SDR Dongles - Antenna safety precaution

[Greg Zapf]

Many of the less expensive SDR dongles, including the ones we acquired via group-buy, have an unpopulated spot for a protection diode right next to the antenna jack.  This is probably fine for the little antennas they shipped with.  If you intend to hook yours up to a more powerful antenna, I advise holding off a little.

I ordered a good quantity of BAV99 (what's supposed to be in that spot on most designs) and will drop a supply at the space once I receive them (they already shipped from California, so it should be soon).  I'll drop enough so that everyone can grab a couple in case of soldering errors.  If anyone got some of these outside of the group buy, let me know, and I'll bring extras for you too.

I'll post about where they are after I've deployed them at the space.

More info about this:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/SDRSharp/message/867
http://ncrmnt.org/wp/2012/06/30/rtl-sdr-static-protection/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rtlsdr/message/112 (last half)
http://club.dx.com/forums/forums.dx/threadid.1199093 (last two posts worth reading)

--Greg

[Danny Chamberlin]

Pardon my ignorance, but Is this an issue even if the antenna I'll be connecting to is a grounded, roof mounted antenna?

Danny

[Greg Zapf]

Good question... I possess even greater ignorance though!  (total RF newb here)  Anyone else know if grounding the antenna provides sufficient protection?  --Greg

[Danny Chamberlin]

Here's my setup - I cut the cable last year and am exclusively getting OTA HD TV. I have a roof mounted HD antenna running into a three-way splitter - two going to my TiVo and the other going to my TV (backup in case the TiVo flakes out). I am going to remove the cable going from the splitter to the TV and run it to my EzCap.  The antenna is also run to a grounding spike.

I'll hold off until someone else weighs in.

Danny

[Greg Zapf]

I've dropped off a bunch of BAV99 diodes for the SDR people at the space.  They're on the peg-board rack to the right of the soldering stations.  If someone needs to relocate them, please reply and let the others know where to.  If I did my math right, there should be two diodes for each tuner purchased, so everyone gets a spare in case of error.

--Greg

On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 8:08 AM, Greg Zapf <x86d...@gmail.com> wrote:

[John Wood]

Thanks Greg. Appreciate your thinking about us!

John