SDR Radio on the cheap.

The other month I ordered a DVB-T USB dongle from China via E-bay for £12!
This little device uses the Realtek RTL2832U chip with the Elonics E4000 tuner IC.  

The RTL2832U outputs 8-bit I/Q-samples, and the highest theoretically possible sample-rate is 3.2 MS/s, however, the highest sample-rate without lost samples that has been tested so far is 2.8 MS/s. The frequency range is highly dependent of the used tuner, sticks that use the Elonics E4000 offer the best range (64 - 1700 MHz).
I've been using it with a Discone in the loft and after testing a few programs have settled on SDR# .

You can see from the screen shot that the bandwidth in the window is 2.048 MHz. It is possible to run up to 3.2MHz but you will suffer from packet loss and stutter.

I must say I'm suitable impressed with something so cheap, the plan is to build it into a screened box and add a HF converter and some filtering. I'll keep you informed!