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...
_________________
Make Computing Fun Again

[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.
_________________
Forum Guidelines

PFL - Portage file list - find which package a file or command belongs to.
My delta-labs.org snippets do expire

[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.
_________________
Make Computing Fun Again

[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 :(
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

[szatox]

> Question is what exactly do you want to monitor?
I don't know, I'm new to this business. I want to see what's on air.
Amateur bands sound good, meddling with wifi with its 40, 80 and 160 MHz wide channels is definitely out of the question; I'm not willing to pay the price of a rig big enough to capture this traffic (and regular wifi adapters are better suited for that job anyway), but bluetooth should be doable on pretty much any SDR reaching into 2.4 GHz band.
What else is there? Weather broadcasts? LoRa? Even if I'm unable to decode contents of some transmissions, I might still be able to figure out what kind of transmissions they are and maybe say something about the source.
Who knows, maybe hunting anomalies would be interesting. I won't know until I try.
The thing I liked about a radio scanner going up to 6GHz is that it should cover pretty much all frequencies with a practical use; I doubt there's anything going on in higher bands.

What's up with those encrypted emcomms? I saw some info about training camps for hams regarding participation, so it looked like it should be available for civilians too, even if you're required to get a license before you transmit anything. Or is it another case of different countries doing things differently?

Regarding legality, I'd rather focus on technical stuff here, like setting expectations for the signals I might be able to find and receive and what are those devices capable of (if you have any experience with them), since what's legal varies from country to country and needs to be sorted out locally anyway.
Fortunately I don't have to obey USA's legislation. Unfortunately, politicians here are just as good at wasting paper.
Did you know in my country it's technically illegal to own a hammer? It is a weight on a stick, which makes it legally a weapon, and if the weight is wider than the stick, it must be registered and you need a permission to own and use it. I mean, nobody will bother stopping you in a hardware store, but according to the weapons law it is _technically_ illegal.
_________________
Make Computing Fun Again

[Ralphred]