Hi Fred. Much like CB you get what you pay for, the budget devices and clones are generally rubbish for anything below 30 mHz , many of which need a separate upconverter to work anything like, the best of the budget devices imho are the NooElec v5 but you still need the correct antenna for the band you are receiving , a CB antenna isn't going to work for medium wave or VHF. The lowest price best "proper" device is the RSP1A but again it's the antenna that makes the difference. My RSP1a is connected to 2m/70cm vertical and a 80m end fed half wave and I swap between them with a switch box. £100 is still cheaper than a new 10/11m SSB radio !. I have a number of the cheaper devices which I have running on fixed applications , ADSB on 1090mHz with a Pi3b & APRS on 144.800 with a Uniden BCT15X handling marine/airband/pmr. Head in hands ?, not at all Fred, this hobby is about self training in communications technology and at least you are willing to give things a go. Feel free to message me if you have any specific queries and I'm happy to try and help. 73
Thank you for the detailed information. Yes if i can filter out the harmonics i plane to run out a long wire for some SW testing. Not too interested in VHF other than maybe a bit of 446.
@@CB-RADIO-UK The RSP series running the SDR Uno software have selectable band stop filters allowing blocking of medium wave and/or DAB transmitters if they are close enough to desense or overload the front end. A 2/70 dual band antenna will give you 446 as well as decent airband coverage in one package. A long wire will require a balun in order to work best , NooElec sell a 9:1 balun suitable for a long wire antenna for under £20 last time I looked. Mark
I've got an Rsp1a myself and it works fantastic, exactly as you said, the antenna is the key to receive, I use a flowerpot antenna for vhf receive, its very wideband, and a wire for hf, if you connect an Antron (wich I have too) it is very sensitive for qrm, but the quality of the rsp1a makes the difference, as the program I use with it, which is SDRuno, it opens a total new world Fred, it offers lots of extras (decoding cw, scanning bands, dmr decoding and so on) The Rsp1a cost a bit more, but it's an excellent investment in listening 73' s Geurt (aka GeeBee) 19CT032
@@steelheadplayer Can you give me some info on the balun please, how long a wire do do use and do you run it in a circle or just a straight piece of wire. Regarding the grd to the balun can this be put to the earth on a plug in the house or does it need to be in a earth spike in the ground, if an earth spike how deep should it be, i have a 4 foot spike but am unsure if 4 foot is enough according to some stories i have seen.
Good video there Fred.. Got a Rsp1a, a 949D manual antenna tuner with my A99 and can tune 0-30Mhz with no problem. Same with my FT-840 ( receive only tho ) most ham radios will work. Works great, give it try.
Hey Fred don’t be disheartened mate. I’ve heard about the HF upconverter thing but not tried using one. I use an RSPA1 and an RTL dongle just for VHF and UHF. Love the brookmans park pic, was there with Andy Kirby last year
Thanks Lewis. Going to try again when the filter gets here. Growing up at my parents house i used to be able see the red warning lights on the Brookmans tower from my bedroom.
I think you have to use an older version of SDR# with option of Direct Sampling (Q-branche). Then you'll receive HF on every cheap RTL-SDR dongle. But a little mod is usually needed to inject the anteena signal into the correct pin. I guess the HF sma will work fine if you choose direct sampling. 73's from Holland
Hi Fred I got a mini airspy a few years ago and last year I added a LNA and was getting quite a bit of broadcast stations on uhf frequency’s, but luckily the RTL SDR fm bandstop worked well
Great little radios, Had mine working the other day , It has a up converter allowing HF UHF and VHF they work extremely well for the money , A lot of folk have issues with the zadig drivers . I use a rspdx most of the time, The sdruno software is brilliant
issues withe the drivers YES... these units often only get picked up as working by one software and not another... once u know how though they are easy to install and run
Looks like front end overload, especially if you have a broadcast station close. Easiest fix is a bandpass filter if it’s 27MHz you’re interested in, otherise a high pass if it’s a MW AM station you have close. This, BTW, is where the extra money goes when you compare iComs and Yaesu’s to cheap Chinese stuff….my IC-7610 has no issue at all with an AM broadcast station 5km away….my Xiegu x6100 doesn’t cope at all and you can hear it bleed over every band! I also have an SDRPlay, and again, no issues.
radio receivers and transmitters need an antenna that is resonant for the frequency that is in use. i use a discone antenna for my short wave and scanner.
