so ive been using a cheap RTL-SDR v3 dongle for about a year now, mostly just scanning trunked systems locally and poking around the airwaves with SDR# and it's been fine for that. but lately i've been wanting to do more HF stuff, like actually sit down and listen to shortwave, maybe decode some WSPR or do some weak signal stuff, and i'm starting to wonder if the RTL-SDR is just holding me back or if i'm doing something wrong with the software setup.

the direct sampling mode on the v3 works but honestly it sounds pretty rough below like 10 MHz, lot of spurious junk and the noise floor is just not great. i played around with SDRangel for a bit but couldn't really get the hang of it, kept crashing on my laptop anyway. a buddy of mine swears by his RSPdx and says the difference is night and day but he also spent like $200 on it so of course he's gonna say that.

is it actually worth going to an SDRplay or should i just grab a HackRF for the transmit capability down the road? i dont really need to transmit right now but knowing me i probably will want to eventually. just trying to figure out where to put the money before i do something dumb

honestly the RSPdx is a pretty significant jump over the RTL-SDR for HF, not gonna lie. the dynamic range alone makes a huge difference when you're trying to pull weak signals out near strong broadcasters. direct sampling on the v3 was a clever hack but it's still a hack - you're fighting the hardware the whole time. i picked up an RSP1A a couple years ago before upgrading to the RSPdx and even the cheaper SDRplay units are noticeably cleaner on the lower bands.

that said if you think you want transmit capability eventually, the HackRF is a different animal. it's not as good a receiver as the SDRplay in my experience - higher noise floor, less dynamic range - but you get that 1MHz to 6GHz coverage and the TX side which is genuinely useful for experimentation. just don't expect it to be great at everything. SDRangel actually works pretty well with the HackRF once you get the drivers sorted, though yeah it can be crashy on older hardware.

if i were in your spot and mostly cared about listening quality, SDRplay. if i wanted to eventually mess with transmitting and didn't mind a slightly rougher receive experience, HackRF. two different tools kinda.

SDRplay all the way for HF listening, the RSP1A is only like $110 now and it absolutely stomps the RTL dongle for that kind of work. i tried to make the direct sampling thing work for months and kept getting frustrated. swapped to the RSP1A and it just worked, fired up SDRuno and was hearing stuff i never knew was there.

one thing worth mentioning - whatever you end up with, a decent antenna and a good common mode choke on the feedline will do more for your noise floor than almost any receiver upgrade. i spent a weekend cleaning up my antenna situation and it helped as much as the SDR upgrade honestly. anyway yeah dont bother with the HackRF if you mainly want to receive, it's more of a lab tool