RTL SDR V4 - Now with Built-In HF Upconverter + More Features 

Try The Meteors, Easy To Decode And Easy To Track Them, The One I Tracked Today Is On 137.100 MHz

That’s awesome.

Are you happy? :)

I struggle to get mine working, besides FM broadcast, i get pretty much nothing

@@telemachinme too

@@telemachin you might require a better antenna.

@@palashsharma7674which version did you get ?

@@EvertG8086 V3 kit

The Sdr# app has a scanning plugin.

They will be back. It's only the first batch that is gone (I have asked rtl-sdr blog about it).

Yes, I Have Two Of The Black Ones V3 Versions To :)

its a graphite coating to improve grounding

same, plus helps with limited stock if one gets lost or broken

The V4 appeared in my mail box today. So got it working with SDR# but yet to see how it compares to the V3 on HF band with my MLA30+ antenna. Have not figured out how to keep the bias-T activated with SDR# as I can use the provided DOS command rtl_biast.exe to turn it on but when I start SDR# it turns it off. Also I use RTL-433 app for reading sensor data but it does not seem to support the RTL-SDR V4 as it uses what looks like different driver file as in librtlsdr.dll rather than rtlsdr.dll.

How does the built in upconvertor work? Is there no switch or offset to enter into sdr#? It just automatically turns on when you go down low enough?

@@stevewinwood3674 I picked mine up last week. With SDR++, you just disable Direct sampling and you're good to go. No need to do anything when you switch from HF to VHF/UHF.

Was about to post a comment asking about drivers for Linux - that's all I use and ever will. So no problem running it on Mint?

@@JCO2002 Same. It seems we have to build the driver from source.

@@goku445 I should have mine in a few days. I did find info for Debian on the rtl-sdr website. Did you try it?

@@goku445 Just picked mine up. The Debian terminal commands worked fine. Getting HF without direct sampling. However, I still have interference at repeating frequencies across most of the band - was hoping the V4 would take care of it. Sure wish I could figure that out.

@@JCO2002 thanks for the feedback. I'm getting mine in a week. New to the hobby. Did you buy a new antenna?

Sounds like it was faulty, or the usb connection was. Never had an issue with any of my V3s. V4 is really good imo. Cheers

They're all like that, I have tons of original v3's (silver ones) and lots of the Nooelec versions too. They are all very sensitive to movement within the USB port, on any computer. The best way to combat this is to use an Amazon basics or similar usb extension cable and wrap the connector and sdr together in self vulcanizing tape. No sticky left behind when you're done and it keeps the connection nice and solid if you need to be able to move the rtlsdr around when receiving.

Sloppy USB mating is not uncommon, especially on ports you use a lot. I sometimes put a small strip of masking or insulation tape on the connector to pad it out for a tighter fit.

@@VTXHobbies Sounds good but might prevent heat dissipation?

What are you using for HF ? Seems yours may has a fault unless you live very close to some high power MW transmitters . I hope they are not all like this :(

@martinbarnes869 I confirm what you wrote. v4 is very susceptible to be overloaded with HF signals. Apart from the visible copies/distortions in the HF spectrum itself, it is much easier (than v3) for images of AM broadcast stations to appear on the spectrum of e.g. FM radio stations. I wrote to RTL-SDR blog and they also confirmed that I can try changing the mixer attenuation. Have you managed to come up with any specific modification that could improve this problem?

VHF is filtered away on UHF, so hopefully cleaner with less interference.

the RSPDX has significantly better filtering and switches in filters to block out everything except fort he band you are currently trying to recieve. You can do the same with the RTL-SDR by adding external filters, but they dont auto switch you have to manually insert and remove them at about $15 each. if you live near a cellphone tower, AM broadcast, FM broadcast or other transmitters then you need the filters. I have both, and I can hear a lot of much weaker signals with my SDRPlay than I can withthe V4.... it's better than the V2 but not even close to the sensitivity of the SdrPlay simply because of the lack of filtering.

Dont forget that the sdrplay is almost 4x more expensive

As long as you don't overload it with too strong signals, it works great. The upconverter have a 14 db gain, and you have the tuner gain in addition. Seems to work well.

sdr++

No harder than the other ones. You can download the source and compile it yourself worst case.

