Nooelec RTL-SDR v5 SDR - NESDR Smart HF/VHF/UHF (100kHz-1.75GHz) Software Defined Radio. Premium RTLSDR w/ 0.5PPM TCXO, SMA Input & Aluminum Enclosure. RTL2832U & R820T2 (R860)-Based Radio

Its ok, not the best SDR dongle I have used. seems to be lacking on tuning capability.

For the money this is an amazing device. But it does get considerably warmer than other RTLs I own. It goes deaf on OP25 after about a half hour. But on SDR Sharp it works well. I am concerned about the longevity.

New design is very nice. The narrower body makes it much easier to use these in cramped quarters. Having two or more side-by-side where USB port spacing is tight shouldnt be an issue, although stacking them top-to-bottom could be an issue if the ports are close together. Aluminum case feels solid, fit and finish is excellent, no issues with either the USB or SMA connector. TCXO has a very tight tolerance; mine only needs 0.25ppm correction. Performance wise, these compare favorably to the popular RTL-SDR.com dongles. I see no discernible difference in the noise floor or any other performance category to distinguish one from another, aside from the slightly better TCXO that NooElec uses in these dongles. Both perform equally well, and are the only budget RTL dongles that you should be spending any money on these days. I already own a few of the RTL-SDR.com dongles, and was previously not all that impressed with NooElecs offerings. I found them to be overpriced at the time for features that RTL-SDR.com was including at less than half the price. Now that theyve gotten their prices in line with RTL-SDR.com, and have come out with this new design with a better TCXO, theyve won me over. I plan on picking up a few more of these. See attached photos for a physical comparison alongside the RTL-SDR.com dongle.

I am using 2 of these on a Raspberry Pi 4 running PiOS and it is working really well. I set it up with a group and no one had issues with this version of SDR. Would be nice if it came with some cheap starter antennas but I suppose people would complain then about not having the option to buy separate.

Ordered 2 of these for a P25 phase1&2 scanner projects using this with a Raspberry pi 4 and a free program called OP25. My local Leos went digital and we couldnt see spending $400+ for a scanner so we did our research and built our own for less then $200 each

TCXO is great, no issues with P25.

Its all about the antenna. Unit performs fantastic.

test ryry

This kind of bandwidth, all kinds of decoding, tuning, and demodulating software out there, for <$25? Back in the day something that could do this would run you thousands of dollars. What interested me initially was receiving image data from NOAA satellites etc. ( I still need to build the QRP antenna). What sold me on it was everything else you can do with it. Update: Ive built a few different antennas for this and got a ham it up plus for it. Tons of fun. I added some NOAA satellite images I aquired from NOAA 19, 18, and 15 recently. I was using a Quadrafillar Helix antenna I made from refrigeration tubing (Booming signal, I dont even need a low noise amplifier. I bought a cheep one but it make no difference). Im using the HDSDR program. I set to 137.1 MHz for NOAA 19, 137.9125 MHz for NOAA 18, and 137.62 MHz for NOAA 15. I set my demodulation to FM mode and my Bandwidth is set at 96000 (have to make sure you get the whole thing or it turns out grainy if set too narrow). I set my sound output to VB virtual audio cable (its a program that twitch and Facebook streamers use to pipe audio out to other programs, in this case to your image decoder) My image decoder is WXtolmg. I set its sound input to the VB virtual audio cable and presto (Theres a few more things like setting up what satellites you want it to hunt for, updating keplers, telling it what your lattitude and longitude are so it knows when to auto record for a satellite pass and stuff). Ive decoded some really nice clear NOAA weather photos with this, Im still surfing the web to find some other cool stuff I can do with it. Track airplanes? eeeh, maybe. Observing the hydrogen line with my dish antenna? (Radio astronomy stuff) ehhh, maybe but I need to buy a Saw filter, FM trap, and a VLNA for it.... Im trying to keep the cost down but its an option for later since I have the dish for it. If you have that equipment, you can also pick up GOES satellites. I tried to lock on to one with my crappy LNA and dish, no dice... you need the good LNA and saw filter for that. The most fun Ive been having with this thing is the lower frequencies using my Ham it up plus, 40 meter band, decoding really odd conversations in Morse code. then play around in the VLF bands picking up atomic clock signals (60khz from Fort Collins) and who knows what else...

I had the standard RTL-SDR.com dongle and it would freeze, get very hot and frequency drift a lot. After a few hours of operation it was unusable. I replaced it with the Nooelec NESDR Smart v4 SDR and Im happy as a clam. Works great, doesnt lock up, doesnt drift and everything works great now. Im very happy with it. I use CubicSDR as the software and its a great combination. I use it for tracking wildlife with radio collars.