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Ham Radio

More on DVB-T

[Today’s run: 3.0 miles]

I’ve been playing around with this DVB-T device.  The thing is really a USB television tuner but someone really smart and energetic has found out how to use it to tune everywhere between 64 MHz and 1700 MHz.   The article in January 2013 QST magazine had the information I used to get mine working.

I’m running it on a Windows XP machine.  I may eventually try to get it working under Linux.

But for now it works.  My next improvement is to get a PAL adapter so that I can hook it directly to an external antenna  (using alligator clips so far).  It is limited in dynamic range.  So it would not be so good for weak signal work.  But it receives FM radio stations pretty well and the local NOAA weather comes in.  I’ve heard the local 2 meter repeater also.

The QST article talks about building an up-converter so as to use it in the HF bands  (1.5 — 30 Mhz).  I may give that a try if I can get it to work well at VHF/UHF.

Not bad for under $30!