When the SDR dongles were first becoming popular, I went out and bought one...
I quickly realized some shortcomings.
1. RFI, and a LOT of it... unshielded dongles, and virtually no front end filtering.... even without an antenna connected there were spikes across the band...
2. You need more than one! Whether you're using it with DSD or unitrunker or just screwing around, you need at least 2!
3. Too many wires! USB cables and antenna cables and... way too much clutter...
So, with that in mind, I dun fixt it!
Parts list.
1 - Ebay special no name rx - ~$20
1 - Amazon special no name rx - ~$20
2 - BNC-3199P (Isolated BNC bulkhead jack) - $1.59 ea
2 - 6" (ish) sections of RG-174 from my junk drawer ($Free$)
1 - 20' Active USB extension cable - $10
1 - Hammond 1590BB enclosure - $7
1 - low profile hub - $4
1 - RF choke - $1
A couple minutes with a soldering iron and a couple holes drilled and I was done!
RFI is gone, although front end does get overloaded if gain is set too high when on an external antenna...
It's now small/easily transportable, which means it now goes in my pelican case with my laptop, super easy for travel.
With a BNC 'T', I can bridge both connectors to use a single antenna. I also can run discrete antennas for optimal band reception.
