The Poor Mans Spectrum Analyser - Spektrum

Over a year ago I bought a Nooelec Ham It Up Plus Upconverter to use as both as an Upconverter and as a wideband noise source, and an RF bridge, also known as a Return Loss or VSWR Bridge, with the intention of combining them with an RTL-SDR to create a poor mans spectrum analyser.

Now we're unable to leave the house for all but "essential trips" I've had more time to play with radio toys so I got the kit out to experiment with, and tested a couple of filters and antennas to see if it was viable.

The VSWR Bridge

Nooelec Ham It Up Plus - Receiving High Frequency Amateur Radio Using a Laptop

The Nooelec Ham It Up Plus Upconverter takes a radio signal and converts lower frequencies into higher ones. In the case of the Ham It Up, all frequencies are increased by 125MHz, pushing the 0 - 30 MHz Amateur HF bands into the 25MHz - 1750MHz receiver range of an RTL-SDR Software Defined Radio. This allows you to listen to Amateur Radio on your laptop.

It isn't a new device, in fact I've owned it for over a year and not got around to playing with it. But this weekend I had a spare hour to give it a go and was quite surprised when I heard a German station calling CQ.

NooElec Ham It Up Upconverter and Nesdr SMArt RTL-SDR