Hey Fred. I got the SDR# software for free, the same as you illustrated and a Nooelec dongle for about £15 on Amazon and made a coax antenna. It was fiddly to set up but there's loads of videos on CZcams. It's great for the price and you can listen to digital signals from security and CCTV etc that aren't on analogue any more. I payed over £200 for a DMR radio! ! As I remember I had to download a virtual cable for the laptop to recognize it and configure a comport but as you said, the smoking tape is is good and you can always pause the video as you go from step to step. Like you rightly said, don't expect it to work out of the box but if I figured it out, any one can! Skip is awesome at the moment, I had a contact into Belize last week from North Yorkshire. . . 73's
@@CB-RADIO-UK Thanks for the reply. I did mean CCTV security audio and not video. It's great to be able to listen to what's going on in shopping centres etc. Speaking about CCTV if you look around the internet you can actually access CCTV live images of the M62 motorway traffic cameras and there is a couple sites where there are live video of towns and coastal areas. With the SDR# you can hear your car key fob unlocking your car. . . . . Need I say any more. . . . Enjoy the radio.
I have an rtl sdr v3 from amazon it's absolutely fantastic for 25mhz up. Below, it will work, but not as well. You can get it cheaper from amazon if you buy just the dongle without all the little bits.
I have this model I use Mint Linux with GQRX software not easy to use and takes some time how you need 49/1 balun and broadcast filter I do recommend this one NooElec v5
Hi Fred, all the ones you showed i have had and used all useless, the only one i found that works good was the sliver one you showed more money but does work, you should be using hdsdr software lot easier to use for some new. And i found keeping the gain down to about 30 so not to overload the doggle, and longwire better for hf receive. But as said by many a ham you can not beat a proper radio to listen to. Good video it is a interesting hobby which is where started. 73s 26AB119 or 26DR715
the unit did not fail.. you need a decent `tuned` antenna.... they work incredibly well for the money.. i have top ham radios and they perform a good 80 per cent as well as them.
Also to add........... the unit is most of the equation but the software you run them through is another... Try all the diff programs most of which are free for varying results.. My main radio is third on the best for audio list and these tiny units show up just how much we are paying for that extra 20 per cent of quality on receive... any old laptop and one of these properly tuned with decent software and good antenna.. there is little you won`t hear and hear well. This one video is like putting one antenna onto a random vehicle parked in a back street and saying it works badly.. come on fred lets have a thorough video with a deep dive into the units.. it will be watched even if long.
Fred i spent a bit of time playing with the same thing - when you change from vhf to hf their is a setting you need to change in sharp to bring the HF to life - you can get this to work its just fiddly - if i can remember you change the filter type
@@CB-RADIO-UK Direct sampling Q branch under sampling mode and 2048msps - things might have changed with the software since i last used it but give this a go as a reference
try SDRconsole... the RX on those little boxes can be as good as a HF radio... you need to be in Quadrature sampling.. tbf they are a bit quirky to get perfect with agc... use you fast usb port if you have one... you dont need the filter, you just need to get the settings right.. 😜
I bought the same device a while ago and it was very poor quality and not very receptive, at least I could not get much out of it. So I purchased a Nooelec model Nesdr Smart and bingo, it was much better!! At which point you just need a good antenna and ensure the setup is correct.
Hi Fred, for HF frequencies you need a "Ham It Up" from NooElec. I have all SDRs from Nooelec they all very good but without "Ham it up" your chances are ZERO. I will try to give you a shout on the waves but I don't think I will reach, I'm just outside of Bedford where the R101 Sheeds are CT7676. All the Best.
Thank you for video can't wait for part 2. I am new to all of this, i started with a SDL and had the same trouble as you so i am glad it isn't just me. Since i couldn't get it to work i packed it away and am trying to start again with cb radios, hopefully i can follow you and get my SDR working with your help. I've looked at comments and maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to use the Antron 99. I had bought a balun but i wasn't sure how longer a wire was needed and how high it needed to be, also where to put the ground ie can it go to the house earth or does it need to be going to a earth rod if anyone can help?
