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First, play around with an already built one

A project log for Do a Real Magic Spell: "Essdeeaar!"

Software Defined Radio (SDR) is the wonder child of our times. This project is about understanding, designing, building & playing an SDR.

rogeorgeRoGeorge 08/23/2015 at 16:480 Comments

Get an SDR

A good example for a cheap SDR receiver is an RTL-SDR TV USB dongle. RTL-SDR was designed as a TV tuner for PCs. It can be plugged into a USB port, and with it's software installed it can receive FM radio stations or TV programs.

But with a hacked driver, the same USB dongle can be used as an SDR. And it's cheap, about $10. This is the little beast:

and this is the tuner chip used by this USB SDR:

Get one, but don't waste your life watching stupid TV broadcasts with it!

Install HDSDR

HDSDR stands for High Definition Software Defined Radio, and it's a free software that can be used with many SDR tuners.

Play with it, get used with an SDR

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