TV Dongle SDR

I covered how to set up a TV dongle to be used as a software defined radio in linux and thought it would be a good time to show how I did it in windows. I dont use windows often (actually only when I absolutely have to) but its nice to have the same or similiar software available for both.

Software defined radios are neat rigs. The can be costly however if you have a TV dongle that uses the RTL2832U chipset then you are in luck. For $20 you can have a software defined radio. The one I purchased was from DX.com but any tuner will do. The TV tuners generally do not have the best receive versus the actual SDR dongles but you cant beat the price.

As of this writing you can purchase the one I did via http://dx.com/p/ezcap-eztv665-dvb-t-usb-2-0-hdtv-tuner-receiver-set-1-x-cr2025-158821.

It does take a while to arrive but worth the wait. Use the following instructions below to install a full SDR setup in Windows. I used windows 7 however pretty much any version should work, howeer not sure about windows 8...thats a different beast all together

Get Required Files

You will need 4 zip files, I have them on my domain but I have a link to the origional source in case there are more up to date versions. However I know these 4 work together as they are:

RelWithDebInfo.zip sdr-nightly-rtlsdr.zip sdr-nightly.zip zadig.zip

original source original source original source original source

Remove TV Dongle Drivers

If you have any drivers installed for the stick remove them

Extract And Install

unzip sdr-nightly.zip
unzip sdr-nightly-rtlsdr.zip

Move the following files from the sdr-nightly-rtlsdr folder into the sdr-nightly folder
SDRSharp.RTLSDR.dll
msvcr100.dll
libusb-1.0.dll
libusb0.dll
config\SDRSharp.exe.config

unzip RelWithDebInfo.zip
move the rtl-sdr-release\x32\rtlsdr.dll into the sdr-nightly folder

unzip zadig.zip
move the zadig.exe into the sdr-nightly folder

Clean Up

Remove all folders except the sdr-nightly folder

Setup Hardware

Navigate into the sdr-nightly folder and run the zadig.exe
In the drop down select "Bulk In, Interface (Interface 0)"
Click the Install Driver button (on some systems it may say replace driver)

Run SDR Sharp

While in the sdr-nightly folder double click "SDRSharp.exe"
In the top left hand side click play, your SDR should be up and running, just select the frequency and mode and your good to go