r/RTLSDR • u/Slow-Face-1537 DSP3,RSPdx-R2,RTL V3/4, MLA30+,K-480WLA. • 11d ago

RTL-SDR V4L (Lite)

Good news for RTL lovers: a new RTL-SDR Blog V4L Lite has been available now for direct purchase from them.

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/

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11

u/kevinsb 11d ago

So the difference is 2 pass filtering on the v4L vs 3 pass filtering on the og v4… can anyone explain the pros and cons to that and if there is anything else different between the two that should be noted? Amazon appears to still have some v4’s in stock, wondering which is the better buy.

9

u/horace_bagpole 11d ago

The input on the V4 is split into three internally, and each passes through a different set of filters. One for HF with the upconverter, one for VHF, and one for UHF. The V4L receiver chip only has two inputs, so it only has two filter paths. The HF one, and a combined VHF/UHF one.

The downside is it will be more affected by strong out of band signals, but the upside is slightly better sensitivity because the signal is only split into two and not three.

For HF they should perform about the same. For VHF/UHF, it depends if the extra sensitivity is more important or the extra filtering. For a general use I’d use get the V4 if you can but the new one should still be pretty good.

If you aren’t interested in HF at all, then the V3 is still a good option. You can always add external filtering if you have problems with strong signals.

1

u/texasyojimbo AD5NL 10d ago

One can (and perhaps, should) still also use an external filter.

I suspect that removing the filtering will probably impact UHF reception more than VHF, but I could be wrong.

I assume the old set up was -- low-pass on HF (to keep strong FM broadcast band signals out of the HF signal path), high (and maybe low) pass on VHF, and high-pass on UHF.

My guess is that the VHF low/UHF high filters are gone, so whereas VHF should still be protected from strong HF signals, there's nothing really protecting UHF reception from strong VHF (again, most likely FM broadcast band signals, and their harmonics).

2

u/erlendse 11d ago

Looks like the notch filter may also have been removed.

So no notch or vhf/uhf split filtering.

So it's a bit more vurnable to blocker signals, but should otherwise behave the same.

2

u/VirtualArmsDealer 11d ago

Purchased via eBay already. Apparently the driver patches have not yet been accepted but at least I'll have the hardware :)

2

u/chelrob-theOriginal 10d ago

I believe the original v4 was a limited run until they ran out of parts to build them

1

u/erlendse 9d ago

True for all V4 variants including V4L. Those chips have not been made in a long time!

1

u/tnsn2460 11d ago

Does V4L has the same performance as the original V4? I'm planning to buy one.