New to SDR, have RTL2838 and have few noob questions

[Valent Turkovic]

Hi guys and galls (if any),
I'm totally new to SDR but looks like a hobby that I'll enjoy very much.

When I read first sdr posts and first sdr videos I thought I could only listen to different kind of transmissions, but as I researched further I saw that with GNU Radio it is also possible to broadcast signals, right?

Which frequencies does my RTL2838 support? What kidn of signals can I listen to with it? Is it possible to go over it's frequency band limits with some additional gear, like frequency multipliers or de-multipliers?

Also I'm not sure how SDR devices works, from looking at the video it looks they are receiving a really broad piece of radio spectrum, aren't these devices supposed to tune to one specific frequency?

Thank you in advance for answering these totally noob questions...

[Adam Nielsen]

> When I read first sdr posts and first sdr videos I thought I could only listen
> to different kind of transmissions, but as I researched further I saw that
> with GNU Radio it is also possible to broadcast signals, right?

Yes, if you purchase a device capable of transmitting radio signals (like a
USRP) then you can transmit too. But of course the RTL2832 is receive-only,
it does not contain a transmitter.

> Which frequencies does my RTL2838 support? What kidn of signals can I listen
> to with it? Is it possible to go over it's frequency band limits with some
> additional gear, like frequency multipliers or de-multipliers?

This is all covered pretty well on the web. Reddit
<http://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/> is probably a good place to start. In short
- you can listen to any signal that fits within ~3MHz (so voice yes, TV
probably not) and within the range of the device (probably under 2.2GHz.) You
can use transverters to bring other frequencies in range to listen to them too.

> Also I'm not sure how SDR devices works, from looking at the video it looks
> they are receiving a really broad piece of radio spectrum, aren't these
> devices supposed to tune to one specific frequency?

They do tune to a given frequency, but then receive a very wide band around
that frequency. This is the key to SDR. The wider the frequency band you can
receive, the more you can do in software - like tuning multiple radio stations
at the same time, or decoding signals that change frequency very rapidly and
would otherwise require expensive hardware to decipher.

> Thank you in advance for answering these totally noob questions...

No worries, but do search the web - there's a lot of info already out there!

Cheers,
Adam.

[valent....@gmail.com]

Adami thank you very much, this info was just I needed to get basics
things sorted in my mind, now I can continue to further research
online.

Valent.