This page is a guide aimed at helping anyone set up a cheap radio scanner based on the RTL SDR software defined radio as fast as possible on a Windows system. If you have any trouble during the installation, please see the troubleshooting guide further down the page. We also have brief instructions for getting started on Linux and OSX at the end of this page. Please note that the RTL SDR is not a plug and play device. You will need to have sufficient skills to perform basic PC operations such as unzipping files, installing software, moving and copying files and have the motivation to learn new software. RTL SDR Blog V3 Users We suggest the following reading order Quickstart Guide rtl sdr. QSG Current page. Helps you install the software and set up your dongle. V3 Features Guide rtl sdr. V3 Learn how to use special V3 features like the direct sampling HF mode and bias tee. Dipole Antenna Guide rtl sdr. DIPOLE Learn how to use your RTL SDR Blog multipurpose dipole antenna if purchased in setEquipment Guide. Currently, the most common RTL SDR dongle is the R8. TR8. 20. T2 which usually sells for under 2. USD. See the Buy RTL SDR dongles page for more information on purchasing. Llj7cgNRd1Q/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Install Libusb Windows 7 64' title='Install Libusb Windows 7 64' />Generally at least a dual core processor will be required to run most SDR software smoothly. Some command line software and ADS B decoders may work on less powerful hardware. To get the most enjoyment out of RTL SDR you will need a decent antenna. Our packages that come with the dipole antenna set are a great start. Be sure to get them up high and outside during good weather only for best results. Street Fighter 4 Windows 8 Crack there. Units not sold by us may come with a smaller fixed length whip antenna that is okay for testing, but overall is not that great. Installing LibUSB on 32bit OS is easy but many users who own x64 systems were facing some issues while installing LibUSB. The following guide will explain. The most recommended outdoor antenna for general scanning is a scantenna or discone due to their wide band receiving properties. You can also cheaply build a wideband planar disk antenna pdf warning out of some metal pizza pans. SDR SDRSharp Set Up Guide Tested on Windows 1. Bit XPVista IncompatibleSDR is the most commonly used SDR program on Windows. We recommend it as one of the easiest to setup and use with the RTL SDR. Purchase an RTL SDR dongle. The cheapest and best for most applications is the R8. TR8. 20. T2 dongle. Install Libusb Windows 7 64' title='Install Libusb Windows 7 64' />When I started using USBasp a great programmer for AVRs, I soon realized that the avrdude the software for driving USBasp is not much usable. DE64F54C4C45224F115' alt='Install Libusb Windows 7 64' title='Install Libusb Windows 7 64' />Build Dependencies. Linux Notes This is dependent on the distribution you are using, but most, if not all, of the dependencies should be available in the package. The most costeffective way to program an ATmegaATtiny MCU thats not embedded in a development board such as the Arduino is to buy yourself a USB insystem. Information on purchasing one can be found here. You must have the Microsoft . NET 4. 6 or newer redistributable installed to use SDRSharp. Follow the link and install the redistributable. INF-Wizard-3.jpg' alt='Install Libusb Windows 7 64' title='Install Libusb Windows 7 64' />This article will guide you on how you can install LXC Linux Containers, deploycreate and run LXC containers on a CentOSRHEL and Fedora distributions. Ham Radio Software on Centos Linux Configuring multitudes of Amateur HAM Radio software for Centos6 Centos5 Linux. Most Windows 1. 0 PCs should already have this installed by default, but PCs with older operating systems may need this to be installed in order to run SDR. Note that. NET 4. Windows XP. If you are running XP please scroll down on this page and look for the HDSDR or SDR Console install guides. Note that on some computers you may also need to install the Visual C Runtime if it is not already installed. Go to www. airspy. Next to the SDR Software Package heading click on the download button to download sdrsharp. Note that we recommend downloading the x. OS as the x. 86 version is a bit more stable currently. Extract unzip sdrsharp. PC. Important Many people who have issues forget this step Do not run the files from within the zip file or the following steps will fail. Also, do not extract into a folder within the Program Files directory, or installation may fail as these folders are often automatically made read only by Windows. Double click oninstall rtlsdr. This will start a command prompt that will download all the drivers required to make SDRSharp work with RTL SDR. The command prompt will automatically close after a few seconds when it is done. It the bat file ran successfully the files rtlsdr. SDR directory. If they were not downloaded then your PC or anti virus solution may be misconfigured and may have trouble running batch files Check that the folder is not read only, and not located in the Program Files directory. If install rtlsdr. Plug in your dongle. Do not install any of the software that it came with if any, and ensure that you wait a few seconds for plug and play to finish attempting to install the dongle it will either fail or install Windows DVB T drivers. If youve already installed the DVB T drivers that came on the CD bundled with some dongles, uninstall them first. In the folder where you extracted the sdrsharp files find the file called zadig. Right click this file and select Run as administrator. In Zadig, go to Options List All Devices and make sure this option is checked. Select Bulk In, Interface Interface 0 from the drop down list. Note on some PCs you may see something like RTL2. UHIDIR or RTL2. 83. U instead of the bulk in interface. This is also a valid selection. Do not select USB Receiver Interface 0 or Interface 1 however. We need to install the Win. USB driver, so also ensure that Win. USB is selected in the box after the arrow next to where it says Driver this is the default selection. Note that there has been some confusion for a few people over this step. The goal is to install the Win. USB driver. So to be clear, the box to the left of the arrow shows the currently installed driver, whereas the box to the right of the arrow shows the driver that will be installed in the next step. The first time you open zadig the box on the left will show either None, or the default DVB T drivers installed by Windows RTL2. UUSB, depending on your Windows configuration and version. Click Replace Driver. On some PCs you might get a warning that the publisher cannot be verified, but just accept it by clicking on Install this driver software anyway. This will install the drivers necessary to run the dongle as a software defined radio. Note that you may need to run zadig. USB port, or want to use two or more dongles together. Open SDRSharp. exe and set the Source drop down boxto RTL SDR USB. This Source tab is on the top left. Note that the first time you do this you may get a smart screen message indicating that Windows has protected your PC, this is a false alarm. Simply click on more info and then run anyway. Press the Play button the right facing triangle. Your RTL SDR software radio should now be set up and ready to use If everything has worked you should be able to start tuning to frequencies. Important Dont forget to also adjust the RF gain settings by pressing the Configure button looks like a cog up the top next to the Play button. By default the RF gain is set at zero. A gain of zero will probably receive nothing but very strong broadcast FM increase the gain until you start seeing other signals. Next Steps. After getting your RTL SDR set up with SDR we recommend investigating the following Check out all our featured articles on this blog for various RTL SDR related projects and tutorials. Upgrade from the stock antenna. For optimal reception you should use an outdoor roof mounted antenna. The optimal antenna will depend on the frequency and project you are interested in, but for a general all purpose antenna we recommend a Discone or planar disk antenna pdf. If you are using your RTL SDR for HF with an upconverter such as the Spy. Verter then we recommended using SDR with the special decimation drivers. This will allow you to zoom in on the small bandwidth signals used on HF without loosing resolution. Check out our store for various RF accessories such as filters, LNAs and antennas.