You are going to run into serious trouble if you live near high power transmitters, especially FM. The front end of the RTL-SDR has poor large signal handling capabilities.

Bob
N4HY

On Thu, Dec 29, 2022 at 5:08 PM James Hickox via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
Hello.  After many years away, I am beginning to get a shack ready to start using the satellites again.

This time, I cannot go with the best hardware and will.need to do some compromises.  

I played with the SDR dongles awhile back and used one of the $20 wideband preamps. 

 My question:  if I were to set the preamp up with a diplexer as an input filter and 50 ohm terminations for protection along with the proper relays, could this preamp be useful if mounted near the antenna feed point?

I cannot seem to find out any comparisons or testing against other homebrew or commercial units.

Thanks and 73,
James, AA5AO

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--
Dr. Robert W McGwier, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Virginia Tech
Affiliated Faculty, University of Scranton
ARDC Member of Board
N4HY: ARRL, TAPR, AMSAT, EARC, CSVHFS
Sky: AAVSO, Sky360, explorescu.org, Skyscrapers