Trying a cheap SDR for CB Radio. Nooelec RTL +AM broadcast filter. Part 3

Finally getting somewhere with a Nooelec RTL NESDR SMArt V5 +AM broadcast filter. Thanks for all the advice. I am still digesting it. More to come on later videos.

[@fitcher-armchair-sleuth]

Wow, they are strong .. kd2c has website .. The HPF-4 is a high pass filter designed to reduce the RF signal levels below 1.8 MHz. The HPF-4 is effective in reducing or eliminating interference caused from nearby AM broadcast transmitters. The HPF-4 will strongly attenuate signals below the 160 meter amateur band. Impedance: 50 Ohms, Maximum Power: 250W, Attenuation Range: .1 - 1.8 MHz, Insertion Loss: .25dB, SWR: 1.1 - 1.2, Case: Diecast Aluminum Alloy, Connectors: SO-239 .. 75 USA kc's ..

[@simonappleby4224]

Hey Fred. You have to remember that these dongles and the software is very very fragile and you have to have ultimate patience with them. It took me ages to get mine to work on digital mode and even having the volume set a bit high made it crash. Also if you TX near the laptop it will also crash. I use SDR# and am dreading having to re install it when I need to replace the computer! It's great that there are these devices out there that are affordable and we are able to play around with them. Keep the videos coming. 73's Simon.

[@billmorrison4746]

Sounded good Fred, lots of potential there.

[@steelheadplayer]

Glad to see you have got the NooElec v5, as you have found it is a big step up in performance from the cloned stuff, your CB antenna will work fine on the ham 10 and 12m bands, now imagine how much better the rsp1a is :) . I feed mine via a 3 way antenna switch so it has a choice of a g5rv, a 10m vertical and a D-777. Next step is to install an SDR RF sense switch so I can TX at 100w and it isolates the SDR front end so it doesn't get destroyed, that effectively means using the SDR as the receiver with all the added facilities it has, especially being able to see all the activity on the band at once. SDRUNO software with an RSP device will also allow you two way control of the radio, so you can change frequency either from the radio dial or the computer, your FT-450 can be controlled through the CAT socket on the rear. -Mark

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Its a fun side of radio for sure. Seems its about 70% trying to get the software side of things set up correctly. Been jumping through hoops trying to get that RSP1 clone to work. Still not there yet.

[@steelheadplayer]

@@CB-RADIO-UK How well does the clone work on vhf/uhf ?

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Not tired any on UHF yet. Once iam happy with the software side i will try.

[@SolitaryBro]

Yes! Success! Thanks for the videos mate..

[@KarlWitsman]

That was not bad for a filter. Much better. I also live near a similar station (within 8 blocks) and SDRUno for the RSP1a strains all those AM/FM stations in the software. What doesn't strain out, I can block out with the 4 adjustable blockers. The trouble with the cheaper dongles is that now you need a filter, and another, etc. and they end up costing you as much as the RSP SDRs in the long run.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Yes your spot on about the costing.

[@z1100a2]

As always an excellent video Fred. Isn't it amazing that the commercial broadcasters are allowed to have their signals (harmonically) bleeding into the amateur bands. And yet if radio amateurs or 11m operators were causing such harmonic interference in the broadcast bandsthen you'd really be in trouble.... Makes you think - one rule for us but not the commercial stations.

[@ianwalker1182]

The problem is in the receiver producing intermodulation of the MW signals, that is why a HPF is able to reduce them. If they were harmonics from the transmitter the HPF would have no effect, besides, the AM sideband would also be multiplied and shifting the modulation to much higher frequencies.

[@624radicalham]

These are not harmonics lol, for God's sake. People writing comments spewing things without a clue. Delete your comment

[@z1100a2]

Just been thinking about your long wire for shortwave listening. The whole of the HF Amateur Bands are in the shortwave frequencies. So if you use a 49:1 Unun and a Half Wave End Fed length of wire, it'll work fantastic. The wire length can only be, 10m, 20m or 40m long. The resistance of these lengths is approx 2500 Ohms, if you divide this by 49 you get 51 Ohms, which is almost a perfect match for your receiver / SDR. Also far less hassle than using a 9:1 and trying to work out the correct 'random' wire length that isn't harmonically related to any band. A 9:1 will only match on multiple bands if you use a tuner. A 49:1 will match many bands without a tuner - for receive only.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Thanks for the advice. I do have a balun which i got a few years back but ive no idea what rating it is. I will prob just run out a wire to test first and go from there.

