Back when I was a kid (1968), my dad gave me a WWII military receiver that could receive 100-400 KHz and 2.5-20 MHz. I spent hours plying the bands looking for good stuff like weather channels and other voice transmissions. Clocks in the house were set using WWV at 15 MHz. I plotted weather maps using a NOAA channel around 9.1 MHz. That old beast weighed in at around 200 pounds! Now you show me a tiny device about the size of a USB stick that can receive just about the entire spectrum! How I wish I had one of those when I was a kid... Edit: Yes, I bought one.

@thomasauslander3757

2 жыл бұрын

I'm sure it was 200 lb of magic..

@nicoblaytherealflamingo445

2 жыл бұрын

Gotta know what av dorks passion has been like? Im a major tron timeline person and synthetic devices

@coolelectronics1759

Жыл бұрын

awesome story! I just got a portable about the size of a walkman for my mom to give her for her birthday. It can recieve about 9 or so different bands including bluetooth, has an mp3 player, a flashlight, and can run off a nokia batery or 4 AA bateries and it has a builtin speaker! You can even use it as a power bank if you want.

@remotepinecone

Жыл бұрын

tiny USB stick? Don't make me laugh lol. you need a computer and a decent antenna too.

@gali01992

Жыл бұрын

@@remotepinecone I have a computer, and it came with a dipole antenna on a tripod with flexible legs that can either stand on a table or be clipped to something like a curtain rod.

And, to boot, he doesn’t shout, wave his hands, and goes off in rants. Amd there’s no soul killing music. Well done, Sir!

@Nik-ny9ue

Ай бұрын

there's a channel for everyone!

@nortonics5745

6 күн бұрын

No throat clearing, mumbling, fake ass laughing to oneself, hmmms or haaas, or farting either. Nice.

The reason the RTL-SDR is so affordable, is because it was originally designed for tuning into TV signals. It's one of the few devices made at a very large scale for the consumer market, and only accidentally fell into the Radio community as a super cheap, super featured RX SDR.

@jakexd5524

Жыл бұрын

Do you know what software you’d use to view the TV signals?

@attag_ua

Жыл бұрын

@@jakexd5524 HDTV Player. It allows you to decode digital T/T2 television. But NTSC, PAL and other analog video signals, this device has too little bandwidth, but I saw on the Internet methods of partial decoding (Only black and white picture or sound separately)

@W8RIT1

10 ай бұрын

@@jakexd5524 the TV format is different in Europe than it is here in N. America. The chip in the SDR dongle is originally meant for European TV, which won't work here in US.

@imacmill

6 ай бұрын

@@W8RIT1 Bubble, burst.

@W8RIT1

6 ай бұрын

@@imacmill NTSC in N. America, and PAL in Europe (and elsewhere)

Attention youtubers! This is how a video should be made!. To the point, condensed content, quality production over all, No ah"s, like's, or um's. Well done Tom!

@jamesportrais3946

Жыл бұрын

I think Tom could be the reincarnation of Orson Welles...

@jm7578

Жыл бұрын

The sad thing is that people who use ah, Um and like,May have a speech impediment or they suffer some issues with the steam. I have made videos in the past and noticed that I had a few of those issues and work on rectifying them. Speech that is absent of those fill in noises or words is the best, totally agreed

@timd1833

Жыл бұрын

amen!

@AcidiFy574

Жыл бұрын

There's nothing wrong with "ah"s & "um"s

@user-wm7zl5gd2l

Жыл бұрын

Tom just wanted to pat Tom on the back 😄

I must say, this is one of the best presentation videos I have seen so far. Unlike most videos around that despite their title being a beginner's guide, yet you find yourself confused and lost not knowing how and where to start, this one is short, simple, and straight to the point. Well done for a great job

@JuanSanchez-ik7wx

Жыл бұрын

brains makes all the difference.

@TomtheDilettante

Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. Very kind of you to say :)

@MjC7192

Жыл бұрын

@@TomtheDilettante ..but the Bears suck.....,Go Pat's or Buc's Love your videos though. Were you Signal corps in the Army

@Miami7

6 ай бұрын

Exceptional video, made by a human and not a boring AI bot. No uhs, umms, likes, or actuallys, so it was wonderful to watch!

I just stumbled on to your site. The way you presented the info was great. I've got an SDR and this is the first time someone explained the software that I could really understand. And the antenna explanation was really simple. Not even the manufacture of the unit made it as easy and clearly as you did. Thanks.

You got me all hyped up with your great YT vid! Just ordered the RTL-SDR V3! Thanks!

I am one of those in IT who loves to delve in other fields of knowledge, and I have to say that I had never watched someone deliver so much useful practical information, at such a decent depth, rate, and clarity on something relatively new to me. I am glad I found your channel. Thank you for sharing!

Tom, you are unbelievable. Thank you so much for the helpful info to turn my computer into a receiver of numerous radio signals never before known to me.

Extremely well presented video -- many YTers know what they know but are not adapt at communicating it, you, OTH, have a great presentation style. Keep it up!

