OK, my channel is called Frugal Radio for a reason. Lol.
Seriously though – you don’t need to spend a fortune to get started with Software Defined Radios. Many people use old PCs to handle their monitoring and decoding. In my case, I snagged 5 x Dell Optiplex 9020 Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs, each with a Windows 10 Pro license for less than $25 each.
You’ll have to watch the video to find out the exact price I paid – it will blow your mind!
These PCs are hooked up to a variety of SDRs, mostly made up of my favourite RTL-SDR v3 dongles, with the occasional NooElec NESDR thrown in for good measure 😉
In my case, I had been picking up used monitors for a while, which is why these are hooked up to something of an assortment of screens. For example, I had bought 3 x 27″ 1920×1080 displays for $90 a few years ago (i.e. $30 USD each) from a local online listing.
Hopefully you’ve managed to find some decent deals to power your shack. Hit up the comments section in the video and let me know!!!