so ive been using a cheap RTL-SDR v3 dongle for maybe 8 months now, mostly just scanning aircraft and doing some NOAA satellite stuff which works fine honestly. but i've been wanting to dig into HF a bit more, shortwave, some utility stuff, maybe eventually decode some digital modes properly. the RTL-SDR does HF through direct sampling mode and it's... okay? like it works but the noise floor seems pretty rough and strong signals kind of trash the whole band.

someone at the club mentioned the SDRplay RSP1A and i looked it up, it's like $110 or so which isn't crazy but it's not nothing either. wondering if people who've actually used both think the jump in dynamic range and the better front end is noticeable enough to matter in practice. i know specs on paper can be misleading. also not sure if SDRuno is any good or if i should just be running it through SDR# or something else anyway

not looking at HackRF because i think that's more of a transmit thing and i dont really need that right now

yeah the RSP1A is a real step up for HF, not gonna lie. the direct sampling mode on the RTL dongles is kind of a hack - it works but you're fighting the noise floor constantly and anything near a strong AM broadcast station will just splatter everywhere. the RSP1A has actual hardware filtering and a proper front end attenuator which makes a big difference when you're trying to pull out weak utility signals or SSB stuff.

SDRuno is actually pretty decent these days, they've updated it a lot. bit of a weird interface if you're used to SDR# but it has features baked in that you'd need plugins for otherwise. that said i know guys who run the RSP1A through SDR# with the ExtIO plugin and say it works fine too, just personal preference i guess.

for what you're describing, shortwave and digital modes, the RSP1A is worth it. pair it with a decent wire antenna and SDR-Console or even HDSDR and you'll be surprised what you can hear. just dont expect miracles if your antenna situation is rough, that matters more than people think

i went from rtl-sdr to a hackrf actually and honestly for receive-only stuff it wasnt the best move, hackrf's noise figure is pretty mediocre. ended up getting an RSP1A anyway lol. so yeah if you just want to receive, skip the hackrf for now like you said