so ive been using a cheap RTL-SDR v3 for probably two years now, mostly just poking around on VHF/UHF and occasionally trying to do some HF stuff with the direct sampling mode which honestly works okay for what it is but its clearly not amazing. i know the noise floor is rough and the dynamic range isnt great but for free basically it gets the job done for casual listening.

anyway i keep reading that the SDRplay RSP1B or whatever the current one is makes a huge difference on HF especially, and im wondering if people who have actually used both can tell me if its noticeable enough to justify the cost. i think theyre around $120 USD now? my use case is mostly just monitoring ham bands, maybe some MW DXing in the winter, and id like to do some decoding stuff like FT8 reception and maybe WSPR.

also curious if HackRF is even worth considering for receive-only use or if thats overkill and worse than the SDRplay for actual HF sensitivity. i see people talk about HackRF a lot but i think its more of a transmit/research thing than a serious receive setup?

yeah the SDRplay is genuinely noticeably better on HF, not just a little bit better. the direct sampling hack on the RTL dongles was always kind of a hack and you can hear it. the RSP1B has actual frontend filtering and the noise floor is just cleaner, makes a real difference when youre trying to pull weak signals out on 40m or 80m especially at night when the band is crowded.

for WSPR decoding specifically i went from decoding maybe 30-40 stations a night with the RTL to consistently seeing 80-100 with the RSPdx i eventually upgraded to, though thats the more expensive one. even the base RSP1B should be a meaningful step up. the 12-bit ADC vs the 8-bit in RTL dongles matters more than people think, especially for dynamic range when a nearby strong signal is stomping on everything.

HackRF for receive only is kind of a waste yeah. its 8-bit too and its designed around transmit flexibility, the receive performance is actually not as good as a dedicated RX-only SDR at the same price point. if youre not doing anything that needs transmit capability id skip it entirely for this use case.

I went SDRplay RSP1A a few years back and havent looked back. The difference on HF is real. My RTL still gets used for ADS-B because why not, its fine at 1090 MHz, but for anything below 30 MHz the RSP wins pretty easily. You can actually use it without a separate upconverter which is nice.

One thing nobody mentions much — the SDRuno software that comes with it is actually pretty decent now, it was rough when i first got mine but theyve updated it a fair bit. You can also use it with SDR# or GQRX or whatever you prefer which is good because software lock-in is annoying. For FT8 monitoring just pipe it into WSJT-X via virtual audio cable and it works great.