I Broke My HackRF Portapack! Here's How Not to

The HackRF Portapack is a handheld SDR transceiver, capable of manipulating radio waves, decoding digital signals and giving you an insight into the invisible electromagnetic world around us. It does however suffer from a huge flaw, that can render it apparently completely unable of receiving anything. Also learn how to use the gains settings LNA, VGA and Amp on your HackRF Portapack.

The Clifford Heath edition of the HackRF Portapack, which is shown in this video, has been provided to me for free by OpenSourceSDR Lab.

0:00 Intro
0:44 LNA, VGA and Amp gains
2:17 RX Saturation tip
2:56 The amp is the big problem
3:42 How to check if your amp is fried
4:30 How to avoid your amp breaking
5:14 The solution?
6:24 The Clifford Heath edition of HackRF
7:35 Outro

[TalkingSasquach]

You broke yours before I broke mine! I think that means I'm not using it enough!

[TheGeekiestGuy]

Thank you for making this for folks. I know most people delving into radio, having don't have a background in ham radio, so they're not aware of the pitfalls of using the internal amp and whatnot. I have an external LNA i use with my helical antenna for satellite stuff.
I keep wanting to do more content on this stuff. Until then, I'll keep sending folks to your channel. 🤙🏾

[Koutsie]

Coming from Janus Cycle, your channel is gold now that I've watched a few videos 🎉

[theTeknoViking]

Great information! Thank you for sharing!
Love from Stockholm, Sweden <3

[zacki]

yes, but the clifford addition comes with it's own downsides, greatscott tested it and showed the results on their site (but didn't call it clifford by name). i've independently tested and got the same results as them, there is a 15-20db loss on the upper and higher bands, and a 10db across the entire range. it's pretty significant, but does reduce chances of blowing your amp.

[idgn]

Just ordered mine after years of wanting one. Thank you for the info!

[bukucsjozsef]

Both of TX and RX amp is MGA81563 (at least in my board). Of my hrf the TX amp broken. Fortunately sold on ebay, and not too difficult to replace.

[GabrielRocha-jl]

how do I properly ground it to remove static buildup?

[markandrews]

Any chance of doing a comparison of the HackRF and the BladeRd 2.0 xA4

[ceefusjenkins]

Thanks for the info. I just bought mine yesterday so hopefully I can avoid this.

[davidbird]

Hi I have an early version of the hack RF and a portapack .
But unfortunately it got distorted when plugged into be charged
Is there any where I can have it repaired or replaced .
Regards David Bird ?

[TheFekke]

I had this happen to my TX RF amplifier, but fortunately the MMIC's used in the HackRF are pretty easy to replace

[davidbird]

If I can not get it repaired or replaced .
Where do I buy the best latest complete version @ the best price
Perhaps AliExpress?.

[_Delos_]

Does the Clifford version work just as well as the GSG version for the portapack? Asking because I am about to order the board for the build.

[ingohauff]

Thank you. Your channel is great. 73 👍

[siljanjrgensen]

Spørsmål: må du ha de 2 antenne greiene i bånn eller kan du ta de av eller klippe de av ?

[erickkang]

Are there any downsides to the Clifford version?

[misqpl]

so which one is it ? I went to the web page (followed your link) and there are so many of them .

[D_Z_AZ]

If I order the new Clifford board I assume it is compatible with existing portapack? My amp is shot but want to make sure I can just swap out the hackRF board with current portapsck/case etc. I’m guessing so just wanted clarification.

[isfeh]

are you happy with the 433 antenna in this video? it looks good. is it omnidirecitonal and most importantly where to get one?