Tim Nichols
Hi Tug,
I have come to the conclusion that they are only as good as the antenna they are fed from.
Don’t spend too much money on one to start with. They are OK to play around with and get a feeling of what is out there, but I feel my money is better invested in a radio and antenna.
You will notice that most modern transceivers have an SDR incorporated into them to give the waterfall. This is probably the best use for them as they are fed from the same antenna and so are “seeing” what the radio is seeing and allow you to visualise the spectrum or band you are on rather than just feeling around blindly. If the radio and SDR dongle are fed from two different antennas they will “see” two different things because each antenna has it’s own characteristic and so there are variations in their performance.
The antenna design and performance is really where it’s at. The radio is only as good as the antenna.
Also, the software they use (SDR# etc) gives me a headache, but that might just be because of my age – Lol.
Hope this helps.
Tim