Could somebody direct me to the best SDR dongle to buy to decode pagers can you send me a link and what else I will need to download
Kieran
SDR DONGLE
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sec1223
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kr0ne
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Re: SDR DONGLE
For the cheap-as-chips one that all the kids are using, you are looking for anything with the RTL2832 chipset and the R820t tuner - e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RTL2832U-R820 ... 5667809155
You will find the above bundled with patch leads that have more useful connectors for a little more and there also now seem to be some knocking around with an updated tuner (R820t2 I believe) for a little more again. They will tune from around ~20MHz - ~ 2GHz, give or take and will allow you to sample 2 or 3 MHz of spectrum at once, although have no front end filtering and are easily overloaded by strong signals.
Moving up a step or two then look for the Funcube Dongle Pro+, which will tune right down to 100kHz, has niceties such as front end filtering and increased dynamic range - although will only let you sample 192kHz of spectrum.
http://www.funcubedongle.com/
The RTL2832 devices make excellent building blocks for projects and are a great (almost free) introduction to the world of SDR. The Funcube Pro+ is a little more serious but will set you back around £125. Both have their shortcomings.
You will find the above bundled with patch leads that have more useful connectors for a little more and there also now seem to be some knocking around with an updated tuner (R820t2 I believe) for a little more again. They will tune from around ~20MHz - ~ 2GHz, give or take and will allow you to sample 2 or 3 MHz of spectrum at once, although have no front end filtering and are easily overloaded by strong signals.
Moving up a step or two then look for the Funcube Dongle Pro+, which will tune right down to 100kHz, has niceties such as front end filtering and increased dynamic range - although will only let you sample 192kHz of spectrum.
http://www.funcubedongle.com/
The RTL2832 devices make excellent building blocks for projects and are a great (almost free) introduction to the world of SDR. The Funcube Pro+ is a little more serious but will set you back around £125. Both have their shortcomings.
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Maybolelistner
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Re: SDR DONGLE
That's it so I take it just plug it in and it will come up with what to download only wanna use it to decode pocsag pagers :-)
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kr0ne
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Re: SDR DONGLE
For the RTL2832 devices you need a hacked driver as they were initially only intended as cheap TV receivers...
Try this for starters: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
Depending on your set-up and what you plan on doing with it the next steps can vary quite a lot. See how you get on, there have been a few pretty good threads on here that you might find by searching but if you get stuck or have further questions, just ask and chances are that somebody will be able to help - loads of folk are using these things now...
Try this for starters: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
Depending on your set-up and what you plan on doing with it the next steps can vary quite a lot. See how you get on, there have been a few pretty good threads on here that you might find by searching but if you get stuck or have further questions, just ask and chances are that somebody will be able to help - loads of folk are using these things now...