This summer I was looking for a cheap Android Tablet in order to replace a dead TomTom Go730 GPS navigator, that suddenly decided to dead and being close to go in holiday I decided to invest money into a more versatile device that could be used as a gps navigator but even in other ways.
The final choice went to the Google Nexus 7 (first series) and to SygicApp as navitator App. Holidays are ended and i can say has been a good choice.
But that’s not the main topic of this post, as you can read from the title….
Well, to be honest, the idea to purchase an Android Tablet came in my mind some months ago, playing with the RTL SDR dongles on the PC. You can read some more posts on this blog about RTL SDR
On the Android markets, moreover as you know there are many Ham Radio Apps, that somentime those apps are not present on the Apple App Store.
SDR Touch
Being an happy Apple iPhone 5 owner, I was curious to test the SDR Apps that for their particular nature, will never be present on a IOS device. Infact the app that I bought inte Google Play store, SDR Touch 1.6 need ad additional custom driver app to be executed before, that allow the app to interface RTL SDR dongles. (Cannot immagine Apple to approve similar apps in their app store…)
App is not free by the way, but the few euros spent will convince Martin Marinov the app developer, to implement new features.
First Impressions.
Well, first of all you need a USB2Go cable to connect microUSB adapter to the RTL SDR USB Dongle.
You will need also a new generation tablet, capable to support CPU requirements, and the Google Nexus 7 does the job.
Secondly keep in ming that antenna and location is all in radio signal reception.
I’m using a small VHF antenna bought at ham-fests with SMA connector. If you run all the tools from a Bunker-Like office like the one where I work, well receiving signals is a rare case, but if you keep the antenna outoor or you are close to windows will be enought.
About the receiver…
Well to be honest, my Baofeng UV3R outperform in all bands this SDR receiver in selectivity and sensivity, and saying this I think no other words will be needed. The good is that it has a very wide frequency coverage , and that hopefully some scanning features will be enabled on the App.
More to come about Android and Ham Radio… want to share with you the apps I’ve downloaded from the store for my ham radio activities…Feel free to add a comment below if you want to discuss about RTL-SDR, will be pleased to answer you.