Iam going to give it a good go when the FM filter arrives. The long wire for basic SW is really easy. You just need a single core wire. Ive never used an earth on a SW wire but some run coax. Normally i run about 20 meters down the garden. You can even try it on top of a fence. Sometimes a much longer wire can overload the receiver and i think this will be the case with these cheap SDR. You can use a balun to tune the antenna closer to 50 ohms which will improve signals as it will be ore balanced. Likewise if your interested in certain bands then you can cut the wire to the correct length.
very interesting...i had bought one a few years ago tinkered with it for a small amount of time shoved it in a bag and gave it to my brother he played with it shoved it in a bag and tried to give it back to me i would not accept it lol so its on a shelf some were at his house it sorta looked like
Just a thought: Would a low pass filter that you would normally use with a cheap CB power amp also filter the incomming signals to the SDR? Probably not as good as the band stop filter on order but maybe worth trying while waiting for it to arrive.
I really hope CB takes off again, like it did in the day. With what 'they' are doing to socitey and their insistence on us all having a mobile phone to be tracked and to use it to buy stuff with instead of using money etc.. We should all start using a CB homebase/mobile to communicate with each other instead, they can't track our every move with them.
I keep hearing people saying this as if CB can't be monitored lol. I expect everything being said across the airwaves is being recorded and archived centrally. And they can easily locate and identify people. The big benefit of radio in this sense is resilience in the event of breakdown of cellular networks or internet etc.
@@waggonfm Do you realise the expense of monitoring CB radio. All the different bands and channels, the different states. Different countries. If the other countries did the same, the cost would be phenominal. It's not like recording phone calls.
@@PeterMaddison2483 there have been plenty of videos on here about radio monitoring/recording stations. The use of automated systems mean the required human resource is much lower than in the past
You normally put out good CZcams content but this one is the opposite. I use an RTL STR dongle to monitor the whole of the HF bands. Mainly USB and NBFM but also extremely low power quiet FT8 signals. All modes come booming in from across the globe using a length of wire strung up in the garden.
Keep trying you can make it work!!! Something different, Cal at DX Commander Is developing a new 11meter version, it uses the old Star Duster, Droopy ground plane design, but can have more than 1 element so the entire 11 meters from 25.5 to 28 megs or where ever you might like to go can be available all the time. Anyway at the 18 meter or 60 foot height good ground wave local distance should be there. You need to get with him and do a use evaluation. This is right up your area of experience comparing it with the A99, and other antennas you have used in past years. czcams.com/video/H3O3QUsrYbA/video.html czcams.com/video/V8Qq4-0_TjQ/video.html
Hi Fred. Much like CB you get what you pay for, the budget devices and clones are generally rubbish for anything below 30 mHz , many of which need a separate upconverter to work anything like, the best of the budget devices imho are the NooElec v5 but you still need the correct antenna for the band you are receiving , a CB antenna isn't going to work for medium wave or VHF. The lowest price best "proper" device is the RSP1A but again it's the antenna that makes the difference. My RSP1a is connected to 2m/70cm vertical and a 80m end fed half wave and I swap between them with a switch box. £100 is still cheaper than a new 10/11m SSB radio !. I have a number of the cheaper devices which I have running on fixed applications , ADSB on 1090mHz with a Pi3b & APRS on 144.800 with a Uniden BCT15X handling marine/airband/pmr. Head in hands ?, not at all Fred, this hobby is about self training in communications technology and at least you are willing to give things a go. Feel free to message me if you have any specific queries and I'm happy to try and help. 73
Thank you for the detailed information. Yes if i can filter out the harmonics i plane to run out a long wire for some SW testing. Not too interested in VHF other than maybe a bit of 446.
@@CB-RADIO-UK The RSP series running the SDR Uno software have selectable band stop filters allowing blocking of medium wave and/or DAB transmitters if they are close enough to desense or overload the front end. A 2/70 dual band antenna will give you 446 as well as decent airband coverage in one package. A long wire will require a balun in order to work best , NooElec sell a 9:1 balun suitable for a long wire antenna for under £20 last time I looked.
