RTL-SDR Blog V3 R860 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO HF Bias Tee SMA Software Defined Radio with Dipole Antenna Kit (Black)

The RTL-SDR Blog V3 is an incredible software-defined radio that offers amazing performance at an affordable price. Whether you're a beginner exploring SDR or an advanced user, this device delivers! What Makes It Great: ✔️ Wide Frequency Range – Covers from 500 kHz to 1.7 GHz, allowing me to monitor everything from AM/FM radio to airband, ADS-B, NOAA weather, and even ham radio. ✔️ High Stability & Low Drift – The 1PPM TCXO ensures stable tuning with minimal frequency drift. ✔️ Versatile Modes – Supports direct sampling for HF and quadrature sampling for VHF/UHF. ✔️ Plug & Play with SDR Software – Works seamlessly with SDR# (SDRSharp), HDSDR, and other popular programs. ✔️ Excellent Build Quality – Solid aluminum casing helps reduce interference and improves heat dissipation. ✔️ Bias-T Power Option – Great for powering active antennas or LNA directly from the dongle. Final Thoughts: This is easily the best entry-level SDR out there. It’s incredibly flexible, easy to use, and packed with features that make it a must-have for any radio enthusiast! Highly recommended! 📡🚀

Managed to pick up HF on the 10 6 & 2 meter bands as well as shortwave and some strange show on MW hosted by two women who were playing songs about aliens and talking about Area 51. Luckily I happened to have 10 meters of 24 awg stainless steel 430 laying around so I wrapped this around my centre dipole and ran it from the house outside and all the way along my washing line. So I managed to get some good reception, great fun I can’t wait to built a 1-30mhz HF antenna then I should be able to listen to some interesting stuff. Just to mention the heat issues around this dongle when I was playing around with FM and tuning in some local radio stations my dongle did get quite warm although after I attached the wire to my centre dipole, ran it outside and switched to HF there was no noticeable heat generated after this? In fact the unit kept quite cool. To get the HF bands check out the v3 user guide it’s linked at the bottom of the quick start guide and all the info like enabling the Q Band and attaching a wire to your dipole is there. I’m looking forward to building a 9:1 unun which should be with me tomorrow, thanks Amazon I’ll get my soldering iron out ready. Build quality is also great and this is very much a genuine RTl-SDR it’s also very easy to use although I can imagine this hobby could become very addictive. So don’t expect to stop your purchase at this kit which is great value as you get quite a bit of stuff for your money. As mentioned though you will soon be on the hunt for an upgraded antenna, depending on what you want to do with your new SDR that is. I would definitely recommend this product as a start and am going to have another play with it as soon as I’ve finished this review. Have fun.

My one was all good. It wasn't a clone, but its not R860 chip its an R200T or very close (ive used it once). But the Dipole antenna is all working and wired correctly, (no resistor but apparently thats in the usb part now). It works well on airspy and gqrx on Linux Mint & Ubuntu based Distros. Nice little hobby kit. You will eventually need a better antenna but as a whole its a good kit. Id like to know why it has a different chip in it though, hence the 4stars...?

Do you love anything to do with Space? I studied Astronomy and I loved the Radio Astronomy modules but did you know, that you can do NEO Radio Astronomy with this item and not require a huge Radio Telescope/Dish in your backyard to listen to passing Satellites? If you know a little about Radio Waves, Antenna configurations, you can use this as your learning curve. I received this amazing kit and by the evening, was listening to NEO Satellites, just by plugging this into my laptop, configuring and orienting my antenna and picking up NOAA 19 Weather Satellite, which is 850km altitude and well over 2,000kms away from me, travelling at 27,000km/h. I listened to the whole Satellite pass from AOS to LOS and the quality of the signal was excellent, even with the supplied dipole, in the correct configuration and orientation. (See photo of screenshot of the Satellite’s signal). I then started tracking other Satellites in the VHF wavelengths and these were great too. This kit is amazing if you are interested in Space and Satellites, I highly recommend this if you’re beginning your journey into Radio. Simple to setup. Download the software and in no time, you’ll be listening to Radio Sounds. Incidentally, I also bought a separate antenna kit, just so I could have both antenna’s fixed to my window, instead of swapping out the elements. I can just swap cables (see photo).

I’d been reading up on SDR for a while. A SDR project book turned up so I took the plunge. Great little kit. Everything you need - read the blog and maybe get the book too. If you are going shortwave put up a reasonable aerial. Plenty of resources out there (plenty of helpful radio amateurs and clubs too). A great starting point for listening to stuff on a budget. I will be buying again as part of other projects.

Newbie in radio systems bought this RTL-SDR dongle and tried to get it to work on my iMac, has a virtual windows 11 running, it had problems with the drivers being recognised, so tried setting up on my laptop, followed all the instructions from RTL website and works a treat not fully explored everything thing yet but learning each day.I personally think it worth the money, I have a friend who has CB radio set up and they have spent thousands.

Not great at picking up shortwave. Get an all in one radio instead.

If you are just getting into SDR then this package is great and I highly recommend it. Also great as a portable setup. All you need is a dipole calculator forumlae for the different frequencies and a tape measure to adjust the telescopic antenna to your desired listening frequencies.

Conocía el producto y quería evaluarlo. Es el mismo producto SDR de RTL-SDR que en su versión "plateada" pero revisionado, certificado y con una carcasa metálica en negro. De lo mejor si te quieres adentrar en el mundo del SDR. Pero no le puedo dar cinco estrellas porque el producto está excesivamente inflado de precio. Por la mitad del mismo se puede adquirir en otros lados incluida distribución nacional y en menos de 24 horas.

Works exceptionally well, minimal configuration required to get a satisfactory result. Overall a very fun and interesting product to mess around with!

Ricevitore sdr consolidato. Lo uso con Sdr sharp e mi trovo veramente bene. Consigliato

For beginners this is all you need. Great kit, easy to install and works with all the software I tried. Testes on Windows, Mac and Linux. Purchased a second kit for my son.

Although I ordered it from the USA it arrived (door to door) within 7 days, no hassle with customs, the price was reasonable to. I'd definitely use them again.