In the same time frame of learning about old radios, I’m also pursuing radio in another way, the current trend of Software Defined Radio (SDR). I first noticed it while doing an update to a LINUX machine I was fussing with and wondered what all these libraries and builds were about, it is a large and growing branch of software.
Along side of it, is the advent of the radio dongle. It is now a fairly robust hardware industry, where the components which attach to your PC and turn them into radios is running from cheap and fun to expensive and complex.
Right in the middle of all this is something called KIWI-SDR, a combination of software and hardware which is accessible via the internet. It is very robust and pretty inexpensive compared to some of the other SDR products which are out there. If you have good reception and a passable internet connection, you can share your setup with the world via a website like SDR HU.
The bane of all these efforts are antennae. All of these radios will only perform as well as the antenna that they are connected to. Funny how it all comes back to the rabbit ear antenna of yesterday. Naturally, it gets much more exotic than simple rabbit ears, and more expensive, but there too are alternatives to be found and played with on the internet.
I’ve run a “long wire” antenna out of the garage to the roof and along a south facing ridge. It is simple thin copper wire. Also, I ran a segment of vinyl covered 18 AWG out the same vent down the garage wall to a 12 inch 1/2″ copper pipe which was hammered into the ground. This gives me a ground and an antenna and it has improved my radio reception greatly.
The SDR kits I bought had funky little antennas and connecting leads but now I mostly use the exterior antenna. I bought the RTL SDR (RTL2832U) from RTL and another less useful SDR KIT from Adafruit Software Defined Radio Receiver USB Stick – RTL2832 w/R820T. Both dongles cost in the $25 range but the RTL product seems more robust and worked better for me.
What’s the use? I have listened to my local police/fire department dispatchers on the RTL dongle. You can look up your local broadcasters, including the cement trucks and police dispatch on Radio Reference website. I have a goal of hacking my LaCrosse weather station with one and have found the signal but haven’t decoded it yet. There are a serious number of utilities and projects people are building and sharing, you can download GOES images, listen into aircraft transponders, listen to trunked radio. Much of this used to cost a good deal in hardware, now you simply have to devote your time and efforts to it and you will succeed.
Wikipedia – Software-Defined Radio
KIWI SDR Website
RTL Dipole Antenna Kit