@rorymcil

10 ай бұрын

He constantly puts objects between his mouth and the microphone, muffling some sound. You can stop riding him and start riding a bike

Tom I want to thank you, seriously thank you sir. I'm 60 and had a stroke back in 2015 which left me a little less sharp as I used to be. I was even a cable tv tech and splicer back in my days. Understanding this stuff has been a challenge but I'm slowly getting it back. Your video broke open like a stuck valve and all of the sudden things became real clear on some stuff I wasn't getting. You explain things very well and I wanted you to know how much I appreciated your video. Thanks and you have a new sub.

@TomtheDilettante

6 ай бұрын

High praise. Thank you very much! It always makes me super happy to hear someone got something out of a video. Makes it totally worth it. I hope you get a chance to tinker with this kind of stuff and enjoy it!

@OH2023-cj9if

2 ай бұрын

This isn't a support group!

Thank you very much for this. You popped up in my feed due to the mysterious ways of KZread. Your video was engaging and inspiring. And now I have one of these dongles and got it working. I followed the instructions on the online quick start guide and it worked absolutely fine. I got the FM channels dead easily and I also found some ATC and heard one end of a ham radio conversation. I'm looking forward to exploring more. My ambition is to tune in to UVB-76.

The RTL-SDRv3 is precisely what got me into amateur radio. Now, SDR is the most important piece of part of my station. Tied into my radio’s RF-out port, I can visualize exactly what my radio is hearing, across the entire band. I’ve since upgraded to the SDR Play devices and it has turned out to be an incredible investment. It’s all point and click in SDRuno or HDSDR. Click a blank spot during a contest to find a place to “park”, click a signal if you want to make some contacts, or search the signals against the POTA database to see which activations are within reach. Amazing!

@chobai9996

2 жыл бұрын

Can people track down where you are if you're 'listening' with this device? Just wondering if maybe since you're not transmitting that maybe people couldn't triangulate your location; don't want to make assumptions

@bizzimartini

Жыл бұрын

@@chobai9996 only transmitted signals can be triangulated. But they might know you're using monitoring software through some online method. Not sure.

Your honesty is refreshing. "I'm no expert on this, but this other guy is so set it up the way he says so you don't screw your stuff up." KZread would be incredible with more honesty like this. Thank you.

Not sure how I stumbled on this video but it was so cool! Never knew there was such a thing as a radio hobby. Got yourself a new subscriber!

Sunday I watched HRCC about SDRs. Monday KZread sent me to this video. What a great, brief, snippet of the joy of SDR for this newbie HAM. It looks to me that SDR is how I bring my budding shack with my used radios within reach of 2022’s these newfangled and extremely useful waterfall displays. Thanks for a very functional and inspiring vid, Tom.

I don’t remember how I stumbled on your channel but I don’t believe I have landed on a KZread channel where the host/presenter just gets on with it and doesn’t waste the viewer/listener’s time. You, to me are my new standard as to how to properly do a presentation. (obviously I have subscribed) Bravo! Cheers from Victoria, British Columbia

@andimerkle6924

2 жыл бұрын

But it would be good if he spoke more slowly. Serious and good speakers speak more slowly.

Great video, I’ve got every SDR, ham, scanner and cellular radio interceptor known to man, but I really love the way you produce and narrate your videos, awesome great job..!!

@esecallum

3 жыл бұрын

WHATS THE POINT. USELESS HOBBY

WOW! So glad your post was recommended! I bought a RTL-SDR for school project and have it setup for FlightAware. I still keep it up on my TV when not actively using it for something else. I had no idea I could do so many more cool things with the RTL-SDR I already use. This is def going to be a weekend project. Thank you for sharing.

What a video, clean crisp, no nonsense,fast and to the point, this is the way it's done right

Your videos are those among the few channels I watch, where I hit the Thumbs Up button before I even watch the video. Because I already know I'm going to like it. Another awesomely informative video, thanks for the upload Tom!

@TomtheDilettante

3 жыл бұрын

Ha! Thanks man! Really appreciate your support! I took a risk on this video because it's not exactly "new" technology...just "new to me" :) There's bound to be some viewers that are like "what's next? electronic mail?" LOL. But, it's cool to me and so far it seems those checking out the channel are diverse enough that it's bound to be interesting to someone so yeah... Anyway, thanks as always and have a good one!

@kennethbrady7978

3 жыл бұрын

@@TomtheDilettante can you use this on an Android tablet is 10.0?

Clicked on this vid just because you were honest by putting “probably” in the title 👏🏻 unlike most other KZreadrs

@Williamwerenberg

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, others would have put “actually” or “literally”

@dodgersfnshepard8673

2 жыл бұрын

Glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed that

@edgarpereira4982

2 жыл бұрын

You know the probably is for if you've heard of the radio channel, and not if the channel is interesting

@ozanemekter2693

2 жыл бұрын

Same reason I like Tom Scott's videos: "Things you might not know"

@ter8901

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly my thoughts. Hes real in a world full of conceited clickbaiters

Very gracious of you to assemble all this for us, thanks! I never know it existed, now I want to try it out. Cheers

Great video. I've been using ssr for years now and it's just amazing. You can even listen to and decode police, fire and ems digital radio. Also the mention about screwing up your computer drivers is very true. If you do it wrong you may just discover you can't use your mouse or keyboard. It's nothing that will permanently damage anything but it's rather annoying.