Mark
I've got an Rsp1a myself and it works fantastic, exactly as you said, the antenna is the key to receive, I use a flowerpot antenna for vhf receive, its very wideband, and a wire for hf, if you connect an Antron (wich I have too) it is very sensitive for qrm, but the quality of the rsp1a makes the difference, as the program I use with it, which is SDRuno, it opens a total new world Fred, it offers lots of extras (decoding cw, scanning bands, dmr decoding and so on)
The Rsp1a cost a bit more, but it's an excellent investment in listening
73' s Geurt (aka GeeBee) 19CT032
Good post
@@steelheadplayer Can you give me some info on the balun please, how long a wire do do use and do you run it in a circle or just a straight piece of wire. Regarding the grd to the balun can this be put to the earth on a plug in the house or does it need to be in a earth spike in the ground, if an earth spike how deep should it be, i have a 4 foot spike but am unsure if 4 foot is enough according to some stories i have seen.
I really love your down to earth and somehow cozy videos that everyone can understand.
Thanks Benny. I hope it encourages people to try themselves.
Good video there Fred.. Got a Rsp1a, a 949D manual antenna tuner with my A99 and can tune 0-30Mhz with no problem. Same with my FT-840 ( receive only tho ) most ham radios will work. Works great, give it try.
Frid in the shed this cool cb sdr radio 📻 😎
I bought the same one, it's sitting in a draw where all my crap is look forward to your next vid ....great vid.
LOL. Lets see if i can get it working prop.
I find SDR play a nightmare to navigate Fred.Theyve made it far to complicated now......Or maybe i'm just thick LOL.Keep them coming mate,well done :)
Hey Fred don’t be disheartened mate. I’ve heard about the HF upconverter thing but not tried using one. I use an RSPA1 and an RTL dongle just for VHF and UHF. Love the brookmans park pic, was there with Andy Kirby last year
Thanks Lewis. Going to try again when the filter gets here. Growing up at my parents house i used to be able see the red warning lights on the Brookmans tower from my bedroom.
Frid in the shed I like your utube videos
Frid in the shed I learn lot from you about CBS radios
I think you have to use an older version of SDR# with option of Direct Sampling (Q-branche). Then you'll receive HF on every cheap RTL-SDR dongle. But a little mod is usually needed to inject the anteena signal into the correct pin. I guess the HF sma will work fine if you choose direct sampling. 73's from Holland
Hi Fred I got a mini airspy a few years ago and last year I added a LNA and was getting quite a bit of broadcast stations on uhf frequency’s, but luckily the RTL SDR fm bandstop worked well
Having a go at it is what matters. Thanks for sharing 👍
You bet
Great little radios, Had mine working the other day , It has a up converter allowing HF UHF and VHF they work extremely well for the money , A lot of folk have issues with the zadig drivers . I use a rspdx most of the time, The sdruno software is brilliant
Thanks for the info
issues withe the drivers YES... these units often only get picked up as working by one software and not another... once u know how though they are easy to install and run
Ps for hf use with the upconverter you need to set the offset to -10000000 and flick the little toggle switch so the red led comes on
Looks like front end overload, especially if you have a broadcast station close. Easiest fix is a bandpass filter if it’s 27MHz you’re interested in, otherise a high pass if it’s a MW AM station you have close. This, BTW, is where the extra money goes when you compare iComs and Yaesu’s to cheap Chinese stuff….my IC-7610 has no issue at all with an AM broadcast station 5km away….my Xiegu x6100 doesn’t cope at all and you can hear it bleed over every band! I also have an SDRPlay, and again, no issues.
Thanks. Same with all HF / CB radios. These cheap SDR's are wide open. Interesting to see if i can fix though.
radio receivers and transmitters need an antenna that is resonant for the frequency that is in use. i use a discone antenna for my short wave and scanner.
Using an Antron 99 for this 11 meter test.
cool
Hey Fred. I got the SDR# software for free, the same as you illustrated and a Nooelec dongle for about £15 on Amazon and made a coax antenna. It was fiddly to set up but there's loads of videos on CZcams. It's great for the price and you can listen to digital signals from security and CCTV etc that aren't on analogue any more. I payed over £200 for a DMR radio! ! As I remember I had to download a virtual cable for the laptop to recognize it and configure a comport but as you said, the smoking tape is is good and you can always pause the video as you go from step to step. Like you rightly said, don't expect it to work out of the box but if I figured it out, any one can! Skip is awesome at the moment, I had a contact into Belize last week from North Yorkshire. . . 73's
Nice one Simon. had no idea you could decode CCTV.
