Here is a quick comparison table I made for myself just yesterday.
The purpose was to get an overview what is currently possible
for what money. It most probably has errors but
the sources are mentioned, so you can check for yourself.
It's just the devices I stumbled upon, there are probably others.
EDIT: The videos just mention devices and that's where I got the ideas for what people are actually using. They don't contain any device comparisons or anything like that.
Since the HackRF is open source, there's a group that makes a lower-cost clone called the HackRF Blue: http://shop.hackrfblue.com/. Their model is $215, and they have some units that have some minor issues (can transmit jut fine) for $150.
I haven't used the HackRF Blue, so I can't compare it to the HackRF One. There are a few comparisons floating around the internet.
That is getting closer to my price range. I saw something called the SDRX01B and was wondering if anyone heard of it or was able to comment on its performance.
$24? Maybe if it's fulfilled by Amazon Prime or whatever and including same-hour shipping. If you're willing to wait for shipping, the exact same shit is like 1/3 the price from China (eg [0])
The upgraded clock would be really nice; I have a standard RTL-SDR without that, and the clock can drift a lot with temperature: it'll start up a few dozen PPM off, and shift another few dozen when it warms up. Depending on frequency, that ends up being many kilohertz, which is really annoying if you're shifting/filtering/downsampling, as your target signal can drift outside of your filter window.
A constant ppm error is easy to compensate for; less so when it changes.
That antenna looks like it's a lot better than the normal one. The normal one is essentially useless for most purposes, and you have to get a $10 MCX adapter to plug it in to a real antenna.
Love the RTL-SDRs and the HackRF ... my first SDR was called the Zeta SDR ... it is a DIY direct conversion receiver with less than 10 parts or so, and you plug it into a soundcard. The schematics are available online, and I think I put it together with all brand new stuff for less than $30. It is only a single band, however you can add a digital synth like the Si5351A and if you can handle the hash and spurs the thing supports a range from below 1mhz to almost 10mhz. If you have a 16 bit or 24 bit soundcard, then the dynamic range is superb. If it is 192khz or so then you can see that / 2 as the range... Anyway... this was a while ago, and it was very satisfying to put together a simple circuit and get going. I used Quisk and various other things, but I'm sure GNU Radio would work.
Not to be rude, I have no way of judging your skill level, but are you sure you understand the implications of 20-100khz bandwidth and a tuning range of 1-10mhz? Here is the table at top with the zeta included. I'd _strongly_ recommend going with the rtl-sdr over the zeta as a first radio.
Yes I'd go along with this. You're going to have a plug & play experience more so with the RTL... I guess my interest at the time was transatlantic weak digital signals on HF ham bands. With the RTL-SDR you'll be able to "see" all your favorite radio stations, listen to or track airplanes, and all kinds o things. With an upconverter (~$40) you'll get into HF a bit as well.
