Anyone using software defined radio?

Congratulations.
You're normal and have a life...

 

There are many web sites with (HF) SDR available for anyone to operate around the world. One can experience how they perform when well configured. Chose a 'time zone' to explore propagation vs wavelength or whatever.

Overall they are a lot of fun, especially the waterfall plots.

 

Is there a particular device that makes it easy for a first timer to use? Also I love tree climbing and I'd love to set up a super high antenna with amplification. But I've researched both SDR and Antennas and can never decide on what's going to be easiest for a beginner?

 

Here are some possibilities from a few years ago:

The 5 Best Software-defined Radios (SDR) for 2024 - A Radio Engineer reviews products - OneSDR - A Technology Blog

And newer:

8 Best Software Defined Radios (SDRs) In 2024

Those I listen to online seem to have small fancy voltage probe antennas. There must be some reason why they don't use long antennas but I don't know it.

 

I have an RTL-SDR that I used in the past for plugs-out (no internet, no power) receive-only HF.
They were super cheap ($20 ish) a few years ago, probably closer to $50 owing to the economy and lingering chip issues.
I still have it because it still works quite well!
It's ultra portable, doesn't use a whole lot of power, and because it's RX only you DO NOT need a fancy schmancy antenna, even if you're in some noisy urban environment.
The first time I tried it I just grabbed a 40-ish foot piece of telephone hookup wire off the floor and threw it out the front door of my office and I was VERY surprised at how well it worked!
If you're going to use it for digital HF reception, you will also need a GPS [sic] dongle ($10) for timing if you're not internet connected - but that's getting into ham stuff, which is a vastly deeper hole.
Like......a deep and very dark mine shaft!!!
Be careful with preamps.
These things are built to be used without them and you can let out the magic smoke.

Ask 100 hams.
Get 100 answers.
MY answer is that they are probably transmitting AND receiving, and so throwing a wire into a tree, while cost effective, isn't a long term solution.
80' trees tend to move around a bit up top, so the obvious solution for that would be to build a tower as high as you can for the bottom end of the HF band (the 80-metre band - which is aptly named!) Antenna need a little 'breathing room' for HF propagation, and if you're able to build a tower there are LOTS better antennae out there than some speaker wire and a throwing bag.

There are many advantages to long-wire antennae, but there are also some significant disadvantages including durability, space (they call them LONG wire for a REASON) wire stretch, getting the wire high enough off the ground for optimal performance, and having your grandchild think that you've installed a zip-line in your backyard.
People like me use wires in trees because of some of the advantages:
Cost, HOA Nazi avoidance, portability, etc...

Careful!
Remember the mine-shaft!

 

My favorite long wire is called Beverage. Named after a Mr. Beverage, not something to drink. It is 100s of meters but not far off the ground. It is not suitable for TX, only RX. Not combined with any SDR to my knowledge.

 

I learned about those from a HAM radio expert when I was a kid...

 

Developed by a co-worker.
Um....not a 'current' co-worker....

Oh?
That's not my understanding at all, but I will let some sad ham out there defend that turf.

I'm still using telephone wire and a throwing weight with a 9:1 Balun.

 

Maybe QRP TX on Beverage. Hotter would require the distal 600 ohm resistor to ground to be very sturdy.

 

AND non-inductive.
A beverage antenna IS a long wire antenna - flying nap of the earth.

Below is from the wiki page, citing some Army manual or other.
I prefer the USMC field comms manual, because they have little time for BS.
They have an excellent antenna manual.
AND
They use what works.


My experience is that few military terrestrial comms equipment is QRP(*) unless it HAS to be!
This ain't the 1950s.
You can pack 100 watts (PEP) in a cargo pocket and power it with a battery - that will fit in the other cargo pocket.


(*) For 'Normal People"
QRP = Low power.
Generally thought to be 10w or less - which can be packaged in a transmitter that will fit in a shirt pocket.
Hams fight about everything - so this term is somewhat malleable.
I've heard people with 20-watt radios describe themselves as a "QRP" operator.
CB radios are regulated to 4 watts.
The $17 Baofengs that everybody loves to hate on are about the same.

So...
Q codes are vestigial abbreviations once used by morse code operators - and Morse (CW) still casts a loooong shadow over ham radio, including the WORD Ham - or ham-fisted.....meaning a poor brass pounder.
I remember when I was a youngun' that the 'old guard' was complaining that 'them younguns with their voice appliances are ruining Ham Radio!!'
Now?
Today's voice operators are saying the same thing about digital.

God's humor in irony, since CW (Morse Code) is.......digital.

SO - WHY the explosion in radio all of a sudden???

Ask anyone in western North Carolina.

 

Seems like it's been nearly ¼ a century ago a bunch of us started to monkey with digital on hf. Got decent audio (at night) transmitting around 3.5mhz. Now days there's as many digital vhf transceivers sold as there are analog. Commercial sales hardly consider analog any more. Stinking bandwidth confiscating Mororola.



What .... no balun?
There's so much spurious crap in moderate to heavily populated areas that you're going to pick up all kinds of unwanted stuff in your feed line.
.

 

That's a field manual.
They do not have a lot of human made noise (QRM?) to deal with unless they are getting zorched by ECM.
I use a 9:1 in town, tied to an end-fed halfwave.....and oh HECK YEAH there's lots of noise.
I'm also tinkering with transmission line chokes.

FORTUNATELY there's not very many solar panel enthusiasts in my 'hood so I'm not having to deal with that....YET.
It will be interesting how I mitigate this issue but I will be able to stand on the shoulders of giants in the field.

Interesting turn of events 'eh?
Back in the day it was the ham radio operators with their shacks full of equipment polluting the electromagnetic spectrum with their whole house warming, vacuum tube transmitters.

Now?
They're rolling 20-watt SDRs and getting mashed by solar panels and splatter from car chargers, and home electronics.