The Coolest Radio You've Probably Never Heard Of

Software Defined Radio (or SDR) is one of those things that I never knew existed as I was getting into the radio hobby. After learning about it, it's one of the coolest radios in my humble communications arsenal.

In this video I want to introduce you to SDR, and share just the slightest glimpse of what it has to offer in the hope that it inspires others to get into it and learn more.

SDR Dongle (Affiliated links. The cost is the same to you but if you use this link I may earn a small commission on the purchase from Amazon to help support this channel):

Related Videos:

SDR Installation Instructions / Tutorial:

SDR Beginner's Guide:

SDR# (SDR Sharp) Software (free)

Finding Radio Frequencies:

[gali]

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.

[tomawboss]

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!

[termiterasin]

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.

[pellepop]

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!

[husain_tulachannel]

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

[JustinRopella]

I saw this video for the first time in October 2022. Since then, I credit this video with:
* me getting a scanner
* getting my HAM license
* several radio purchases
* 2x pistar hotspots

[thewarrior]

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.

[RoamFree]

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!

[samuelelder]

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

[talkstoaliens]

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!

[MrLuanDo]

Thanks for the SDR radio video! No wasting time and unnecessary editorials! No loud background music! You are the man!

[mikej]

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.

[firemanbif]

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

[juliebraden]

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."

Youtube would be incredible with more honesty like this. Thank you.

[chrislaws]

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.

[Skywatcher]

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.

[donwright]

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.

[Rev-]

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

[AndrewCalhoun]

I remember back when I was reading about directional antennas for wi-fi (look up "cantenna" and "war driving" for reference), the info I found sounded like the 'weakest link' of a typical external WiFi antenna setups was the coaxial cable between the antenna and the (WiFi) transciever.
For instance, from what I read, connecting an external antenna to your computer's WiFi adapter using 15 feet of a common coax type used for WiFi (LMR100) loses roughly 6 dB of the signal picked up by the antenna. Since each 3dB of signal loss roughly cuts signal strength in half, this 15 feet of this particular cable type only delivers about 25% of the signal captured by the antenna to the WiFi adapter.
In the event that a setup like the one used in this video leaves one or more desired transmitters simply too weak to pick up with this radio, you might want to try replacing the coaxial cable with a $6 USB extension cable (A-male to A-female) which will allow you to move the dongle closer to the antenna, and allowing you to connect the antenna directly to the USB dongle (simply getting rid of the coax cable in between).
Even if this does not allow you to listen to radio signals that were too weak before, a USB extension cable like this will most likely exert less mechanical stress on your computer's USB port than a big, fat dongle does over time, and will be less likely to block access to adjacent USB ports on the same computer. If you've ever had a USB port on a laptop become useless after using a big dongle with it over time, you know how much leverage a long dongle like that can exert on a USB port that is anything but simple to replace for most people.

[larstenfaelt]

The video is brilliant in two ways....how to get started but also why the metric system is so brilliant.