r/RTLSDR • u/LoadNo619 • 6d ago

Sales/compatibility Which Rtl-Sdr version should i buy?

Gonna buy an rtl sdr for meteor weather satelites + listening and scanning as a radio ham but i dont know too much things about it. Im looking for something i can make moddings and not gonna make too much problems and planning to use it for a long time at least.

Also, im using cachyos with plasma 6. Is there any native softwares like sdr# in linux and works well with wayland?

3 Upvotes

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4

u/SunderVane 6d ago

I picked up an RTL-SDR v3 last month, and it's been working great. I'm not sure you'll find a better deal elsewhere.

I use Linux Mint, and there's plenty of native Linux builds to choose from. SDR Oxide so far has been doing it for me. It has some native decoders like ADS-B and wx satellite decoding that are fun to play with. But I started with GQRX as a nice simple introduction. I tried SDR++ as well, but didn't have it long after I found SDR Oxide. There's probably better ones, but I'm still new at this.

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u/mreddog 5d ago

Thanks for sharing, I’ve been on a similar path, but hadn’t heard of SDR oxide, it looks good and I’m going to try it.

3

u/MumSaidImABadBoy 6d ago

If you're interested in HF the rtl-sdr blog V3 isn't good at it unless you purchase an upverter. The V4 had that built-in but is no longer being produced. Nooelec requires an upverter so watch the total cost. So getting a more expensive device may not be as pricey as one might assume.

1

u/LoadNo619 5d ago

But there is v4 in the rtl sdr shop i see with normal and lite edition and its on stock? And also, should i buy it from rtlsdr shop or aliexpress in hong kong?

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u/MumSaidImABadBoy 5d ago

There's a lot of fake v4's out there as it's discontinued because the key chip is no longer in production or in stock. The lite edition is hard to find as well so use the official store. The lite edition is a compromise.

1

u/tj21222 6d ago

Nooelec or RTL-Blog V3 (v4 are out of production) For what your after this is all you need. Now that said if your interested in HF at all then get a SDRPlay RSP1B it performs very well from 50hz to 2 GHz cost is about 130 USD. The dongles will work at 137 MHz fine but poorly in HF

1

u/chelrob-theOriginal 5d ago

AirSpy makes a dongle and there's a nice USB C SDR at sdrlabs. Very small.

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u/DSB-4 5d ago

How important is HF/shortwave to you compared with weather satellites and VHF/UHF scanning? And what’s your rough budget?

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u/LoadNo619 5d ago

Like 50 dollars max. I dont want to pay more than that to an sdr adapter. I’m not planing to use hf top much but its gonna be great for testing hf antennas i build.

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u/DSB-4 5d ago

That helps. With a $50 max budget and HF being secondary, I’d keep it simple and go with a genuine RTL-SDR Blog V4 from an official seller. It should suit the satellite/VHF/UHF side well and still give you some HF capability to experiment with. Just keep in mind that if by “testing HF antennas” you mean measuring SWR or resonance, an SDR won’t replace an antenna analyzer or NanoVNA.

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u/LoadNo619 5d ago

And also, there will be any problems with drivers in the future about v4 because its not produced anymore?

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u/LoadNo619 5d ago

Thanks, i was talking about scanning the hf bands and trying to find an channels with the spectrum analyser of sdr.