NooElecRTL-SDR v5 SDR - NESDR SMArt HF/VHF/UHF (100kHz-1.75GHz) Software Defined Radio. Premium RTLSDR w/ 0.5PPM TCXO, SMA Input & Aluminum Enclosure. RTL2832U & R820T2 (R860)-Based Radio

I was hesitant to buy this as I wasn't sure of its compatibility with OpenWebRX, and I need not have worried.I flashed OpenWebRX to an SD card, put it into a Pi4, and it's run seamlessly.It seems sensitive enough on HF, VHF, and UHF, and I will be buying a second one (one connected to a discone and the second to an HF antenna).I have a 20-year-old discone with 10 m of RG58, and I'm still hearing planes on 1090 MHz at 70 miles.The limitation is you can only see 3.2 MHz of bandwidth at a time, but this is better than most cheap dongles.I would recommend this as a good start into SDR; the frequency range went lower than most of the other dongles, and it has better frequency stability.

I bought this because I've had a Nooelec SDR dongle previously and wanted to add HF reception for shortwave and ham listening. It's easy to set up using their get started page and it basically uses the same drivers and utilities as other RTl-SDR dongles, which makes things relatively easy. I've tested it on Windows, Raspberry Pi Zero 2W and Android, all working well with standard drivers and apps. The ony thing I would say for Android though is that the current maxes out around 300mA (so says the datasheet anyway), so for extended usage you'd probably want a powered USB hub /otg-cable (you can get USB-C PD ones online for a few buckpounds).While I have a Hamitup for lower frequencies I wanted to have HF in the dongle for casual scanning and for ease of carrying when going away and doing a bit of holiday DXing. Obviously that means I expect the HF reception not to be as good as an upconvertor, but I was pleasantly surprised by the range of shortwave stations, the limited noise, and audio quality, I got just using a few metres of wire and the Balun 1:9 (a Nooelec SDR accessory for making long wire antennas).So overall it seems a pretty impressive and inexpensive USB RTL-SDR dongle for everyone from beginners to ham operators, especially those who want an easy way into shortwave and HF ham listening.

Great little SDR dongle. Getting up to 100Nm through ADS-B. Unfortunately it wasn't working out of the box with "usb_claim_interface error". Here's how I got it to work on Raspberry Pi 3B+, it should work the same on newer models as well:First install RTL-SDR driver with "sudo apt install rtl-sdr"Next up, edit /etc/udev/rules.d/20.rtlsdr.rules and add:SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bda", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2838", GROUP="adm", MODE="0666", SYMLINK+="rtl_sdr"The 0bda is the vendor ID and 2838 is the product ID (visible under lsusb - change if it's different for you "Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T"). This will enable non-root access to the USB device for flightradar etc. Now reboot and you should see it's working fine under rtl_test - ready to install f24 or any other ADS-B tracking software.

I bought this device to attach to a Raspberry Pi, running the FR24 software to submit ADS-B data. Works perfectly out of the box, no issues (like other reviewers) with drivers etc. The only thing I was concerned about was that the device gets quite hot with routine use - too hot to comfortably handle, so I'm a little concerned regarding safety and longevity of the product.

I'm rating this product three stars because the advertised frequency range is misleading. The product description claims coverage from 100 kHz to 1.75 GHz, but the unit I received only functions natively from 24 MHz to 1.75 GHz.My primary reason for this purchase was for use on the HF bands (below 24 MHz), which the advertisement led me to believe was possible. While one can access HF on this device using the 'direct sampling' mode, this is a common workaround for most basic RTL-SDR dongles and is not the native, continuous coverage implied by the product page. This critical detail should be stated clearly.The dongle performs well as a standard RTL-SDR, but it does not have the special HF capabilities that were advertised, which was a major disappointment.

This is a FANTASTIC entry point into the world of SDR receivers. This version does not offer BiasT power however.NooElec also do the Lana wideband RF amplifier, which to be honest adds a load of gain but offers no benefit if used right before the input of the SDR. I suspect it needs to be used like a masthead preamp next to an antenna to amplify signals down a long coax run.The Flamingo FM+ is excellent however and offers good attenuation of broadcast FM stations.This SDR provides great stability and capability when using SDR#. And yes it can be used to pick up ADS-B if you want to feed flightradar24 etc....2Mhz of bandwidth is very usable, more is great but you have to pay for it.This is the perfect first step into SDR.Highly recommend!

UPDATE: December 2021. This was a great buy. Having used it for tracking weather balloon signals; low earth orbit satellites and FM radio DX'ing! .... it has proven to be an excellent SDR, not only for the price but for its dynamic range and sensitivity.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I bought this RTL-SDR to replace the Nooelec NESDR Mini 2. I believe the Mini 2 had deteriorated; no physical damage that I could see, but it had gone 'deaf' and was not performing well on a couple of different SDR applications ... HD-SDR, SDRUno and CubicSDR.The SMART v4 has a better dynamic range, better overall sensitivity and is more stable.I use it primarily in a SatGate set-up; I-gating ISS APRS packets to the Internet/ARISS and it is much more capable of obtaining virtually 100% successful decodes than its predecessor (Mini2).I would recommend it.