Hams, any opinions on hackrf?

[szatox]

I'm mildly interested in radio com, I've been occasionally looking at SDRs on the market and thinking about what I'd like to do about maybe joining the hobby, and I found this one device which _maybe_ would be a good start for me, but I'm not quite convinced and don't want to spend 500$ on a fancy paperweight, which is roughly what I'd need to cough up for the device and antenna.

So, hackrf.
+ wide frequency range, 1MHz - 6GHz.
- 8 bit ADC, I was surprised it can be this small and still work
- rx amp is said to be being easy to fry
- sold as a radio lab test equipment, it's unclear if it's only for legal reasons, or because it overall is a bad receiver with a very wide frequency range as its only redeeming quality

Does anyone here know this thing?
Would it make a scanner suitable for getting my feet wet? Is it sensitive enough to pick up signals form hams, weather broadcasts and so on?
Could I use it to snoop in on emcomms in case of disasters, or something like that? I mean, 500$ is 500$, would be nice if it had a second purpose besides being a new toy...
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[Banana]

I am still in the same situation and started with a simple USB SDR and some software. I've started (and still are) with https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/

So far I do not regret it and it is a very good starting point to get the feet wet and get to know if any better products will be necessary. Because a good product alone does not make something good. And yes it works with linux. Haven't tested it with gentoo yet.
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[szatox]

That rtl doesn't go anywhere nearly as high into microwave spectrum, but man, I could get it so much cheaper it actually is a tempting suggestion.

What feats have pulled using this dongle?
I know I could google it, but there surely is a world of difference between anti-proffesionals (because money flows in the opposite direction) calling themselves amateurs and newcomers, so I can't really expect to get the results from brag stories born on the internet.
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[eccerr0r]

Question is what exactly do you want to monitor?

Most microwave stuff is encrypted, I doubt many people are using FM or SSB or something that's not digital/QAM/CDM/... on microwave frequencies. Most of that stuff is on cellphones and stuff and that's really short range, encrypted, and illegal to monitor. Yes there's some satellite but most of that's also encrypted.

Emergency comms are trending to P25 and encryption on that is part of the standard.

Or are you just planning to listen on the amateur bands? Or what's left on analog/unencrypted?

I was thinking about getting an rtl-sdr but really haven't found a good use statement for it. Sure I could monitor anything I wanted but not much I really want to hear these days... Only thing is perhaps monitoring my power meter transmitting updates, but not much else. Otherwise I'd probably at most use it for a waterfall display for HF perhaps.

What I do need to do is get CAT control working on my hf rig... put in the UART but it's not working :(
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