Software Defined Radio- SDR
Software Defined Radio (SDR), mainly receivers are what really got me back into amateur radio earlier this year, after a 40 year absence. I had a brief revisit to radio 10 years ago, when I was medically retired, but was disappointed that so little seemed to have changed. So I went and played (when I was able) with computers, audio, video, home cinema and satellite TV (and sport cars) instead. But once I had done about all I could do there, I was after something new. Then I re-discovered radio starting with the TV dongle software defined radio, rtlsdr. While I am still annoyed that mainstream transceivers (that I could afford; or justify) are still little changed, SDRs really are a hoot; you can see what is out there- lots of really weird stuff and no dial twirling hoping to find anything of interest. I started with the TV dongles; they are not to be dismissed lightly, a couple of MHz bandwidth, 60 MHz-1200GHz range, all for $20. I bought a discone antenna and pu