Thanks for posing this. When I was a kid I had a very old SW radio that I used to listen to worldwide radio stations on (long before the internet), and had a great time with. I heard of SDR recently, then filed it in the back of my mind. You reminded me that I wanted to look into this, and I am ordering an SDR system right now!

As a longtime ham, I’ve always thought of SDR as expensive huge clunky, though powerful, devices. I had no idea how much things have changed. I’ll be picking one up once I can find one that includes the antenna like yours (even the eBay link is out of stock now).

Tom you are a natural teacher/leader. Excellent job explaining what I once thought of as a complicated subject.

Great video, and got my interest all over again. I was really into this in the 80s and 90s and my Sony 2010 works like it always did. I spent hours on it and a couple of scanners, but now this takes it to the next level and I'm going to have to buy that little gadget and get the software! Thank you!

Shows off over 3k worth of equipment, "those are all cool and all, but my favorite is this little guy." lol. I've been a technician for 5 years and still rocking the Baofeng. Great video bro. 73. KD8ZZP

@TomtheDilettante

3 жыл бұрын

LOL! yeah, I know....didn't mean to come off as boastful or anything. The intent was to introduce newbies (like myself) or folks thinking about getting into radio but weren't sure where to start to what's even out there. The SDR was actually one of the first radios I got while I was still studying for my tech license to enable me to listen to local traffic and make sure it was something still worth studying for. After using it to listen for a while, I was hooked. Got my General license since then and am trying to study for the Extra but it's hard to make the time. Anyway, thank you for watching and have a good one! 73! KD9PXF

@AA5SA

3 жыл бұрын

The best radio in the world is the one that gets you the contact you wanted to make. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a Baofeng if it does what you want it to do. I've been a HAM for nearly 30 years and my favorite radio out of everything in my shack is my SDRplay RSP1A--All $100 of it. :)

@AA5SA

3 жыл бұрын

@@TomtheDilettante hang in there, you'll get it...It took me three years of on-again/off-again studying to finally get mine. Good luck from AA5SA!

@firemanbif

3 жыл бұрын

@@AA5SA Thanks Sean. And Tom no reason at all to feel like you were showing off. I loved your radios!! I looked all of them up because I WANT THEM lol. Just "upgraded" to a Wouxen HT and got the RTLSDR installed running SDRSharp! Absolutely LOVE IT!! Have to figure out antennas to get SW and HF. Thanks all for the great responses!! Starting to work on my General and hopefully will be able to do some DXing at some point.

@mikeburch2998

3 жыл бұрын

@@TomtheDilettante You didn't come off as boastful at all. In fact the opposite. If you've been successful in life you have something to show for it. Your equipment is or should be just inspirational to others. Put in the work and get the results. No work = no toys. Greetings from Arizona. K8MB.

You have a fantastic presentation style, Thanks. Love you're workshop too.

@dvsr5296

2 жыл бұрын

Is he a workshop?

Thank you for this video. I am not too much of a radio hobbyist, but I always liked listening to a scanner I found in my basement. This SDR setup is definitely an upgrade. Almost immediately bought one on pay day this week. Already having tons of fun with it. I live near Chicago as well, so bonus points for that 😅😅

Nicely presented... Thanks for sharing this. I remember exploring radio bands as a kid (I had a 4-channel crystal handheld , in fact, and remember my dad using Radio Shack tube testers when I was really young... lol). Police/fire, railroads, atc... even AM skip... It only became worse when I entered radio in '83 and spent nearly 15 years at different stations off and on... As if I reeeeally needed another 'rabbit hole' to dabble with today... pffft... lol Love the technology we have today, though I do miss some of the old stuff (fewer and fewer people remember the smell of dust burning off hot tubes these days lol).

Well done Tom! Great information on how to get started with a SDR. Liked, subscribed and looking forward to your content.

Cheers - stumbled on your site and this was an interesting topic - made me a subscriber too!

Oh My Gods. This is amazing! Thank you for introducing me to SDR. I have long been a scanner enthusiast but have not spent the money to replacer my scanner nor time to find all the frequencies around me that I am interested in. Radio reference is an an excellent resource too!

Very well done. I know all of this as an experienced radio guy, yet i was hooked. Nice job.

Very interesting, cheers! Didn't know these things existed until yesterday, may dip my toes in. I have to say you are a ringer for a young Orson Welles :)

@6Minsto7Starbucks

2 жыл бұрын

$10 to see him say: "Rosebud."

First time i watch this channel, I'm subscribing, he explains very well!

@patriot9455

3 жыл бұрын

Same here. Even if I understand it, sometimes I get lost in the weeds.

This is EXCELLENT!!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge, I can't wait to get started!

My first time seeing one of your videos. I never heard of SDR. You got me interested. Thanks for the good information!!

Been wanting to try an SDR but felt intimidated. This video convinced me to try it out. Saved it for another viewing later and will follow the instructions. Thanks much!!!!

@TomtheDilettante

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and the kind words! I totally understand the intimidation factor. There's so much this stuff can do and so much to learn it's hard to know where to start. I just said screw it...picked one up...and started playing with it. I still have a lot to learn but thought it was cool enough to share with others so voila...video LOL. Good luck giving it a shot! I highly recommend perusing KZread for other videos on the subject so you can formulate your own version of what might work best for you. I'm far from an authority on the subject and I rely on content from others a lot to guide my own tinking :) Have fun!

