On 01/20/2013 10:49 AM, Michael Ossmann wrote:
On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 07:10:31PM -0500, Karan Talasila wrote:
http://www.amazon.com/DVB-T-Receiver-Low-Cost-Software-Defined/dp/B008XFDHWW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1358639740&sr=8-4&keywords=rtl+sdr
http://www.amazon.com/Newsky-Receiver-Low-Cost-Software-Defined/dp/B008DCBS94/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358639740&sr=8-2&keywords=rtl+sdr
Either one of those is fine. NooElec is a reputable seller.
You can see the difference in operating frequency range for the E4000
vs. FC0013 here:
http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
I have heard that the FC0013 has somewhat better receive sensitivity
than the E4000, but I have not verified that. The E4000 has a wider
operating frequency range.
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Something to note about FC0013 based dongles is that while the FC0013
has an L-band input, it's typically *NOT CONNECTED* on any of the
dongles out there.
The E4000 is great tuner, but out of production now, due to the company
who made it going out of business. The up and coming
logical replacement in the market for the E4000 is the R820T, which
covers a continuous frequency range of 24Mhz to about 1.5GHz, with
sensitivity falling off precipitously above 1.3GHz, but overall a
very nice tuner. Again, eBay has them in two different physical formats.
But these things aren't, in any sense, comparable to a USRP in many
dimensions. The maximum no-samples-dropped sample rate is
only 2.4Msps (even though you can ask for 3.2Msps, the hardware
starts dropping samples above 2.4Msps). They have an 8-bit
ADC, so maximum dynamic range is 48dB. The decimator inside the
RTL2832U chip isn't very good, and only really works properly at
2Msps--alias suppression at other sample rates isn't nearly as good.
Isolation between the digital side and RF receiver side is poor,
which means more spurs and higher noise floor than devices that are
more "purpose built".
But for $10.00 apiece in some cases (patiently waiting for the ebb and
flow of market-economics on eBay to drive the price down can allow
you to pick them up for as little as $10.00 apiece), they're a good
value for cheap experiments.
--
Marcus Leech
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium
http://www.sbrac.org
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