02-16-2020, 09:30 AM
RTL-SDR is very reliable, it's been around a long time, works well enough with a cheap standard RTL2832 dongle (under $10). BUT, if you step up to the fancier version with TCXO you don't have to enter a PPM correction for the cheap crystal. You'll probably get direct tuning (tries to tune some HF under 27 MHz), and bias tee support (can power a preamp or upconverter). I've got a couple I got for about $18 on Aliexpress. If you want to listen to SSB the cheaper dongles have enough drift to be a nuisance.
CubicSDR is probably the best software I've found. It's in the debs for Buster and up. I'd rather avoid Gnuradio, it's mostly bloatware. If you want to experiment with different modulation methods maybe but for everyday use it's just too complicated and big. GQRX uses Gnuradio, it's just an app under it. HackRF I think is used by CubicSDR, several things are, so you can try it by itself.
CubicSDR is probably the best software I've found. It's in the debs for Buster and up. I'd rather avoid Gnuradio, it's mostly bloatware. If you want to experiment with different modulation methods maybe but for everyday use it's just too complicated and big. GQRX uses Gnuradio, it's just an app under it. HackRF I think is used by CubicSDR, several things are, so you can try it by itself.