@afnelson100

3 жыл бұрын

Jjjiì

@mikeburch2998

3 жыл бұрын

Just try it. It's not much of an investment and the results are pretty impressive. You can do it.

@andyhowlett2231

2 жыл бұрын

I'd avoid the RTL type sticks as you have to go through a weird installation process which stops the default drivers and uses something called ZADIG. Go for a more sophisticated SDR like the SDRPlay DX. One easy install, works like a charm.

@FPSAnarchy

2 жыл бұрын

@@andyhowlett2231 why are u scared of technology?

wow. amazing delivery. you're 100% going to have a successful channel. :-)

I loved this type of stuff when I was in the Army. In the Army I was a computer IT specialist, but I also worked a lot with radios and satellite communication, especially when I was setting up internet connection for a base out in the middle of nowhere in the desert of Iraq. The satellite we connected to, believe it or not, was actually the same satellite that news networks like ABC, CNN and others use, and in the case of a HUGE emergency and I was given the order to do so, I actually had the ability to kick the news networks off it and take over the satellite for military use....lol. But what I think was the coolest thing, is that I was able to see the waveform for EVERY signal being sent through the satellite, everything from the signal floor where all the background noise is at that is mostly always there, to whatever signal was being pushed through it at the time. I didn't have the necessary things to view or listen to anything other then our own communications, but I could see the signals themselves such as which one was strongest, what frequency they were using, that sort of stuff.

@b4i4getjr

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your service Go NAVY!!!!

@chrislaws4785

2 жыл бұрын

@@b4i4getjr Oh, so you were one of THOSE people.....lol JK. Thanks for what you did too man. Oh and if you ex military too, I think you'd get a kick out of this guy's KZread channel, he makes fun of all the branches. kzread.infobCog5ehkHXU?feature=share

@dannybeckett01

2 жыл бұрын

awesome dude, that sat comms monitoring setup sounds so cool / interesting to use

@chrislaws4785

2 жыл бұрын

@@dannybeckett01 Oh it definitely was. It was the back of an entire truck full of equipment, took me a few MONTHS in training to really get a handle on what everything was and done. It was funny though, cause when we went to Iraq they said that if we were to be attacked and over ran that I was to destroy EVERYTHING in there. Most places had axes to smash things up with, but because the back of the truck was so cramped they gave me two thermite grenades and said if I had to, to pull the pins, throw em in and shut the door. Those thermite grenades would melt the whole truck to the ground....lol.

@chuckconnors615

2 жыл бұрын

@@chrislaws4785 Thermite is some radical shiet... Is it possible to piggyback into a satellite INTERNET signal... How much $$ would it cost little ole me average JOE?? I am in the Houston area..

Congrats on a great introduction. You really made it clear how easy it is to start out with it.

From a Lisle, IL resident I really enjoyed your video. I have had the SDR dongle for a year but have not had the time I would like to play with it. I hope to catch the local municipal depts. when I get better at using it.

Glad your channel showed up in my feed, really good info! Nicely presented. (gonna explore your other videos) I'm a ham and engineer and you touched on everything that's important, including getting the antenna tuned for the frequencies your interested in. I was wondering if you would go over that detail, I was pleased you did. At 8:30 on the station your tuned into on the right side of the spectrum, you can clearly see the digital sidebands of that station, broadcasting HD Radio, or IBOC. With those flattop signals with the FM carrier between the two. The other FM's in view don't have a hybrid digital signal included. Unfortunately the software can't tune into the digital HD Radio signals, mostly because of licensing issues.. I suspect there is professional software that could, but never looked into it. These SDR dongles are quite flexible, as one of the comments below says, you can monitor aircraft ADSB transponders with the same exact dongle, just different software!

A great video that I happened to stumble upon! I'm going to give that set up a shot; and you have quite the Man Cave going on there💪💪keep up the good work man average folks need the knowledge.

What an incredibly well-made video about something I had never heard of! I gotta get one.

Back when I was a high school student, I got one of my dad's old Heathkit general receivers working again. That radio was a little bit older than me and I remember picking up AFRS with it. I still have a Heathkit, not the same one, and a Realistic DX-440 but I'm in a condo and have no room for a proper antenna. I just bought one, too.

Thanks for sharing this info. In the 1960's when I was a kid I had a multi-band shortwave radio and it had all of those types of frequencies and I remember way back then I paid over $100 for that radio. For less than $40 you showed me I can use a usb device to do the same thing. Amazing! Now I can revisit my old hobby.

Well done video Sir! You took a complex topic and made it easy to comprehend and understand. I definitely will be saving this video! 👍

One of the coolest things I've seen. Very informative video! This may become the next hobby that I don't really have time for ;)

I used to build tube receivers, record Morse on a reel to reel,slow it down and decode it.That was many years ago. This tech is awesome.

@iwinrar5207

2 жыл бұрын

Lol toy might be showing your age a bit but that's damn cool man.

@larrybryant4827

2 жыл бұрын

Helpful

@Tsamokie

2 жыл бұрын

My first radio was a crystal detector set. That was around 60 years ago.

