![]() ![]() Specifically, I’d like you to note one element I discussed in that article: the vital importance identifying your goals as an SDR owner. Times have changed dramatically indeed, the pace of innovation in this craft is simply amazing.īefore we begin looking at some choice sub-$200 SDRs, I’d just like to direct your attention to the first part of our SDR Primer ( click here to read). Today, even a $100 SDR has more features, more frequency range, and more functionality than a $1000 SDR from just a decade ago. And these modestly-priced products have made the barrier of entry into the SDR world crumble overnight. Yet in the past three years, affordable SDRs have become the dominant radio product on the market. That was only a few years ago, in 2010 or so. When I first jumped into the world of SDRs, the least expensive SDR that covered any of the bands below 20 MHz was about $500. We’re lucky to live in a time of phenomenal radio innovation. For less than the price of a typical full-featured shortwave portable, you can own an SDR that covers almost all of the listening spectrum, and that does so with excellent performance characteristics. If there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from this part of our primer, it’s that SDRs are truly affordable. We’ll cover Part Three in November, and we’ll dive a little deeper into the rabbit hole and cover higher-end SDRs and ham radio transceivers with embedded SDRs. ![]() While last month’s Part One focused on the nomenclature and components of a functioning SDR system, Part Two will take a look at some affordable SDR station options that will propel you into the world of SDRs for less than $200 US. Last month we covered Part One of our three-part primer on software-defined radios (SDRs). The following article originally appeared in the July 2018 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine: The $22 RTL-SDR paired with a Raspberry Pi and employed as an ADS-B receiver/feeder.
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