@@CB-RADIO-UK Thanks for the reply. I did mean CCTV security audio and not video. It's great to be able to listen to what's going on in shopping centres etc. Speaking about CCTV if you look around the internet you can actually access CCTV live images of the M62 motorway traffic cameras and there is a couple sites where there are live video of towns and coastal areas. With the SDR# you can hear your car key fob unlocking your car. . . . . Need I say any more. . . . Enjoy the radio.
I have an rtl sdr v3 from amazon it's absolutely fantastic for 25mhz up. Below, it will work, but not as well. You can get it cheaper from amazon if you buy just the dongle without all the little bits.
I have this model I use Mint Linux with GQRX software not easy to use and takes some time how you need 49/1 balun and broadcast filter I do recommend this one NooElec v5
Hi Fred, all the ones you showed i have had and used all useless, the only one i found that works good was the sliver one you showed more money but does work, you should be using hdsdr software lot easier to use for some new. And i found keeping the gain down to about 30 so not to overload the doggle, and longwire better for hf receive. But as said by many a ham you can not beat a proper radio to listen to.
Good video it is a interesting hobby which is where started.
73s 26AB119 or 26DR715
the unit did not fail.. you need a decent `tuned` antenna.... they work incredibly well for the money.. i have top ham radios and they perform a good 80 per cent as well as them.
Also to add........... the unit is most of the equation but the software you run them through is another... Try all the diff programs most of which are free for varying results.. My main radio is third on the best for audio list and these tiny units show up just how much we are paying for that extra 20 per cent of quality on receive... any old laptop and one of these properly tuned with decent software and good antenna.. there is little you won`t hear and hear well. This one video is like putting one antenna onto a random vehicle parked in a back street and saying it works badly.. come on fred lets have a thorough video with a deep dive into the units.. it will be watched even if long.
Fred i spent a bit of time playing with the same thing - when you change from vhf to hf their is a setting you need to change in sharp to bring the HF to life - you can get this to work its just fiddly - if i can remember you change the filter type
Yes there is only one filter that works shown in the video.
@@CB-RADIO-UK Direct sampling Q branch under sampling mode and 2048msps - things might have changed with the software since i last used it but give this a go as a reference
try SDRconsole...
the RX on those little boxes can be as good as a HF radio... you need to be in Quadrature sampling..
tbf they are a bit quirky to get perfect with agc... use you fast usb port if you have one...
you dont need the filter, you just need to get the settings right.. 😜
correct
some only work from 23 megs.. you can get it to RX.. also try both antennas as one may work or both on hf... etc
I use the SDR Play it is the best far beter than the China made once
Frid in the shed iam going to try online kiwi sdrs
I bought the same device a while ago and it was very poor quality and not very receptive, at least I could not get much out of it. So I purchased a Nooelec model Nesdr Smart and bingo, it was much better!! At which point you just need a good antenna and ensure the setup is correct.
Hi Fred, for HF frequencies you need a "Ham It Up" from NooElec. I have all SDRs from Nooelec they all very good but without "Ham it up" your chances are ZERO. I will try to give you a shout on the waves but I don't think I will reach, I'm just outside of Bedford where the R101 Sheeds are CT7676. All the Best.
Antenna on top of shed 1 would be nice eh?
@@sprint955st with ground plane this size I would definitely go with full size mobile antenna. 🤣
@@isopticon I reckon so, definitely afford to go with a tank whip. Easy copies all the way up to Lincolnshire on 4W! Nothing in the way!
Thank you for video can't wait for part 2. I am new to all of this, i started with a SDL and had the same trouble as you so i am glad it isn't just me. Since i couldn't get it to work i packed it away and am trying to start again with cb radios, hopefully i can follow you and get my SDR working with your help. I've looked at comments and maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to use the Antron 99. I had bought a balun but i wasn't sure how longer a wire was needed and how high it needed to be, also where to put the ground ie can it go to the house earth or does it need to be going to a earth rod if anyone can help?
