SDR Selection

There are many SDRs on the market. In the table below you will find the main characteristics of the compatible “Remote SDR” models. This list will evolve in the future.

NomBandRXTXRemarksQSJ
RTL-SDR30 MHz – 1,7GHz,
Bandwidth 2 MHz
YesNoDynamic 8 bits,
The cheapest
40€
RTL-SDR0.5 MHz – 1,7GHz*
Bandwidth 2 MHz
YesNoDynamic 8 bits,
The cheapest
40€
HackRF One1 MHz – 6 GHz,
Bandwidth 2MHz
Yes Yes Dynamic 8 bits,
Half Duplex
130€
Adalm Pluto70 MHz – 6 GHz après modification,
Bandwidth 1MHz
Yes Yes Dynamic 12 bits,
Full Duplex,
Poor frequency stability
200€
RSP1, RSP1A, MSI.SDR10kHz – 2GHzYesNoDynamic 12 or 14 bits Interesting in HF bands20€ to 130 €
SA818144-146 MHz ou 430-440 MHzNot used Yes NBFM only (1w)10€
Raspberry 4B and Adalm-Pluto
RSP1A (14 bits)
MSI.SDR equivalent to RSP1 (12 bits) – Multi Antenna
MSI.SDR equivalent to RSP1 (12 bits)
SA818

The SA818 found on the Chinese market is similar to an SDR. It does not exchange signals in complex I and Q form, but audio in analog form. It is programmed by a serial interface.

*RTL-SDR V3 – Frequency extension

There are now RTL-SDR V3 on the market that can work below 28MHz. Remote SDR (from version 4.5) is compatible with this new version. However, you should know that this is a degraded operation of these SDRs. There are 2 important impacts, namely:

  • There is no longer any input gain setting to adjust the dynamics of the signals to be converted in the optimal 8-bit conversion zone. This can result in saturation on a strong signal.
  • Input sampling is at 28.8MHz without filtering. There are spectrum aliases around 14.4 MHz. Thus a signal received at 7.074 MHz (FT8) will also be heard on 28.8- 7.074= 21.726 MHz. Similarly, a 20 MHz signal will be heard at 8.8 MHz.

This solution by its low cost is interesting to make ascan in the HF band (0.5 – 28 MHz) but does not constitute a performant solution.

F1ATB André

Ham Radio - Home automation - Photovoltaic

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7 Responses

  1. Jeff says:

    I am doing a lot of editing in the RX and TX .js files. Is there an easy way to restart the program to pull in the updated files instead of rebooting?

  2. Jeff says:

    It looks like the circle next to the Penguin in the upper left corner reloads everything – is that correct?

    • F1ATB André says:

      Yes by clicking on the Circle in the top left, you reload the pages. In some occasion, to be sure that all the files has been reloaded and not taken in the cache browser, a CTRL-F5 could be more efficient.

  3. Mauro says:

    Hi Andrè, is it possible to use Remote SDR with SDR PLUTO+? Thank you. Mauro IN3BYV

  4. DL4UNY Andre says:

    Hello André,
    thanks for your great work – the software really is wonderful!
    is it possible to add LAN-controlled SDRs such as HPSDR Hermes or RedPitaya to remoteSDR?

    73
    André