The RTL-SDR v3 works fine on SDR++ on Mac OS. I'm guessing that a driver update might be needed for SDR++ to work wit the new radio, but I'm not sure. I think that's already in the latest nightly SDR++ build.

Your mileage may vary, but on my Alienware desktop I cannot use a V3 rtl-sdr dongle on any of the USB 3.0 ports., I have to use it on the USB 2.0 ports

Try it with a Linux distro.

You Need To Configurate It And You WILL RECEIVE It On HF, Seriously, Maybe You Are Just Toogled The Direct Sampling, Tell Me How The Program Is Configured Or I Can Even Show You In Discord How To Do It, Like, Make A Videocall And I Can tell You Whats Wrong With Your Setup, Its NOT HARD To get HF Signals, Just Make A Long Wire ANtenna And Put The Program To Q Branch Where It Says DISABLED On Direct Sampling And Then Tweek Some Other Things ANd You Golden, Its NOT EASY To get HF, But There Are Many Things To Do To get it Half Noot bad, Im Willing To Help You Individualy :)

@@frequencywatchers I know how to make the V3 receive HF, the problem is that it has poor filtering, so it is very noisy. This is why they made V4

Since it is an SDR, this is possible. The dngle itself does not demodulate the signal. All you have to do is activate the narrowband FM in the software.

First batch sold old. There will be more!

@@erlendse they're still on ebay and Amazon

Thanks for beta testing

@@PW-72648 not a problem. Same ic footprint with an added circuit. 👍

@@PW-72648 just got it yesterday, it's amazing with gqrx and NOAA satellite tracking

Yea, all it does is add support for the v4 it doesn’t change much for the other ones.

It's all about the antenna. I can assure you that the issue is with the antenna. If you are serious about receiving and listening to stations etc, then you will need to invest in learning about antennas. Something off the shelf, for multi-band VHF/UHF a Discone antenna would be a good choice. For anything lower than 30 MHz then a long length of wire as high as possible would be great. Maybe even a 9:1 unun depending on the length of antenna wire. Any questions feel free to drop them here. Thanks. Matt

I have an RSP1a and for me it's either impossible to install on Linux, or I need a Masters degree to figure it out.

@@wesKEVQJ I can understand where you are coming from. However now that SDRconnect in in a preview release, you can now run one script under linux that installs the API / driver along with the software and its a very easy job. prior to this you had to install four scripts (one was the API / driver) the others were for sound patch and Soapy. none of that is needed with SDRconnect or even just to use the driver with other linux SDR software (provided they support the RSP1a).

​@wesKEVQJ on what system? I'm almost computer illiterate and I got mine up and running on Windows 10 in minutes after watching a RU-vid video.

@@felixthecat1672 Ironically, Andy's Ham Radio Distro. It's Xubuntu based.

@@felixthecat1672 I’m using Linux Mint 21.2. It’s probably one of the easiest Linux distros to use. I can’t paste links here but if you google how to set up SDR connect on Linux there are a few forum posts with people giving instructions

Yep, exactly, at least for this SDR V4.

Please let me know I could interview you about what your describing here!

@@bostocked you can ask questions.

@@DanFrederiksen Hi Dan thank you, How do you know that it would be 10-30Mhz specifically, would this be due to the redshift that occurs when "decelerating", when you do get a hit on the spectrum what might that sound like/look like, based off my own maths It make look a little like a LIGO wave detection.... but that's incredible if you have found a pattern they roll around in as the potentials increase then decrease?

