Review on 📻 Nooelec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set: Low-Cost, Versatile Software Defined Radio Solution with R820T Tuner and MCX Input by Damon Murray

I bought this little fella because I thought it would be a great way to learn about some parts of the local radio scene without spending a lot of money. This and more. A few little things first: the software you can get for them isn't exactly intuitive. I had a little trouble running SDR Sharp on this device. The antenna connector is tiny; I think this device would be very useful with a better antenna than the stock one, but it will take some time to find an adapter to convert the device's antenna connector to a more common size like BNC or SO-239 Show, and if you go in with the idea that it's for experimentation, you'll be happy with what you get. One disappointment: if you're interested in eavesdropping on local emergency services. with Unitrunker and you are using newer 800MHz trunk multiplex systems, one of these devices will not suffice. You need two: one to monitor the control channel, one to monitor individual trunking frequencies. I wasn't aware of this when I bought it and I'm waiting for the right opportunity to buy a second one to pick up where I left off with this idea. With two of these devices and the Unitrunker software you have an inexpensive police/fire engine scanner. But those things aside, this is a great little receiver. I was able to track ADS-B aircraft position reports, tune into local radio stations, listen to a few radio broadcasts (the quality wasn't very good, I think it's an antenna) and more, just with the supplied antenna and some free programs I did downloaded from the internet. (SDR Sharp, Cubic SDR, HDSDR, etc.) Let me be clear: the supplied antenna is very crappy and a very poor substitute for a more solid and possibly home-built device. But it's enough to get strong signals to prove that this thing works. If you've done your homework you'll know that these devices were originally designed to receive European digital TV signals and that they were 'hacked' with software to make them wider spectrum receivers. (By the way, they're useless for US TV.) So they include a credit card-sized remote that you can just throw away when you get it. here is nothing. So it's not just a finished product that you just plug into your computer and use; You have to play around with it to get a chance. As I mentioned before, I had some problems running some free programs on my Win10 laptop. The problem was driver issues, which I solved with a lot of help from my research assistant, Dr. Google could solve. If you are a ham radio operator with some experience it will be a cool thing to play with. If you're more like me, the n00b radio amateur, you might need a little tinkering. More fun!