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Comment by ThrowawayR2 | Hacker News Reader

Given the way that the Ettus B2x0 SDRs shot up in price over the past couple of years, one would think that a UHD compatible SDR with similar capabilities would be flying off the shelves yet I don't see much in the way of reviews for these. Anyone who has one want to comment on how decent these things are?

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A $30 RTLSDR actually does a reasonable job of receiving. I measured one at 0.1 uV sensitivity, which is surprising given the fact that the samples coming out of it are 8 bits of I/Q data. If you're trying to receive low bandwidth signals, such as AM/FM radio, SBB, Packet, etc... they're actually fit for purpose.

The FPGA based transceivers are out of my price range at the moment. If I were to dive into that field, I'd be using something with at least 8 channels, to do passive radar, and things of that manner.

A price of +300 USD just for the board itself isn't cheap.

The HackRF with PortaPack (battery, touch display, case and antennas) is selling for 130 USD with shipping included. That would still fit my definition of cheap around here in Europe.

I know someone will say "that is cheap for specialized radio" but you know what? That is just a bad argument, RTL-SDR can cost 5 USD per unit so you really don't need to pay that much for technology nowadays like in the 90s.

$5 is not even the price of the tuner (R860) at the MOQ of 4900 pieces. Where are you finding new RTL-SDR dongles for $5?

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