so ive been messing around with an old RTL-SDR v3 for about 8 months now and honestly its been a blast, mostly doing aircraft stuff on 1090 and poking around on VHF. but lately ive been wanting to get into HF more seriously - shortwave, some 40m and 80m listening, maybe eventually trying to decode some WSPR spots passively. the RTL-SDR with the direct sampling mod works okay but honestly the noise floor is pretty rough and i keep reading that the front end on these things just wasnt really designed for HF.

been looking at the SDRplay RSP1B which i can get for around $110 shipped and it covers basically DC to 2GHz with a proper tuner, way better dynamic range on paper. but im also seeing people swear by just sticking with the RTL-SDR and running it through SDR++ or GQRX with a good preamp and a decent antenna. my antenna situation is pretty modest right now - just a 40ft random wire out the back window.

has anyone actually compared these two side by side on HF? is the RSP1B actually noticeably better or is it one of those things where the antenna matters 100x more than the radio hardware? genuinely cant tell if im about to throw money at a problem that doesnt exist

the RSP1B is a real step up from the RTL-SDR on HF, not gonna sugarcoat it. the direct sampling hack on the dongle is fine for casual poking around but the ADC resolution and that front end are just in a different league. i went through the same thing about two years ago and honestly once i started using SDRuno with the RSP2 i picked up used i couldnt go back to the dongle for HF work. that said your antenna really is going to matter a ton - on 80m especially a random wire can be a nightmare for noise depending on your QTH. i'd say get the RSP1B if you're serious about it but also spend some time with a 9:1 unun on that wire, makes a bigger difference than people expect.

yeah i went RSP1B route last spring and dont regret it but tbh i still use my RTL-SDR for ADS-B because why not keep it running. for HF the dynamic range thing is real - i live near a couple AM broadcast stations and the dongle would just fall apart, birdies everywhere. SDRplay handles it way cleaner. SDR++ works great with it too if you dont want to bother with SDRuno which can be kinda clunky sometimes