@@bostocked no it's a speed of light thing. How long an EM wave takes to flow from the tip of the saucer down to the edge and back up again. Like a tuning fork has a resonant frequency or a flute. Those are mechanical vibrations and speed of sound in air. For the saucer I'm thinking it's electromagnetic from the high voltage hissing that have been heard and the corona glow on the hull at night. Also people report being cooked from it which suggests radio/microwave radiation. But people have also reported a scraping bell sound so it's actually possible that it has mechanical vibration too like a tuning fork. I hadn't considered that before now. Some ET ships have a spinning section and I suspect that this mass acceleration which spinning is, can allow them to tease out gravitational effects somehow. But a mechanical vibration is also acceleration of mass so just maybe some are doing it that way. We don't have a way to detect that from a distance though but a standing electromagnetic wave on the hull could be easy to detect with a radio receiver. So the frequency is decided by the size of the craft. The bigger the lower the tone. Your typical 15meter craft might be just around 20MHz because light can travel 15 meters 20 million times per second. There are some nuances that could change the math a little but should be around there and the frequency should be steady if my simple hypothesis has merit.

@DanFrederiksen very interesting response thank you perhaps the static gravitational field exhibits a mechanical vibration against the air too?? I'm thinking like thunder perhaps. f your saying that's an actual physical vibration that could add to the general excitation onto the air causing it glow, is your assumption that they actually don't mean to light up eveytime they're seen, but rather they can't actually help it sometimes due to a side effect of the antimatter / thermoelectric reaction generating a high voltage?? Are you suggesting that 10-30 tone is caused by the fluctuing EM field or a byproduct of movement/ gliding through the substrate. If it helps I'll tell you a private theory of mine too, that I'm 99% sure the metal slag we see deposited by some of them is 100% transfused remnants due to a fusion reaction buildup that may either occur sometimes as a natural byproduct of a fusion reaction based engine or as an error in amount / frequency / timing array of the gun that fires the fusile material. After a while transfigured elements must build up the same way we end up with fissile waste in a reactor, this is then ejected or deposited out the back otherwise it'll contine to fuse until it hits beyond iron etc and would / could explain why normal isotopes are found but the structure seems "more structured" than natural earth bound elements. Think like vapor gas deposition almost, just neutronic in scale, But If true it would mean certain craft atleast are fusion reaction powered and perhaps based on the frequencies your saying interference could be generating which could lead to either tracking or disruption via a standing wave which I'm sure is a scary proposition for them. I also have to ask is there nothing natural that generates say a 20MHZ wave, how can it be guaranteed that it is a craft if spotted - would it be specific pulses, waveform shape etc??

Not quite so. Only first batch.

Well.. don't wait too long. It may actually all die out. All of it is quite much more or less discontinued.

@@erlendse sure thing buddy

If you can hold your breath that long than sure . I'll wait for V6,, no, I'll wait for V7, actually V8

So the R820 is very new? Or what is your point?

@@nine7295 Yes R820 is new. But the V4 is contains R828D tuner chip. R828D is a 10 years old chip.

Yep, as said in the video, they have around 1 year of production supply left. Which is why it’s good to get one now.

This is not the latest iPhone so I don't think the R828 and R820 have that big of a difference in performance. And then you get an up converter with the V4. Just an external upconverter can cost more than this. So don't buy the V4, leave them for us .

Is there any difference in the descriminator section, extra band isolation, or any buffering that might be offloaded to the sdr software?

I have an sdrplay duo is there any benefit to me buying the v4? Sorry if it’s a dumb question I’m a noob lol

nooelec v5 does not have better HF than rtl sdr... they are just TV tuners on a metal casing what are you talking about ??

blog v3 & noelec v5 is quite much same hardware, just minor variations. V4 is a different design and way of working.

@@Sultan___ according to the listing for the nooelec, it's got way better sensitivity at 500khz and above than the stock rtlsdr. Whether that's BS or not idk. But Nooelec is not known for lying so I assume it's true, and in my own experience it certainly seems true.

@@VTXHobbies those are lies. they are just trying to sell their products

The LED is only for showing that the Bias T is active. If it it lit, then there is a Bias T voltage on the sma, if there is no lit led, then there is no Bias T voltage being sent.

Not rtl-sdr blog, so not the same version number counting. That's noelec v5 that is similar to blog v3. Takes some effort to compare versions across vendors.

I have a copy of Windows 2000 to sell you then

Yes

From the website.

yes, but what is meant by the use of this word ?@@TechMindsOfficial

the site is called "rtl-sdr blog" and is actually a blog about SDR stuff.

Did you order and receive one?