[@miggy999]

Hi Fred. I also have one of these NooElec dongles, and am using a Discone in the loft (so nowhere near good as your Antron). I'm an not expert nor do I have a strong broadcast antenna near me, but having just compared SDRSharp alongside HDSDR, the HDSDR is much clearer for me with less spurious signals. May be worth a try. Also, I thoroughly your content and you have encouraged me back to radio... Now with SS6900N

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Hi Neil. Thanks for the advice. Glad you have a 6900. Just in time for the madness of skip that will be coming soon.

[@simonappleby4224]

I made a coax antenna and it works great.

[@dnel83]

I've had problems with FM overload before but nowhere as bad as that! You could stack another AM filter in line to bring down that really strong signal further. This should let you pull in weaker signals than you're able to right now due to the limits of the RTL-SDR's dynamic range. An Airspy HF Discovery would perform better in your situation so consider that as an upgrade option if you decide to.

[@Greg-et2dp]

Frid in the shed I hope you get your sdf working

[@fredbos5997]

Just keep on going Fred!

[@SimonBlandford]

I managed to get the cheap 12-bit multi-input SZ-PLZ dongle work on a Mac using a program called SDRangel and I think I had to install the SDR Play driver.Took a good afternoon or two to figure out how to use SDRangel, its not the easiest software to get along with but its cross platform so I assume it would work just as well on PC as Mac. I haven't had the chance to plug it into a decent antenna yet so I don't know how it would perform right next to AM broadcast transimtters on MW. It only has one input for 0-30MHz so I'm guessing it would still suffer.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

I think if your close to a transmit tower all these SDR's will suffer to a degree. They are wide open on receive. The software can be a bit tough.

[@SpeccyMan]

The old saying "buy cheap, buy twice" rings true every time. I find myself thinking about getting one of the purpose designed SDR's myself. Costlier maybe, but more support and better quality are sometimes worth that extra cost.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Yes Nick your right. Its not worth the hassle just to save a tenner.

[@marcmackay6464]

Fred its Marc CT4703, just get the sdr play, i have one on a 43inch monitor and its amazing mate. ill give you a shout on the 305 when im down your way next.. 73s

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

LOL. Iam trying to bring this in for around a £50 set up cost for newbee's

[@richard180961]

I found Airspy a little confusing, as the slider titles are above, rather than below, and so tend to adjust the wrong slider. Also seems a little buggy in the Frequency manager section. when clicking on a saved station, does not always change from FM/AM & sometimes displays the wrong frequency in the scale, have to restart software, or unplug and reconnect the dongle. I found SDR++ very good, which doesn't appear to have these issues. Will be interested in listening in on the remote server, if I can get that function working.

[@Greg-et2dp]

Frid in the shed your cheap sdr is cool 😎 👌 👍 😀 😉 😄 😎 👌 👍

[@boxingday11]

Fred, try running your antenna through an ATU, that should cut some of the harmonics, worth a go. Power to the thumb 👍🏻.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Thanks. Do not own a tuner though.

[@eddtheduck2011]

fred have you made sure direct sampling is disable and not set to q input q branch that setting is for shortwave 25mhz and below if it is you will have am radio stations on 27mhz

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Hi. It would only work in qbranch. Nothing else works.

[@eddtheduck2011]

@@CB-RADIO-UK ok mate

[@Chris-tx9ou]

Fred ive noticed you have the bandwidth set at 22,430 which is huge a bit like leaving the barn doors wide open you would need to change this setting for the various modes and RX your looking for. i think for 27 mhz its 5khz spacing im sure someone will correct if wrong. These take time to set up and work well after a lot of faffing

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Thanks Chris.

[@ronleblanc9832]

curious if the filter housing was grounded would it work better ???

[@26TM034]

try the long wire but remember a big loop will be lower qrn noise floor lower... a big loop doubled around the loft... perfect.. for great rx 0 to 30... sometimes am radio from US 1000 to 2000 hz.. AM... etc

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Thanks for the tip!

[@johnvijver3815]

direct sanpling needs to be turnerd off, thats only below 24mhz.

[@davidelrick3131]

U said that signal bleeding was am but isn't am transmitters slowly being turned off for dab radio so wouldn't that null out am filter soon

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Yes thats true. Pity really but it might help QRM.

[@RingwayManchester]

Great stuff as always Fred. Nice nod to brookmans too. Went there with Andy Kirby last year.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Spoke to Andy on SSB last week.

