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Old 02-23-2015, 05:33 PM
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NoPegs NoPegs is offline
The glass is -3dB.
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Amish Country PA.
Posts: 376
Quote:
Originally Posted by dewdude View Post
That's about the truth. I mean, the unit is rather limited in performance due to the lack of serious filtering for the MW/HF bands. It's FM performance is outstanding; I picked up a 100kw FM station out of Raleigh, NC when I was in Lynchburg VA over christmas. 122 miles seems like a pretty good copy for an FM station using just twin-lead folded dipole on a 2nd floor deck. I still question that reception; I couldn't find any repeaters but that station was coming in abnormally clear for quite a few hours. I'm wondering if the elevation I was at in comparsion to the transmitter had something to do with it; a quick check on google earth didn't reveal any thing between me and Raleigh; and the antenna down there had a 1900' HAAT. Still, radio-locator map didn't show the signal anywhere near me. I've done 60 mile FM reception from stations with a 1m whip with great success.

The 8-bit ADC of the RTL chip also limits your noise floor; there by limiting your reception. There are probably some weak stations down in the "noise" a more proper radio with better dynamic range will pick up.

But, despite the 8-bit limitation; having a device that'll go from 100khz to 1.7ghz and "decode" anything you've got software for is amazing. Wanna pick up ADS-B transponders? no problem. Need to decode some weefax? Go for it!
So what if I whack a rough-cut bandpass/high-pass/low-pass filter in the antenna chain? That is to say if I'm cruising the large bands, and I put a brick wall that starts at 12MHz will that assist? (Considering the antenna best matched for those bands is very large, it will pick up every damned signal it can.)

I didn't know there was a Live-CD distro for these. That sounds like it could be very handy. I have several machines awaiting a reason to be used, I can just build off of the Live-CD distro on a laughably small hard drive.

FWIW I believe your FM DX experience is completely within the bounds of possibility. The thing to look for is were there any other stations on that same frequency that logically should have been competing for your RF front-end?
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