Always worried about damage…
I love the SDR world and want to become an avid user. Receivers are always improving and the applications are endless! Whether scanning trunked P25 radio systems or listening to shortwave broadcasts from around the world, SDRs are a welcome addition to any station.
My issue is that I transmit on various radio services and I’m always afraid that my transmissions will damage the front end of my SDRs, which leads me to not using SDRs as much as I’d like.
I have an sdrplay duo, rtl-sdr and I’d like to buy a kraken sdr, but these devices (not all at once) would be used in my vehicle, and antennas would all be less than five feet from transmit antennas transmitting with anywhere between 25 and 125 watts on frequencies between 1.6MHz and 520MHz.
I don’t want to damage the SDR(s), but I need to be able to transmit near them. I’ve thought about trying to design an “antenna shunt interlock” system, where if any radio transmits, the receiver inputs are shorted to ground during transmit. I have some Teledyne SMA coax switches (and some shorting sma caps) and could potentially get this up and running…
Do I need to do this? Are SDRs robust enough to take the abuse? Are some SDRs more forgiving than others? Can the kraken withstand one of its five antennas being about a foot from a HF antenna transmitting at 125w?
Any insight on how to best avoid damage to SDR receivers while in close proximity to transmitters would be greatly appreciated!!