I have had a NooElec SDR dongle and upconverter for a while now. Up until the last few days I have just “tested” it and checked out the software but never got too serious about receiving using the SDR for CLEs and NDB hunting.
As mentioned in the previous post, I have exhausted the reach of my current receive systems, gaining only a few new NDB stations (for example) when propagation conditions are exceptional. The SDR looks like a new tool to allow me to expand my listening times.
I like HDSDR and its features suit my current needs. Recording overnight reception for analysis later is what interests me right now. I played around with this last night and found that the reception is similar but possibly not quite as sensitive as my IC-7000 and Spectran using the same antennas. I’ll need more hard data and some experimentation to be convinced that is true.
The recording issue leaves me with a problem … I use a laptop for the shack computer as I can run on battery power to eliminate charger noise while I listen. Recording would only be available for as long as the battery lasted which is under 2 hours. The storage required for 1 hour of recording at the second lowest bandwidth is about 6.7 GB and that is problem #2 … I have only 28 GB free on the laptop drive (3 hours or so without crashing the computer).
Potential solutions include re-building one of my desktop computers and stocking it with some TB drives (a serious undertaking) or adding external drive capacity and power supply filtering to the laptop.
I’ll start by testing the external drive setup with my existing equipment to see if it is worth an investment. I worry about using a USB 1 connection for data transfer (older laptop), this may become an issue so I need to test this further.
PS: I also looked at KiwiSDR as well. I live in a remote place and it would be interesting to run a listening station!
UPDATE:
After a few days of recording and comparing levels on all antennas I have concluded that the differences in S/N and signal level is smaller than I can measure. Each antenna has a different “best frequency range” so I must keep that in mind for future reference!