How to setup a RTL SDR with HDSDR and a FT-857 for a panadapter and second receiver. 

That is SUPER cool and will help breathe new life into some of my old gear! ❤️

+K4AX I'm impressed, I've actually setup my TS-480 in a similar manor except I am using a MFJ-1708 as a TR Switcher with my SDR since I didn't want to tap into the IF. I also wanted the ability to use different SDRs on the receive side. It's working out great, HDSDR's interface is quite nice.

Awesome man, very informative and helpful video.

Thanks for the nice video Very helpful Without this video i couldn't have done it my self

Even though the HDR SDR software has changed a bit, this is still very helpful! 73

This will be very helpful once I get past the cavalier statement " which hopefully you can figure that out" regarding the IF tap and needed hardware and configuration. :-) Since this is uncharted territory for an old head, I have a few hurdles to get over. Thanks for this video! K5HP

That's a nice setup.

This does work very well once you get it set up correctly however it did turn my rig into a QRP rig. With the dongle antenna lead from my rig plunged in my AM output carrier drops to less than 2 watts and I am lucky to get 4 watts PEP, unplug the dongle and it is back to normal. Has no effect on FM at all.

I have done this modification to a Yaesu FT897. It works very well and I'm very pleased with the result. Don't think I would have been able to set up the software without your video. The scary bit was modifying my FT897, not for the faint hearted. Now its done its very compulsive to watch, and very useful to see what's going on on the band. One other thing, I have the CAT control running from an adapter on the mic socket and a second CAT control from the back of the set talking to HRD. So I have my logging as well. How cool is that? 73 M0RRX

Thanks for this video. Extremely helpful. I am a rookie at all this, and I'm baffled by 75% of the jargon, so I needed to find a video where all the settings are checked right on the screen. Fool-proof (I hope) blueprint. My question is: Should this all work the same with my Yaesu FT-950? I assume yes, but you never know. Okay, *I* never know.

Really appreciate your video. You went over everything and I am very impressed how you have it working. I recently got in a cheap RTL-SDR that has a UV input and a HF input. The thing works great at VHF but I am just lost at trying to make it work on a 455 KHz IF. I am using a Collins R-390. I downloaded Omnirig but I don't think it is doing anything for me unless there are some receivers in the list with 455 KHz IF's. From what I read, these little RTL-SDR USB drives are actually digital TV receivers and don't work below about 24 MHz. Maybe I am doing something really dumb. Any thoughts would be appreciated. WA4QGA David

Hello, excellent video. I'm trying to do the same thing with an FTDX3000D and having no luck with rig control nor omnirig talking to my transceiver. Since the I.F. frequency of the DX3000 is 9 Mhz, I added a 125Mhz downconverter before the RTL stick. I'm not sure if that would be a requirement but it seemed to make sense. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, I'm confused as to what physical connections are needed to satisfy the COM port requirements. The rig is already connected to the PC via USB so I'm assuming that should suffice as the COM port connection...correct? Or do I need a separate USB/RS232 conversion cable? Finally, I've apparently not found the correct COM port number but have tried inputting consecutive port numbers from 1 to 9 in the omnirig COM port field without success. I've spent hours upon hours trying to create a panadapter from the I.F. of this fairly new radio and am just about at wit's end. If you could help me figure this out I'll be most appreciative. BTW, how do you have your CAT control connected? Should I be using an RS232 cable from rig to PC? Newer PCs don't even have that kind of COM port anymore. But as I said before, my rig has a USB connection already and is very happy running HRD...so, it should work with omnirig, right? Thanks again for any suggestions. 73 Dub, k4dub

Try increasing the Timeout setting on OmniRig's polling to 200 and maybe that will resolve the LO freq display from resetting to all zeros.

I know you’ve probably been bombarded by people asking how, and why, and what if. I too have an 857 and would, love to use it with my rtf-sdr dongle. I already tried to tap the first IF with a 100pf cap.. the result was less than stellar. I couldn’t get anything intelligible out of the radio even after following your HDsdr how to video. I have ordered the PAT70M HiZ buffer board from the U.K. and am anxiously awaiting its arrival. I am wondering if you’ve gone to a buffer board yet and if so how well does it work compared to a direct connection? I also seem to have a problem with starting every sentence with “I”. Thanks.