Iam going to give it a good go when the FM filter arrives. The long wire for basic SW is really easy. You just need a single core wire. Ive never used an earth on a SW wire but some run coax. Normally i run about 20 meters down the garden. You can even try it on top of a fence. Sometimes a much longer wire can overload the receiver and i think this will be the case with these cheap SDR. You can use a balun to tune the antenna closer to 50 ohms which will improve signals as it will be ore balanced. Likewise if your interested in certain bands then you can cut the wire to the correct length.
very interesting...i had bought one a few years ago tinkered with it for a small amount of time shoved it in a bag and gave it to my brother he played with it shoved it in a bag and tried to give it back to me i would not accept it lol so its on a shelf some were at his house it sorta looked like
your first one
Get an Airspy R2. That's a good one.
I ve heard good things but its the same price as a good SSB radio.
@@CB-RADIO-UK Than get an RTL V3 stick or an Nooelec V5 stick.They are good, but not as good as the Airspy R2.
Just a thought: Would a low pass filter that you would normally use with a cheap CB power amp also filter the incomming signals to the SDR? Probably not as good as the band stop filter on order but maybe worth trying while waiting for it to arrive.
Not sure myself. I dont have a low pass filter at hand. Would be interesting though.
Radio ham or General CB’r there’s no difference buddy,it’s all about trial and error and i guess that is where all the fun is.👍
Did you change it to q branch for switching listening
Hi yes its in only mode it would receive HF
I really hope CB takes off again, like it did in the day. With what 'they' are doing to socitey and their insistence on us all having a mobile phone to be tracked and to use it to buy stuff with instead of using money etc.. We should all start using a CB homebase/mobile to communicate with each other instead, they can't track our every move with them.
The tracking is a good point.
I keep hearing people saying this as if CB can't be monitored lol.
I expect everything being said across the airwaves is being recorded and archived centrally. And they can easily locate and identify people.
The big benefit of radio in this sense is resilience in the event of breakdown of cellular networks or internet etc.
@@waggonfm Do you realise the expense of monitoring CB radio. All the different bands and channels, the different states. Different countries. If the other countries did the same, the cost would be phenominal. It's not like recording phone calls.
@@PeterMaddison2483 there have been plenty of videos on here about radio monitoring/recording stations. The use of automated systems mean the required human resource is much lower than in the past
@@waggonfm Well, it's not something I've been interested in, so don't know much, if anything about, so can't comment further about it.
Off topic just fell off my chair was that dave st Albans on 40m tonight I thought I was on the 305
That will be AWESOME Dave 🙂
@Fred in the Shed m0tpt good to hear him up into Scotland I've heard him say awesome about 8 times so far lol he's famous
You normally put out good CZcams content but this one is the opposite. I use an RTL STR dongle to monitor the whole of the HF bands. Mainly USB and NBFM but also extremely low power quiet FT8 signals. All modes come booming in from across the globe using a length of wire strung up in the garden.
Every day is a school day. The aim is to get it working but i do live fairly close to a transmission tower. Have to see how i get on.
Keep trying you can make it work!!!
Something different, Cal at DX Commander Is developing a new 11meter version, it uses the old Star Duster, Droopy ground plane design, but can have more than 1 element so the entire 11 meters from 25.5 to 28 megs or where ever you might like to go can be available all the time. Anyway at the 18 meter or 60 foot height good ground wave local distance should be there. You need to get with him and do a use evaluation. This is right up your area of experience comparing it with the A99, and other antennas you have used in past years.
czcams.com/video/H3O3QUsrYbA/video.html
czcams.com/video/V8Qq4-0_TjQ/video.html
i have the same one,and i dont even receive anything on hf (11 meter) even with my ground [plain antenna on it lol 73,s 19CT031
Yeah iam struggling with it.
Hi fred you cannot go wrong with SDR play boxes they give none of all this rubbish from China I can receive everything on HF with no birdies
sure bet ordering a SDR from China thats where i ordered mine.. as these clones are a nightmare
some are some are perfectly fine.. u take your chance.
@@gabrielsansar6187 they sure are but i think i am gonna have to order a low pass supression filter lookin at now fred the shed