@littlepippin8445

2 жыл бұрын

I used to practice morse code in the Royal Air Force. A few hours of number cipher is SO MUCH FUN......

@mxplk

2 жыл бұрын

@@Tsamokie Same here

We used to do this in the early 2000's when the waves for dishing out and changing in Mississippi and Pennsylvania with our toughbooks. Came in handy on deployments. I still have a great SDR ant. Cost me $11.99 back in the day. Every Com Operator needs one. Love it.

I have listened to many KZread videos. As to voice, presentation and easy to listen to, I found yours to be one of the best

Just discovered this channel and subscribed. Really interesting topic. Going to buy this SDR and get started.

I am absolutely getting into this. Thank you for this highly informative and excellent video!⚡️💚⚡️🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟👍🏻🍻💻 📻

You HAVE whetted my appetite indeed, good sir.

Tom, I gotta admit man, you may be the smartest dude I've ever seen on YT. And I watch a lot of YT DIY videos, true crime, documentaries, just a lot of stuff. This was a fantastic video dedicated to something other than mugging for the camera and showing how to do your nails or make up. Bravo man.

Great video. It definitely sparked my interest. Lots of information presented in a professional and easy to follow manner. Thank you.

I learned something today. A good way to end a Friday.

That was an enjoyable and approachable presentation. Bravo. Even though part of my career involves tracking semiconductor trends, the thought that you can get a complete SDR, that small, ready to use, that can hit 1.7GHz for $40 just blows my mind. I've been doing SDRs for 1/3 century, but not everyone has my experience. One of my MSEE projects was a direct synthesis tuner up to 1 GHz (child's play, today, but back in 1989 it took a custom chip in an exotic technology called "ECL logic" to achieve the 3GHz clock needed. In 1989 CMOS was a "cute" low power technology that wasn't really fast enough to do much of anything) so $12 in 1980 money for twice that bandwidth without a stack of 12x9 inch PC boards and a 100W power supply is just incredible. For me, it's always easier to accept dramatic progress in fields I haven't worked in. Electric vehicles and autonomous cars going mainstream? Sure! SDR, speech recognition, or portable computers going from $5,000, 25lb, power-sucking boxes to $30, pocket sized, battery-powered devices? How? I worked on that: you "need" a lot of stuff to make it work!

@kirillvishnevsky6327

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers, friend with a cool last name ;)

@josephwisniewski3673

2 жыл бұрын

@@kirillvishnevsky6327 Same to you. Glad to have you in the clan.

@chobai9996

2 жыл бұрын

You know if it's possible to "upgrade" the receiver to be able to listen to things from across the world? Is it as simple as just changing out the antenna for something with more "umph", or would it be too complicated to use with an SDR set-up as an amateur?

@josephwisniewski3673

2 жыл бұрын

@@chobai9996 I believe you've replied to the wrong comment.

@chobai9996

2 жыл бұрын

@@josephwisniewski3673 no, just thought since you said you were skilled in this that maybe you would know lol

For your intended scope of SDR I think you did a great job of being able cover a fair amount without getting way off base or wasting time. I think you are a YT natural. Cheers

After watching your presentation, which was well presented, I went an ordered my RTL-SDR I already have a Sony ICF-SW7600GR, but this SDR looks and works so awesome, I couldn't resist! Thank you.

I had an old book of mine in my hand the other day - SOS at midnight form Walker A. Tompkins -, one of my childhood's favorites that made me dream and inspired me a big time, and I felt myself rehooked right away! I ordered an SDR the same minute. Thanks for introducing!

@TukiNem-hf8jb

Ай бұрын

Matin borlin Hoai yau

Thanks for a great introduction to SDR! I bought a dongle years ago, never got it to work worth $#!7 and gave up. You've made it look achievable and provided specific brands and programs which is a huge help. I will definitely give it a shot. And BTW, do you happen to know whether this SRD combo is compatible to receive wsjt-x signals? That would be an even bigger bonus (although of course more complex than only listening to audio). Thanks again -- great job!

@user-ot6fk7vs3n

6 ай бұрын

many free software programs available for different modes of operation

This was an unexpected algorithm spurred gem. Clear presentation, detailed, interesting, well paced. New fan. And I'll sub.

@TomtheDilettante

Жыл бұрын

Welcome aboard and glad you liked it. Thanks for the kind words.

What a great video! Can't wait to dive into this and use it on my travels.

These are truly awesome devices. Monitoring my gas and water meters in real time is nice. Sniffing smart electric meters is a whole other level though. The confidence of new radio folks have in the antenna length formula always gives me a chuckle.

@gregsmall541

2 жыл бұрын

Can I contact you somehow and pick your brain a little?

@RealityAudits

Жыл бұрын

what does monitoring the gas meter look like?

Great! Something else I didn't know I wanted....thanks a bunch!!

Nice, thanks mate! I bought a cheap SRS usb dongle a few years ago and never got it working. After watching your video, I had it working in minutes, lol. Thx again!

You describe and explain in detail and make it simple to understand. Thank you. 🙂

Thank you Tom for the SDR receiver stuff. I've been on Ham radio for about 40 years and have tried almost everything WB6TA. Now that I am house bound and all caught up with Netflix, this looks like something fun..