Any assistance with the Yaesu-847 radio and panadapter? Hope to find a Ham with experience with 847.

How are you tapping into the first I.F.? Any links you could share?

Thanks for a great vid. Gonna try the RTL/HDSDR setup like you did, but with my TS-940. (I know "good luck!") heh - and as for the occasional zeroing out of frequency ... have you tried slowing down the serial connection from 38,400 to maybe 19,200 or so .. just to see if it helps? 73!!

Updated recommendations on SDRs - See www.hamradioscience.com/best-sdr-radios-of-2015-and-2016-so-far/

Are you using an up-converter between the 857 and the 2832u dongle?

hooowww,,,,,best video i ever seen,,,,,,,,can i have a link,where to buy this RTL???thanks

I would very much like to hook into my first I.f please can you advise on the location where to do this. Would it be the output of Q1073 (BB305CEW) so its amplified abit first and if so do i need to use a capacitor and if so what type and value. Hope its ok to post my question here. Really like the radio but turning it into a SDR tranceiver would be cool….

to run HD with sdsr do I need to run two monitors.

I have trouble finding info on how to make the tap connection. How did you connect yours? Did it degrade the signal on the receiver any?

Where I can extract that FI

I've spent weeks on trying to get the USB/LSB frequencies to line up to no avail. It seems when you try to independently change the modes offset it changes everything else and it never sticks. This solution seems to work great for AM/FM but SSB is just a complete mess.

Am I missing a component to this? I was wondering if anyone can offer some advice on how to get my 857D to sync up with HDSDR. . I have spent hours with limited success. USB interface:. umc202HD PC: HP Pavilion dvr6 Radio: FT- 857d. Tuner: YT- 100 Any advice would be greatly appreciated, 73's!

This idea should work on the 817nd also right?

I am not sure if i clearly understand this... Do you have to make some hardware alterations on the ft857, or just simple works with this config? Please respond. 73

I'd tap the IF before the amp (Q1073) at D1054. Its a shame that the author didn't post the technical details. quadrant2005 What have your results been?

wish i could do that with my Yaesu 891.

Is this off the one antenna?

that italian site is no good... why cant someone just upload a vid showing I.F. connection points from 857 to RTL SDR ??

I cant get mine to work at all with an RTL2832U Dongle. The PAT70 board It is now back out of the 857D as I have noticed that the output on the board has a dead short. It is shorting the center of the output coax to the shield of the output coax (I am sure it should not be doing that). I have tested all of my coax off board and there are no shorts. not happy at all and have had to email SDR-Kits to ask if the output should infact be a dead short (if no then they sold me a dodgy board)

I thought the lowest frequency the RTL SDR works at is 24MHz. Or, I suppose that doesn't matter when you are tapped in to the 857D's IF. So, the RTL SDR isn't receiving internally, it's getting it's receive signal from the 857D then, right? So basically, the RTL SDR is just being used (in conjunction with a computer, CAT control software, and SDR software) to display and control the frequency of the transceiver?

I connected my older FT-840 to my SDR..... receive only through the Signalink USB and it SEEMS to be working....... at least for the first try. It will tune rig but not change things like mode or other setting and I assume that is the older FT-840 being just old..... thanks for the video, didn't even think about trying this !!

I can control my 857 but got no audio...

I have not been able to get my RTL-SDR R820T2 RTL2832U Version 3 dongle to work as a panadapter with either my Kenwood TS-570DG or my Yaesu FT-920.. The dongle I bought from Amazon is smile.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-RTL2832U-Software-Defined/dp/B0129EBDS2/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513624240&sr=1-4&keywords=sdr The dongle works fine otherwise as a ham/shortwave/police monitor. I have tapped the proper location for the 1st IF in both radios and inputted the proper 1st IF frequencies in HDSDR. I can control radios with OmniRig , but my panadapter display shows nothing but a few random lines. Just does not work! Maybe it is the particular dongle I am using. Also, my computer is plenty fast ...I7 32gb ram, etc..... Any ideas?