[@ChaplainJoe1]

Hey Fred, looks to me like your best bet is going to be adding a directional antenna to null out those broadcasters. As much as I dislike recommending Chinese products, have a look at the MLA-30 magnetic loop. Using it with your filters should give much better performance with all your SDR gadgets. Your random wire is going to give you more of the same issues as gain increases on harmonics of whatever your wire ends up being resonant on. Beware of clones. 73's

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Thanks Van. Yes a cheap mag loop is on my wish list for later in the year.

[@ronjeromy]

I think you have to stop the device to be able to change the sampling mode

[@Greg-et2dp]

Frid in the shed Iam thinking about getting hand held am fm cb with ssb

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Greg they are very limited.

[@Greg-et2dp]

Frid in the shed I am going to try online kiwi sdrs

[@OCDASDA]

Great video Fred well done, can't wait for the next video, i am waiting for you to have it all set up so i can try the same with a wire and know i am doing it right. I bought a nooelec balun from amazon for about £17.00 As usual no instructions ie i wasn't sure if the wires needed to be a certain length hence why i will wait to see what length you use for a good reception. I have also been unsure about where i put the grd wire on the balun, ie do i just run one wire out from the antenna at a certain length and the grd wire at a certain length (and height) or does the grd wire need to go to ground or a shield? NooElec Balun One Nine - Tiny Low-Cost 1:9 HF Antenna Balun with Antenna Input Protection for Ham It Up, SDR and Many Other Applications Thank you for all your videos.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Hi Gary. If you look down the comment some one left some good advice concerning baluns. They recon a 49:1 would get the wire at around 50 ohms. Not sure on the length yet. Once iam happy with the software side i will be trying a long wire.

[@OCDASDA]

@@CB-RADIO-UK Thank you Fred, looking forward to your next video

[@Greg-et2dp]

Frid in the shed I learn lot from you about CBS radios

[@rivit90]

try usb 5055mhz usb its shannon volmet its spot on frequency and will allow you to calibrate the frequency spot on

[@ClickinChicken]

Now that I'm actually listening to you; I've never heard of CB radio. odd. Your in the big leagues! wow, that's exciting.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Surprised CB radio went by you. Are you luck enough to be young Brian ?

[@19TC504]

i think if you change the antenne to a wired antenna those AM signals get less 2

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Yes a long wire would reduce them for SW. However that would also reduce 11m.

[@LeeDonaghy]

i'd like to see you use the sdrplay clone, seems silly when you don't have a problem using non type approved CB's and using more than the legal power. i have 2 legit SDRplays RSP2PRO and an RSP1A it would be interesting to compare them. i do expect the clones to be worse.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Hi Lee. Yes i will be trying the cheap clone soon. I think it will most likely perform much the same as the first clone but you never know.

[@sutitigi101]

Hi, off topic, but just lost my main KZbin account, just closed the account, done nothing wrong, any else had this issue, can't respond to the Google email, very odd.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

I find it odd that KZbin would close your account without emailing a warning. Has someone hacked your account and closed it ?

[@sutitigi101]

@@CB-RADIO-UK very odd, i sent a reply to you yesterday, talking about the issue, seems youtube took it off.

[@sutitigi]

@@CB-RADIO-UK Hello, got my account back, after 2 days wait, for Google to respond, no info on why it was removed, just a email saying i have my account back📢

[@nils-erikkarlsson7829]

Hello zello on ti radio mobil IS for frekvens to on or IS call ti zello

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Hi the radio in the video here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIKVomSsrMqnjbc

[@lunarbluesmusic]

Move house.

[@chrishorst6993]

Always a thumbs up 👍🏼

[@andywolf424]

Not watching cos not really SDR person but if you want use receiver then just use 2 way as receiver unless for emg,.. but 2 way is best over just receiver whether scanner/SDR.

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Hi. Yes agree but its the set up cost of a SSB radio that put people off. Iam trying to see if you can set up a wide banned scanner inc a CB antenna for around £50.

[@andywolf424]

@@CB-RADIO-UK Can get SSB cheap of these second hand users who don't use the band or whatever.

[@andywolf424]

@@CB-RADIO-UK But the get a cheap UKFM & mid AM/FM would be enough for now til they can afford SSB.

[@andywolf424]

@@CB-RADIO-UK There's apparently some who do (Sunday Net) 34UKFM I sometimes hear people 38UKFM so not as if SSB is a must first hand when there plenty on UKFM & Mid-Block AM/FM.

[@rosswines]

sorry Fred, you're a : "Jack Rabbit " jumping around all over the place.