@TomtheDilettante

3 жыл бұрын

you finished Netflix!? That's an impressive feat :) my "watch list" just seems to keep growing. And then there's KZread with a bottomless pit of interesting content...hard to stay focused. Glad you enjoyed it! I plan on doing more with SDR as I learn it myself. I'm currently working on a video showing how I was able to get it to work on my Android phone thanks to viewer comments. 73! KD9PXF

@t3ck3r

3 жыл бұрын

@@TomtheDilettante Hi there. Speaking of rabbet holes; I was checking out videos on my new Midland Radio, and your video came up. Q) Can I use this on my tower computer? ( Old school I know) Also, looking forward to your video on Android phone.

@fiverZ

3 жыл бұрын

@@t3ck3r how is a proper computer "old school"?

@t3ck3r

3 жыл бұрын

@@fiverZ I thought everyone used cellphones and laptops now days. I don't know many people that use towers anymore.

SDR is a wonderful thing. The moment I've learned about people downloading SSTV images from the International Space Station I set myself a new challenge of learning about radio and build my own antenna. My first antenna was a QFH antenna which I still use to listen to ATC, track flights through ADSB, download weather images from NOAA satellites and occasionally, if there's an event, download images from the ISS. RTL-SDR is a wonderful little dongle. I really recommend a HackRF for more experienced users.

@Poop-nu1so

2 жыл бұрын

I am really interested in the ADS-B aspect, do you have any links where I can start? Thanks

I find myself once again down a rabbit hole. My list of projects keeps growing :-). Thank you for the excellent content!

@TomtheDilettante

Жыл бұрын

Very welcome! Thank you for watching! I hope you find it as entertaining as I have.

Hi Tom, of the many different topics that i usually watch on KZread, this is one of my favorite topic. I used be an electronics hobbyist during my school days. It was a pleasure watching this video, very informative and very well articulated. Good video, great work and thanks a ton. Regards karunakaran.

I don't know why the Google algorithm dropped this in my feed but it is the best video I've watched in a while. Tom, your delivery is refreshingly direct, concise, and informative. I'm SO tired of videos that spend 12 minutes of noise to deliver 30 seconds of signal. Your signal-to-noise ratio was very satisfying and you *definitely* met your stated goal of whetting my appetite to dig deeper. Also, as other comments have stated, that live visualization of broadcast bands was revelatory. At 50+ years old, I've never seen it illustrated so well. Yes, I understand that was the software doing the work but, darn it, *you* shoved me down the rabbit hole. Keep up the good work, whole I head over to Amazon to start yet another new hobby.

@TomtheDilettante

3 жыл бұрын

LOL! thanks for watching and the kind words! Yeah, the KZread algorithm is a mystery as well but I'm glad folks have enjoyed and found value in the content so far. It's been fun. Enjoy exploring fun radio stuff :) I've got lots more to learn myself but that's the fun part!

Never knew SDR existed before I saw this video. Great video presentation BTW. Looks like I'll have a new hobby soon!

@holden190

2 жыл бұрын

Get a Good antenna to listen to the HF ham bands.

@AldoSchmedack

2 жыл бұрын

SDR is epic! Try it!

@AD7BK2

2 жыл бұрын

@@holden190 The wire that he had in the video should work. The RTLs are very sensitive. But if you want to have a good antenna and if you have the space, put up a 1/4 wave antenna on the lowest band you want the most reception on. A 20' would cover all bands however longer the better. I am lucky and I was able to put up a 80m shortened dipole that covers all the bands. An antenna like that would work the best on all frequencies.

thank you Tom. you inspired me to buy this kit and dive deep into the sdr universe. cheers brazil.

I recently ordered the RTL SDR Blog V3 after a few tries with downloading the software I finally got it set up but I was having problems with the USB extension which didn't allow the dongle to work. I replaced the USB extension plugged in the dongle and it worked! I was inspired by your video to try this out, got some learning how to operate the radio but that's all part of the fun, thanks to your video!

Some radio restoration people use these as signal analyzers to help with their alignment & calibrating a sets RF & IF transformers. Now I know how to do this on the cheap too. Thanks

@TomtheDilettante

2 жыл бұрын

Nice. That makes sense and seems like yet another practical application of this little thing :) Thanks for sharing!

@chrissymonds1845

2 жыл бұрын

@@TomtheDilettante I got my dongle in the mail with the antennaá today I tried to dl drivers but my antivirus blocked them as a threat 22/10/21 Australia

@TomtheDilettante

2 жыл бұрын

@@chrissymonds1845 I’m sorry to hear that. I think mine warned me of the same. You should be able to circumvent your antivirus settings on your own computer is you would like to proceed.

@chrissymonds1845

2 жыл бұрын

@@TomtheDilettante I took the dongle to a tech to see if he could find a way to patch it or bypass the antivirus. I am not that savvy with computers

@sentineloffreedomforever1381

2 жыл бұрын

@@chrissymonds1845 try it upside down you're in Australia for God's sake

I've been doing this for a long time. I used it with plugins to listen to trunked Provoice (EDACS) systems. It worked wonders for years. I was in the Vancouver, B.C, Canada location. I am now in a small town (8500) in the British Columbia Interior. It's in the Thompson/Nicola area. A town called Merritt. We love it here. We are not that far from the whole city of Lytton that burnt up in a wildfire last Summer (2021). I've been into radio since 1964. I was 4 years old, and I built a crystal radio that I seen in a Popular Science/Mechanics magazine. I figured out by changing coil sizes, I could go into SW bands. I was addicted! I am now 62, and still going at it.

