---
product_id: 1148699
title: "Nooelec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input. Low-Cost Software Defined Radio Compatible with Many SDR Software Packages. R820T Tuner & ESD-Safe Antenna Input"
brand: "nooelec"
price: "$107"
currency: NZD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
category: "Noo Elec"
url: https://www.desertcart.nz/products/1148699-nooelec-nesdr-mini-usb-rtl-sdr-and-ads-b-receiver
store_origin: NZ
region: New Zealand
---

# 27MHz-1700MHz wide freq. range USB plug & play (with manual driver) ESD-safe antenna input Nooelec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input. Low-Cost Software Defined Radio Compatible with Many SDR Software Packages. R820T Tuner & ESD-Safe Antenna Input

**Brand:** nooelec
**Price:** $107
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 🚀 Unlock the airwaves: Your gateway to pro SDR at a fraction of the cost!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Nooelec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input. Low-Cost Software Defined Radio Compatible with Many SDR Software Packages. R820T Tuner & ESD-Safe Antenna Input by nooelec
- **How much does it cost?** $107 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nz](https://www.desertcart.nz/products/1148699-nooelec-nesdr-mini-usb-rtl-sdr-and-ads-b-receiver)

## Best For

- nooelec enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted nooelec brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Budget Powerhouse:** Outperforms devices 10x its price — perfect for the savvy tech explorer
- • **Built-In ESD Protection:** ESD-safe MCX antenna input safeguards your investment
- • **Plug-Ready USB Interface:** Custom RTL2832U & R820T tuner with USB connectivity for seamless integration
- • **Unmatched Frequency Coverage:** Covers 27MHz to 1700MHz for versatile SDR applications
- • **Software Compatibility Galore:** Works flawlessly with MATLAB, SDR#, HDSDR, and more for pro-grade signal analysis

## Overview

The Nooelec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver is a compact, low-cost software-defined radio device featuring a wide 27MHz-1700MHz frequency range via the R820T tuner and RTL2832U demodulator. It includes an ESD-protected MCX antenna input and supports extensive SDR software like MATLAB and SDR#. Ideal for professionals and hobbyists eager to explore radio signals, ADS-B aircraft data, and more with a reliable 1-year warranty and installation support.

## Description

The perfect device for learning software defined radio, on the cheap. Amateur radio, ADS-B, police & fire scanning, trunking, satellite images--you name it, this little guy can probably do it. Outperforms many devices 10x its cost! These units are based on the R820T tuner IC made by Rafael Micro. As such, they have a frequency capability of approximately 27MHz-1700MHz, though this can vary somewhat from unit to unit. There is also an RTL2832U IC on board of course, which acts as the demodulator and USB interface. The connector type on the antenna and USB board is MCX--male MCX on the antenna, female MCX on the SDR. We perform extensive QA on every batch sold. As with all our SDRs, we guarantee antenna protection will be present so that your new investment will not be quickly destroyed by spurious ESD. SOFTWARE DETAILSFull compatibility with a large array of software packages, such as MATLAB, HDSDR, SDR Touch, SDR#, Planeplotter--too many to list. MathWorks and Nooelec have coordinated to bring MATLAB support for our SDR receivers. The RTL-SDR radio support package enables you to design wireless receivers using real world signals. Using Communications System Toolbox in conjunction with an RTL-SDR USB radio, you can design and prototype systems that process real-time wireless signals in MATLAB and Simulink.

Review: Awesome SDR tool for $20 - I've never been all that interested in radio, or spending any money on it, but when I saw a video describing these $20 RealTek chipset based dongles and how they could be used for SDR and radio spectrograph type applications, I was like "For $20? Count me in!" Like most people I'm using SDR# and not any of the vendor's drivers. The thing that took me a little while to figure out was that the USB drivers for this thing have to be installed manually. (There's absolutely no "plug and play" support for this thing at all, because the driver used by SDR# is a very generic low-level USB driver that is only designed to allow applications to essentially talk directly to just about any USB device supporting some serial protocol.) The easiest way to get this working is to download sdr-install.zip from the SDR# web site, extract it, and run the install script that will download everything you need including zadig (the generic USB driver installer), the RTL chipset plugin for SDR#, and SDR# itself. Before running SDR# you need to run zadig.exe and use it to install the driver. This requires that you select "show all devices" from the Options menu, select your RTL dongle from the pop-up menu, and tell it to install/reinstall the WinUSB driver for that device. Be careful to select your RTL dongle before hitting install or you may accidentally install this over your mouse driver or some other device. (Like I say, this is a generic driver that installs a really basic software interface for any USB device that supports certain attributes, so there's nothing to stop you from overwriting one of the other drivers on your system if you select the wrong device.) Once the WinUSB driver is installed you can just run SDR#, select the RTL device as the input, and hit play. Tip: I'd recommend turning on the auto gain check box for the tuner ("Tuner AGC") in the configuration panel though, unless you want to mess with the manual RF Gain control. (I was able to do pretty well just using the auto gain, but before I enabled the auto gain every signal I was getting was very weak. So you really need some sort of gain adjustment be it manual or auto.) Without much effort and using only the little included antenna I was able to pick up NOAA weather radio (narrowband FM), a number of commercial FM radio stations (wideband FM), the wideband FM transmission from a Sennheiser RS110 926MHz analog wireless headphone transmitter, and see a bunch of other signals on the spectrograph that I didn't recognize. I was also able to pick up 2 or 3 ADS-B transmissions from commercial airplanes, even though I was sitting in my basement and using only the included antenna, though all of these airplanes were within the line of sight angle provided by the window in the room I was in. So this tuner seems to be good for ADS-B, but obviously you're going to need an unobstructed outdoor antenna of some sort to receive signals from all directions. The remote control that comes with the dongle seems to be totally useless since it appears to be an IR device and I don't see how a computer can even receive a signal from it without a separate IR receiver device. (The NooElec dongle doesn't appear to have an IR receiver on it, but I could be wrong.) In any case it would require either the vendor's DTV software or some other software to make any use of it, and I don't know of anyone who's written anything useful that it can be used with. At some point I'll probably buy a MCX to some sort of coax adapter and wire up a proper antenna for it outside, but for now I'm just messing with the cheapo little included antenna. It seems to work better than I expected. Anyway, this is the most interesting $20 gadget that I've bought in a long time. I suspect that one day it will come in handy for helping to locate and rectify sources of radio interference.
Review: Not for beginners or people that aren't into hobby. Not as easy as a police scanner - Cool device. Was easy to install and use. The antenna included works if your in a big area with no buildings or obstructions, if you are you'll see the signal is clear. It's compatible with adding different antennas depending on where you are and what you're trying to listen to. Would I buy it again? Yes I'm buying another one to listen to trunked stuff. Is this for a beginner that can't follow directions or doesn't use computers? No it's not plug and play. If you're looking for a police scanner look elsewhere. If your looking to learn this is a good buy at this price

## Features

- Included: Nooelec USB dongle & antenna
- RTL2832U interface IC & R820T tuner IC on USB dongle
- These are custom USB devices tuned for SDR and include much better components than generics
- Full 1-year warranty & installation support available!

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN | B009U7WZCA |
| Antenna | Radio |
| AntennaDescription | Radio |
| Best Sellers Rank | #22 in External TV Tuners |
| Brand | NooElec |
| Color | Black |
| Compatible Devices | Laptop, Desktop, Tablet, Smartphone |
| Connectivity Technology | USB |
| