V3 R860 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO SMA Software Defined Radio (Dongle Only) (Black)

works great using the rtl_433 addon in Home Assistant!

I've only used this for a couple hours now, but man was this easy to set up and awesome to use. It is very fun to visually see and navigate through the radio signals. It took me less than 10 minutes using their quick start guide on rtl-sdr.com/qsgI gained confidence before purchasing this device from all the positive reviews of course and mainly their website. The website is easy to navigate and I was overjoyed to see how detailed the troubleshooting guide was, so if I ran into any problems I could very likely find a solution. It is nice to see such a detailed troubleshooting page with pretty much any possible problem that could happen with this device. Anytime I jump into a DIY project i'm afraid I will have to use google for 3-4 hours to find a solution. I only ran into one problem during set up with the software and that was on the step that said to run the batch file in the extracted folder of the SDR# software. Probably because I am on a Domain computer with security settings that prevent batch files from running. Well in that same step on their quick start guide they had a link to manually install the drivers instead which only took a minute to do. I followed the rest of the steps. Plugged in the RTL-SDR with my ICOM female SMA antenna from my HAM radio and sure enough it came alive instantly. I was amazed at how easy it was to set up. I turned up the gain in the software and I could start finding random HAMs in my area and various repeaters. I couldn't find any HF signals probably due to my antenna. Their website suggests getting a planar disk antenna or a discone antenna for listening on nearly any frequency between 25Mhz and 1300Mhz. My HAM rubber duckie antenna with this picked up a lot of signals from local FM radio, 136Mhz-900Mhz.This is definitely an awesome buy for the price of $17. I just bought a Uniden BC125AT handheld radio scanner for $110 earlier this week. It is a handy device since it is portable, but it has only a small portion of the frequency range compared to SDR. For $110 it isn't worth it for what it does so I am definitely returning it after playing with this thing. I'm excited to experiment more with it to find other neat uses for SDR.I highly recommend getting a USB extension cable for this device so you can have enough cable to work with. I happened to have a 10ft USB Amazon extension cable I bought a couple months ago that works perfectly for this. Since I am using this with a rubber duckie antenna it is about a foot long sticking out of the computer. Not an ideal location for this since it wouldn't fit well behind the computer and I would likely break it if it was sticking out the front of the computer. It would even be good for a laptop since all laptop USB ports stick straight out the side. A USB extension cable allows you to place the device and antenna in a much better location. My last recommendation for full use of this is a discone antenna as the company suggests or something better than a simple rubber duckie or whip antenna. This thing is too cool to only use it with a rubber duckie. Just buy it!

A classic SDR, very popular. I'm a beginner so I have much to learn about RX. Is fun, but my software isn't intuitive. I like the bias tee function baut currently not using that.Start of a great hobby.

It took me about 10 minutes of fiddling to get the software and driver (that was the difficult part) installed. This little device, about the size of a 9-volt battery or a cigarette lighter receives radio signals over a broad range of frequencies very, very well. I can receive signals on this as good as I can on a ham radio that costs around twenty or so times as much.You need some type of external antenna for really good reception. I hooked it to a ham radio antenna I have here and had no problem hearing stateside and foreign stations clearly. The user interface is a bit clunky, in my opinion, but not too hard to operate. What I dislike is probably because I am used to using radios with knobs and buttons, rather than clicking on arrows.Definitely a useful product for people interested in listening to radio signals, from Ham stations to police and even FM broadcast stations.

It is amazing what this little device (and the appropriate software) can do! I use the free version of SDR# to scan and listen to the VHF / UHF bands. The reception and sensitivity are excellent in this range. HF, on the other hand, doesn't work so well. I've never had much luck below 30Mhz. You'll need an excellent antenna and maybe even a preample to use this for HF, and personally I think there are better custom solutions for HF reception. But as a VHF / UHF software defined radio, this little dongle is absolutely amazing!Pro Tip - use a long USB cable to add some distance between the dongle and your computer. For the best reception, plug the dongle directly into your antenna and use the USB cable in place of coax. This both removes line loss and greatly reduces any RFI from your computer!

Excellent for my SDR P25 scanner. A couple of these and some free software and you have a CHEAP P25 police scanner, short wave receiver, ADS-B Plane mapper, Weather satellite recorder, FM stereo, and a NUMBER of other radio receivers!If you've ever even WONDERED what you can pick up on radio, these will let you know!!

I have the v4 version as well as this, the v3. While the v4 gets the job done, the v3 appears to work better than the newer version. I run an ADSB receiver, the v4 the max range was 103, and the average was 67. I decided to buy the v3, range is now 127 miles, average is 81. I ended up using the v4 for 978.You can’t wrong with either one, but the v3 works better in my setup.

Has worked and held up good for a couple years. I use it with a adapter to plug into my Android tablet. The unit does get hot while in use but has not caused any issues.