@aniquinstark4347

Жыл бұрын

I think radios were the catalyst for many of us. The idea of invisible waves carrying information fascinated a young me. I've been a tinkerer ever since.

@Connection-Lost

Жыл бұрын

You must have meant 14 years old. A 4 year old can barely form memories, let alone "build" anything greater than a pile of blocks. I've been around a while too and there's not a 4 year old on the planet that can "built a crystal radio" from a magazine.

@Sherry-jx9hs

Жыл бұрын

Do you have a Ham Ticket if not you surely should have had one, Getting i bit late to get it now but very easy to do

@SlickArmor

Жыл бұрын

@@Connection-Lost well since he has not replied back you just may have insulted him. You don't know there are genius savants out there that start much earlier than normal. He may have gotten into radios at 3 and it took until he was 4 to build a crystal radio. I know I built my first crystal from a kit at the hobby store when I was 9. It's not that far fetched that he started 5 years sooner..is it?

@bleepbleep1961

Жыл бұрын

@@Connection-Lost You are full of mis-truths !!! There are MANY young children that possess excellent technical skills VERY early in their lives ... The word "Savant" is echoing in my brain right now ... but I'm not sure why .... I must Google it ....

great video, clear and concise with visual aids. I am going to get the parts mentioned and start listening!

Hey Tom, thanks for a great little intro! When I would be out ocean kayak touring on the coast, I would have the VHF weather report going... funny how relaxing I found that. What a great price point to tinker with.

I have an RTL-SDR like yours ($35) and had SDR# installed and all working beautifully. Windows had an update today and installed a nice RTL2832U driver for me; Microsoft is so good at these things. It took me hours to get it working again. The good news: 1. I’ve wanted the new version of SDR# anyway since I saw yours and 2. Now I’m real good at installing SDR#.

@chrissymonds1845

2 жыл бұрын

do you have an update I just got mine in the mail 10/22/21 but I can't find a driver that works my laptop won't me download the drivers says its a security threat and blocks the app

@19mitch54

2 жыл бұрын

@@chrissymonds1845 Download SDR# from the airspy link in the notes to this KZread video and download the User Guide. It has instructions for using zadig to install the driver. Zadig is the software tool you use to replace the Windows driver that doesn’t work.

@chrissymonds1845

2 жыл бұрын

@@19mitch54 thank you got it

I've been looking into SDR off and on for a couple of years, finally ordered a Nooelec NESDR Smart v4 bundle earlier today

@andrewcool4587

3 жыл бұрын

I’d like to know how it works with Linux

@reallifelima7951

3 жыл бұрын

@@andrewcool4587 I haven't tried it yet but I will be. I ended up ordering a 2nd to get SDRTrunk working on Windows 10 for now

@granite-headgold1038

2 жыл бұрын

@@andrewcool4587 All the RTL based devices work just fine with Linux; they have for years.

Thanks for that Tom! I'm trying to get my lad into basic electronics and something like this might do the trick.There's a whole world of radio noise out there we're not aware of and it is super fun to find out about it.

I'm getting one! I'm taking the Technician exam next week and currently have the FT-3DR handheld. As a Chicago native, I'm glad to see you're holding up: I was in elementary school at the time of the 1967 blizzard.

@lb3406

3 жыл бұрын

Good luck with technician ham I need to study for general class. I have a chinese hand held.

@darylnd

3 жыл бұрын

@@lb3406 Thanks! Good luck with your General: I'm studying for it now. KN6NPZ, 73!

@lb3406

3 жыл бұрын

@@darylnd I will when I take care of family issues. My wife's father just passed away.

@darylnd

3 жыл бұрын

@@lb3406 My condolences to you and your family. I lost my father-in-law in 2013, my father in 2014.

@lb3406

3 жыл бұрын

@@darylnd I lost my father before the turn of the century in 1999. My father in law was the last oldest child of his family and lived the longest at 88 and a half. My mother in law took good care of him with meals and snacks kept the weight off most of his brothers were overweight when they died. Thanks it's hard on my wife especially when we drive and pass by where he worked. I may try a different route.

