Literally me right now, got my first SDR less than a month ago because I wanted to have an FM radio for emergencies and I am designing antennas and studying for my amateur radio license.
> because I wanted to have an FM radio for emergencies
Just make sure you have batteries/a way to run it!
When we lost electricity for 1.5 day here last month (Spain), I thought I'd be clever and use my SDR too, but since we didn't have electricity at all, and none of my laptops were charged, I was out of luck. Wife's Macbook had battery available, but since I never used it with her Macbook, of course it didn't have the software/drivers needed, and the internet didn't work as all ISP equipment was also without electricity. Ended up listening to the radio in the car which was more than cumbersome :/
TLDR: get a shitty battery/hand-crank powered FM/AM radio for emergencies
Remember schematics for radios powered just by radio waves. No need for battery or hand-crank. That was in some old books, but never managed to build one.
driggs|9 months ago
diggan|9 months ago
Just make sure you have batteries/a way to run it!
When we lost electricity for 1.5 day here last month (Spain), I thought I'd be clever and use my SDR too, but since we didn't have electricity at all, and none of my laptops were charged, I was out of luck. Wife's Macbook had battery available, but since I never used it with her Macbook, of course it didn't have the software/drivers needed, and the internet didn't work as all ISP equipment was also without electricity. Ended up listening to the radio in the car which was more than cumbersome :/
TLDR: get a shitty battery/hand-crank powered FM/AM radio for emergencies
varispeed|9 months ago
_whiteCaps_|9 months ago
ews|9 months ago
mycall|9 months ago