DVB-T dongle 2m/70cm antenna deployment

Having successfully managed to get the RTL dongle working I was now on a mission to explore further what I could hear with a better antenna/s. I could clearly hear the commercial FM stations on the broadcast band with a 2 foot piece of wire. I also copied the weather forecast on AM from Lanseria airport just above the noise. What could I hear with a decent antenna system?
After some searching around on the SARL VHF/UHF forum I read about the J Poles manufactured by ZS6PVW om Pieter van Wyk in Pretoria. I contacted Pieter and he kindly send me some pictures of his antennas for review. Please see the pics below.
I travelled to Pieter's QTH in Pretoria on Good Friday March 30th and spent a very pleasant time. He showed me around his extensive VHF/UHF antenna farm. His being a ham family meant that it is necessary to deploy enough antennas for everyone! I could see that the installation quality and quality of the home brewed antennas are excellent. It was clear Pieter's profession as an expert welder certainly provide him with the tools and capability to build a truly wonderful radio antenna farm. He has an antenna for every polarization for 6m/2m/70cm. Pieter told me about a lightening surge that destroyed much of the electronics in his home. However none of his antenna installations were affected. Perhaps a testament to the extensive ground system installed. Each mast has a separate ground system installed.
I purchased a ZS6PVW 2m/70cm Dual Band J-Pole. Here are the details as provided by Pieter.
Serial Number: 046
Manufactured: October 2012 by ZS6PVW
SWR 2m.  144.350-1.45, 145.000-1.2, 145,575-1.0.
SWR 70cm 430.500-1.2, 431.500-1.35, 433.500-1.6, 435.500-1.4, 437.500-1.6, 439.500-1.95
I was not able to measure the SWR since I dont have an antenna analyzer that works at these frequencies.
I purchased a 3 meter pole and bracket from Builders Warehouse. I installed the bracket on the side of the wall and to the right of the door entrance to my radio operating position.
I was able to copy the Sandton Radio club bulletin on 2 meters although it was not full quieting. I also can see a strong signal on 145.800Mhz. I believe this is likely an APRS signal. I have found that by increasing the RF gain on the SDR that I can slightly improve the S/N ratio. The dongle itself seems to show about a -60db noise floor with most received signals about 15db above this noise floor. There is good opportunity to adjust the controls on SDR# and so I am still learning about the optimum settings.
I am also able to hear a number of Airband stations quite well and many other NFM signals that sound like taxi or security firms.
Even though the antenna is designed primarily for the 2m/2cm bands it seems to be able to function reasonably across the VHF/UHF bands. I have yet to hear a repeater on 70cm, however I suspect is a lack of activity on this band.
The antenna is up about 2.5 meters above the apartment roof top, however there are surrounding building structures and roofs which mean that this is not an ideal location.
From the point of view of having something to play with in order to gain experience with SDR this is a great and inexpensive set up. I believe the ZS6PVW antenna will withstand any weather that we are likely to experience at this QTH.













The dual band J pole for 2m/70cm on the right of the pic to the right is the one I purchased.

ZS6PVW homebrewed tower and antenna arrays for 6m, 2m and 70cm. Also an HF fan dipole.

Installation at ZS6RSH QTH

Matching element on left, 70cm center, 2m on right

DVB-T Dongle SDR Radio activation

On the 26 Feb I wrote that I had ordered a DVB-T Dongle in order to try out this dongle as an SDR radio as suggested in a QST article entitled 'Cheap and Easy SDR' in QST January 2013 page 31. This using the Realtek RTL2832U and Elonics tuner.

Yesterday I received the dongle and am delighted to report that I had it operational using the SDR# Software Radio App and associated custom drivers after about 30 minutes of starting to configure the drivers and software radio. I followed the directions in QST without hitch. I am not a software guru so this is saying something! I attached a wire to the dongle and immediately was able to receive local FM stations loud and clear!

Here are the steps I followed and articulated in 'software config for dummies' kind of language.

FOR WINDOWS 7 PC's/laptops. Sound card working and volume turned up.

1. Download the install script from sdrsharp.com/downloads/sdr-install.zip into the Windows download folder. Move the zip folder (SDR-install.zip) to the desktop and open it.
2. Open the SDR-install folder and extract the httpget.exe, install.bat, and unzip.exe to your desktop.
3. Double click on the install icon on your desktop and you will see the install taking place. Give it time and after a while it will say 'install successful'
4. Delete the install files (ref 2,3 above) from your desktop since you will not need them any longer.
5. Look around on the desktop for a new folder now on your desktop called SDRSharp.
6. Open SDRSharp and scroll down until you see an icon called ZADIG
7. Plug in the dongle to a spare USB port
8. Double click on ZADIG to open it
9. In the window that appears you should see a box with 'Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 1) shown'
10. Click on the 'install driver' box and give it a bit of time. Eventually you will see a 'driver installed successfully' box appear. This is all good. Close the window.
11. Open the Device manager view in Control Panel.
12. Look down the list and you should see something called LibUSB. Under this 
1. Bulk - In, Interface (Interface 0)
2. Bulk - In, Interface (Interface 1)
13. Close the Device manager since the above indicates that the drivers have been installed successfully.
14. Open the SDRSharp folder (it may already be open). Scroll down until you see an 'EggBeater' icon. This is the executable. Double click on this exec to run SDRSharp.
15. You should now see the GUI for SDRsharp appear. This is good!
16. Press the config button and select the SDR radio called RTL-SDR/USB from a list of supported SDR radios.
17. Click WFM (wideband FM)
18. Stick a piece of random wire a few feet long into the dongle antenna PAL socket
19. Press PLAY and presto your world will light up with the sound of static coming through the laptop speakers.
20. Click on a signal and the static will turn to music! Well done!
21. Now fool around to your hearts content with the settings.
22. Go to tinyurl.com/blsg2or and look around for a manual on SDR# written by W9RAN.

If the above sequence does not work for you then please refer to the QST article where much more detail is given.

I really am enjoying my first exploits into the world of SDR Radio. Now I need a decent antenna.

Dongle from EZCAP. DVB-T FM DAB

SDR on the cheap. Showing SDRSharp + Dongle + Test Antenna

DVB-T Dongle. Cheap and Easy SDR?

Having been inspired by the article in QST January 2013 page 30 titled 'Cheap and Easy SDR' by W9RAN I went ahead and ordered one of these dongles from Amazon.com. This dongle can be used to receive radio signals from 64MHz - 1700MHz (except 1100 Mhz- 1250Mhz). It uses the chipset RTL2832U and the Elonics E4000 tuner chip. The SDRSHARP software will decode almost any mode.

I probably paid over the dollar for this kit but I have a good chance of being able to make it work since this dongle is listed on the Osmocon website.

I like the fact that the implementation does not require the use of sound cards. This is a full digital interface with a 2MHz view of the spectrum! Fantastic. Maybe I can progress towards making a homebrew panadaptor down the road?

I watched a UTube video showing a decoding of Amsat signals. This looked really interesting.

My level of ambition is to simply be able to decode the local FM broadcast stations using the supplied whip antenna. Thereafter better antennas will be required.

I tried to search the web for a local source for these dongles here in South Africa but with no luck. I was surprised since I know that DVB-T is coming to South Africa in the next few years.

Go here to the Osmocon website if you are interested: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr

Herewith is a copy of my order from Amazon.

"SDR Starter Bundle: EzTV668 DVB-T USB Receiver & Low-Cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) with Free PAL to BNC Adapter - Realtek RTL2832U + Elonics E4000"
Electronics; $59.95