektro L4 properly on computing devices that used ARM
processors. After some investigation, we determined that this was a problem with
buffer size settings in SatDump and we were able to suggest a fix
in https://github.com/SatDump/SatDump/pull/616 which was implemented. New
versions of SatDump have this problem fixed.
DRIVER TWEAKS
We have been looking at the RTL-SDR drivers and have found a few tweaks that can
improve performance at L-band frequencies. We’ve put a modified version of the
librtlsdr/librtlsdr fork up our the rtlsdrblog GitHub at
https://github.com/rtlsdrblog/librtlsdr. With this fork and the PTFE feed
upgrades, we now get around 5-6 dB of SNR on GOES-18.
ANTENNA ROTATOR
The low-cost antenna rotator is finishing up with prototype testing, and we are
now working on improving the design’s manufacturability.
TIMELINE
The ramping of progress from the Chinese New Year holidays to now has been a
little slower than expected, but if everything goes perfectly to plan, we will
be on time for shipping by the end of June. However, this is currently a
best-case scenario. There are still a few manufacturing stages to get through
like the final mass production, CE testing and sea freight shipping.
Unfortunately, from prior manufacturing experience, there are always setbacks
along the way that slow progress, so we are conservatively pushing our
advertised timeline back by about 1-2 months. We apologize for any potential
delays, but we are working hard to get the product out to you ASAP!
CUSTOMER QUESTIONS
We have had a few more customer questions over email which we’d like the answer
publicly below:
> Would it be practical to use this kit indoors to do hydrogen-line astronomy? I
> ask because I live in a flat in a block of retirement flats, and wouldn’t be
> able to place an aerial or dish outside, but could find space for a Discovery
> dish + rotation gear inside.
Unfortunately, indoor Hydrogen line astronomy is out of the question. The
hydrogen line signal is just too weak to be seen indoors, and there would most
likely be too much interference indoors as well.
> What all do i need to purchase and get for the Discovery Dish for Radio
> Astronomy?
You’ll need these two components from the Discovery Dish Crowd Supply store:
* Discovery Dish (Dish & Mount Only)
* Hydrogen Line Discovery Feed
You will also need a software defined radio, such as an RTL-SDR Blog V3/V4 which
can be purchased separately, a computer and somewhere to mount your dish (e.g. a
mast/tripod etc).
> Have you tested this for C-Band / Aero downlink reception?
Currently, we do not have a C-band feed, so we have not tested it for this
purpose. Generally, a larger 1.2 m+ dish is required for C-band AERO, so the 70
cm Discovery Dish may not be suitable. We may test this with Discovery Dish in
the near future just in case however.
> I want to purchase a hydrogen antenna. Where should I buy it? Also, please
> tell me what is needed to observe seti radio waves.
The Discovery Dish (Dish & Mount) and Hydrogen Line Discovery Feed can be
pre-ordered from the Discovery Dish Crowd Supply store. I’m not sure exactly
what you are referring to with SETI radio waves. An alien signal could in theory
be on any frequency, but the 1.42 GHz Hydrogen line frequency could be a good
bet as it’s a universal frequency of interest that any technological
civilization would be observing. Realistically the Discovery Dish would be too
small to detect potential alien signals unless they were very strong.
> I’ve seen a small home made 3D-printed dish called a ‘heliocone dish’ being
> used for HRPT. How is Discovery Dish different?
The heliocone 3D printer design going around is a great DIY solution for L-Band
polar orbiting HRPT satellites. But it has some limitations as it cannot receive
the weaker geostationary satellites due to its smaller size and use of a
circular polarized feed. It also cannot receive satellites using the opposite
circular polarization. It also cannot receive satellites on different
frequencies or the Hydrogen Line without designing a new helical feed and using
a different LNA+filter combo. Discovery Dish is a more of a general purpose
‘does-it-all’ and ‘ready to use’ out-of-the-box dish. With our dish and feeds
you can receive the L-Band polar orbiting HRPT satellites as well as the
geostationary satellites. You can quickly swap out the feed for a different feed
that covers a different band as well.
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Written by admin 6 Comments Posted in Antennas, Applications, Discovery Dish,
RTL-SDR Tagged with discovery dish, HRPT, l-band, meteor, NOAA, rtl-sdr,
rtl2832u rtl2832, satellites
April 17, 2024
TECH MINDS: REVIEWING THE MALAHIT DSP1 SDR RECEIVER 50KHZ – 2GHZ
Over on the Tech Minds YouTube channel, Matt has uploaded a new review and
demonstration of a Malahiteam DSP1 SDR Receiver 50KHz - 2GHz. This particular
unit appears to be a Chinese clone unit which is actually called a 'Malahit
SDR'. The Russian company Malahiteam makes the original units, and they come in
a different enclosure and feature the full Malahiteam logo.
In the video Matt shows this version of the Malahit DSP1 in action, noting that
the built-in speakers sound great and that RF performance seems to be good. He
does however note that the enclosure is a bit cheap, being built out of PCB
boards, and that the top encoder knob sometimes doesn't work properly. Overall
Matt mentions that he probably wouldn't buy it at the current ~US$180 price
point, noting that better newer models like the DSP2 and DSP3 already exist.
Malahiteam DSP SDR Receiver 50KHz - 2GHz
Watch this video on YouTube
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Written by admin 1 Comment Posted in HF, Other Tagged with malahit-dsp,
malahiteam
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