For some reason I still can’t figure out, I recently got interested in the RTL-SDR Tuner Receiver craze. As you may already know, these (toys) can be found on eBay for well under $20.
Like everything else there is a wealth of information about this gear, software, experiments and more all over the Web but I began with the Quick Start Guide.
Not knowing much about it, I started off by grabbing one of these Dongles from eBay with the standard accessories.
Next step was to follow the guide and install the free SDR# on a Windows 10 Preview System I have. This receiver worked well for the standard stuff above 50MHz and I got a kick out of listening to local repeaters, police and fire calls for a few minutes. However, I really wanted to find out how well these toys could tune down on the low bands.
Listening to the HF bands required a different receiver. There are plenty of receivers listed on eBay which cover 100KHz to 1.7 GHz. Poking around on eBay, I found one here for around $55. Since I had an SMA to SO-239 adapter in the junk box, it was easy to connect the receiver up to the G5RV. 
After getting the unit going with the SDR# software I noticed that I didn’t hear diddly-squat on the low bands. Going over the Quick Start Guide didn’t help since it is only set up to get you up and running.
I had to poke around for awhile and found the answer back at the source, the eBay page where I bought the receiver. If I had been a bit more observant up front and scrolled down the page, it would have saved me time Googling.
The settings within SDR# software requires that the Sampling Rate and Sampling Mode have to be temporarily changed for listening in on the low bands. —>>>
Once these settings were made, the receiver played well when connected to the outdoor antenna.
I’d have to add that if you want to experiment with these receivers it’s a minimal investment to get started. Like anything else, it’s also a fun learning experience.
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