RTL-SDR Banggood Kit

[ken]

Not really sure if I've got this in the correct place but if not could a kind moderator move it for me. I have bought and built one of these kits.

https://m.banggood.com/100KHz-1_7GHz-Ful...ether-auto

It was down to arround £15 for a while but I see its up to just over what I paid.
It is quite a fiddley kit to build. You have to partly dismantle a dongle and build it into another pcb. I managed to drop a small smd led on my shed floor. I've still not found it.
Used a 3 mm one as it fitted. The kit is built and works. I'm using it with an android TV box. However, I cannot find a free decent SDR app although I have found drivers. I would therefore like to ask anybody using SDR to recommend a good apk for android. It would be better if it was free but does not have to be. I don't use widows but if there is any good software I can run on linux I'd like to know about that as well.

Regards,

Ken

[Murphyv310]

Hi Ken
I use an SDR with both Linux and an old PC on XP. No idea of Android. Mostly I use GQRX.
Feel free to drop over at anytime and I'll show you my set up.

[ken]

Hi Trevor,
I do have an old machine with XP on it but because I don't use it much I takes a good while before it's usable. I have ubuntu mate on it as well. Is there a version of Linux that is especially good for sdr. I don't think that the tiny antenna that came with the kit is much good either. Thanks for the offer to see your setup. I will take you up on that. I'll bring my
kit with me.

Regards,

Ken.

[Murphyv310]

Hi Ken.
Try this Linux Distro. https://sourceforge.net/projects/skywavelinux/
It works well enough but needs a reasonable specced PC and is a little fiddly.
Also GQRX can be used on Mint & Ubuntu see here: http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu
Hope this is of some use.

[ken]

Hi Trevor,
I now have it working on the android tv box. It runs android 6. The software is SDR Touch. You also need the driver and a key. I've only managed to get it to work on broadcast FM and NBFM. TV probably works but I'm using the antenna it came with so when I scan it doesn't detect any channels. It uses miniature plugs so I'll need to find a way to connect my uhf aerial to it. Thanks for the links. Believe it or not the tv box is better spec'd than the machine than the one I have XP and ubuntu on.

Regards,

Ken.

[Nick]

They should be SMA or possibly RP-SMA (SMA with the male & female parts swapped).

You can buy SMA/RP-SMA to BNC etc. adapters very cheaply on eBay and elsewhere.

   

[ken]

That's them Nick. I'll look on the net. Ideally I like the adapter to go to female coax.

Regards,

Ken.