I have used RTL-SDR tuners for several years now. I have used it to monitor many different things. Some of the things I find coolest are more of the digital uses. One such use is ADS-B, which allows you to track aircraft. As to listening to public safety communication, more and more public safety entities are going to digital trunked radio systems. In the past, most public safety agencies were using traditional FM radio transmissions. Each channel requires a unique frequency; with a repeater, it is two frequencies per radio talk channel. If you need more channels, you will need many more frequencies. The chances of each frequency being used for a city simultaneously is pretty low, but a city or county is going to need several police talk groups, many fire talk groups, including numerous tactical groups. You also have parks and recreation, animal control, street maintenance and any other service you can think of that wants to communicate on the radio. This quickly escalates. With a digital trunked radio network, you can have a system with 5-30 frequency pairs for hundreds, if not thousands of unique talk groups. If the audio is already a digital signal, you can easily add encryption and it makes absolutely no difference in the audio quality for the end user, albeit, with an SDR you can't hear it. I have been using SDRTrunk (github.com/DSheirer/sdrtrunk) to listen to my city's radio network. I have also used the same software to feed the audio to Broadcastify, so people that do not have such a setup can take advantage of my SDR radio. Yes, there are radio scanners that can listen to these systems, BUT SDRTrunk is far superior than a much more expensive dedicated digital trunk-tracking scanner. Why? Because with the scanner, you can only hear one conversation at a time. With my setup, I can listen to all I want to listen and I will never miss any traffic. Broadcastify has two different platforms for sharing and listening and I simultaneously provide audio to both platforms with SDRTrunk. One plays all police primary channel audio and all fire talkgroups. If two are broadcasting at the same time, one platform will cache the audio until the conversation is finished and then play the cached audio. The other Broadcastify platform is the new Calls platform. This allows the listener to choose which talkgroups they wish to listen to, not just one audio stream. If there is an exciting fire incident and you don't want to be interrupted by an unrelated report of a neighbor complaint on the police primary channel, you can choose to only listen to fire traffic.

@gregorybathurst7171

Жыл бұрын

Listening in on other people's broadcast to me it's Quite voyeuristic just creepy behavior. Like haven't you anything better to do other than spy in on conversations not intended for you .

@eco_logic

Жыл бұрын

@@gregorybathurst7171 bro ham is public space just like internet and some want to put rules on those invaluable decentralized systems.

@Miami7

6 ай бұрын

I went to the link and got a 404, guess it's not there anymore....

@jbriggs10

3 ай бұрын

​@@Miami7try typing in the url

@CHIPSpeaking

Ай бұрын

@@gregorybathurst7171 ALL public service frequencies should be left UNENCRYPTED, then leave police, fire, sheriffs, federal law enforcement, and any I may have missed complete clarity an openness for the accountability to taxpayers. Only when authorized, encrypted traffic for undercover only. Anyone transmitting on Public frequency groups should know not to broadcast sensitive information. You should think like an adult.

Thanks, as someone just starting to take interest in ham radio and considering getting licensed, I found this video extremely helpful. I've just been trying to play around and learn by using a Baofeng to receive. Each book or video I've looked into for getting a Technician license just uses a "memorize the question pool answers" approach; but I don't just want to pass a test. I want to understand what I'm doing, why, and how it works. Watching this video gave me the idea that I could use this SDR setup as a sort of learning sandbox. I can make sense of all the nuance a lot faster if I can see visualizations of what I'm doing instead of only being able to listen.

Love your channel....found it suddenly and glad I did.

How cool this is aside… I just want to appreciate how good you are at producing high quality videos. Not often you see this level on KZread. Also… you wouldn’t know about military transitions e.g fighters, assuming they are 100% inaccessible. And do you know any cool stuff to listen to in the UK? Thanks

That's really cool. My grandfather was really into Ham radio and I regret not learning about it before he passed in 2019.

@normaneustice1112

3 жыл бұрын

Seriously, it's not that difficult to get started in Ham radio. Yes you have to study for your ticket but most of your learning comes after that. Give it a go I've been a Ham for 18 years now & I'm still learning, I've made friends all over the world, made my own gizmos, antennas etc. You may be entitled to inherit your Grandfather's callsign, now that would be cool. 73's De M0NJE (England)

@williammorse8330

3 жыл бұрын

hello - your granddad probably left some stuff behind that you can explore and research at leisure.... hence, your granddad lives.... 73, Bill, KE1LC

@fjb4932

2 жыл бұрын

"When a person dies, a library burns down." ...

This was a wakeup call for me to start catching up with the technology that is out there. Thank you for sharing this video.

Well done (clear, succinct, etc.). Thanks for taking the time.

Thank you for this. Very interesting. I'll pass this to a family member who messes around with ham radios. By the way, ever heard of Radio Garden? You can listen to radio ( FM and such) by rotating the globe and select stations from different countries. Pretty neat!

You remind me of Orson Welles!! Wonderful voice and presentation 👏

Excellent presentation. Professional. Upbeat. Informative. Many years ago I worked at 5th group in a signal detachment. Your presentation reminds me of the 18E's who are commo masters. Great job! Thanks.

@TomtheDilettante

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you!

Great video!!! I'm super stoked!!! I'm definitely going to get this. I also share it with my 83 year old dad.

This was a great video! I didn't imagine that this could be so affordable. Looking into getting a dongle soon!

@archygrey9093

3 жыл бұрын

The ones that are capable of transmitting are also amazingly cheap

@CoreDreamStudios

2 жыл бұрын

@@archygrey9093 What ones can transmit and how does one get a license to do so? I am mid-south.

@archygrey9093

2 жыл бұрын

@@CoreDreamStudios ones like HackRF for example can transmit, though they are pretty short range, few other examples too i cannot remember the name of, look up "SDR Transmitter" or "SDR Transeiver" and you will probably find a few. Needing a license to transmit depends on what frequency you are transmitting on, some require a license, some don't and some frequencies are illegal to transmit on even with a license, it depends on your area. You say you are mid south, i assume you must be talking about mid south in America or something, I'm Australian so i wouldn't be able to help you with your laws or how to get a license.