Are these a scam or not?I want something I can just hook up to my laptop on one end and connect a fuck huge antenna on the other end while being digital and shit. But half of reviews are shitting on it, the other half are praising it. What's a solid alternative then?
>>3009132What are you expecting? It's a tuner that you control with your computer. You need a downconverter for receiving higher frequencies and you can't transmit with that dongle.
They work BUT it takes some fucking around and the bundled antenna will be shit. If you are willing to put some work into making it work well for you they're fine but I just bought a nice radio instead.
>>3009142Probably for the best OP can't transmit for now.
>>3009132These are meant to be bought for less than $40 with shipping.If you want anything serious, use HackRF or WiFi Pineapple for pentest related.
>>3009132i have this one https://www.nooelec.com/store/nesdr-smart-hf.htmlit's fine for listening the po-po and stuff like that, but you need an antenna as high as possible to cover longer range
>>3009132a scam is something that promises something and then does not deliver or delivers something else.so not they are not a scam.
>>3009132really you just need to be smart enough to use one.
>>3009132I have that very SDR, and as others said it's as good as the antenna you feed it.I'm using a touch screen laptop with CHIRP, and I'm reasonably happy with the combo.I was not expecting much of it in the first place, so my low expectations were more than surpassed.
>>3009132It can't do digital trunking and things like that. You'd be better off with a TRX1
>>3009172heez awn forchan, so know, he iznt smrt enuff
>>3009132These work with SDR++ for hearing Long Wave, Medium Wave, Short Wave AM radio. FM radio, and basically anything that can be resolved with 2 MHz sampling on carrier frequencies up to 1.7 GHz. Popular is getting aviation/marine coded signals to be decoded. And receiving 137 MHz meteorological satellite images is another thing you can do with it.So it is very limited and only limited to receiving. But for a start and testing of stuff, trying to hear various IoT 433 MHz devices and so on. A quite nice toy which can serve as a FM radio.
The one I have is used to receive data from my backyard weather station and pass the readings on to Home Assistant. It's a bit overkill for that but works flawlessly.
>>3009432>trying to hear various IoT 433 MHz devices and so on.AI silicone typed this
>>3009132Your late. Was messing with these back in 2007 when the wifi pineapple was hot...
>>3009447yeah they're a neat little curiosity without much use
>>3009132as others have said the antennas they come with are utter trash that won't pick up anything. but you can grab it and heil hitler around the room using your own body as an antenna. that's always fun.i wouldn't go all-in on these with anything pricey if the point is only AMFM. maybe turning on your local radio first to realize how trash it is will make you take a step back.
>>3009132You have to get these from a reputable seller, those work. The pirated versions might not.And antennas do not have to be huge to work, you are better off with one adapted to the frequency you want. In fact, this and more is covered over in >>>/diy/ham and the FAQ.
>>3009132I bought one 4 or 5 years ago, I heard a decent amount of stuff with it. It was kind of fun to play around with and cheap. Might as well get one and try it out.
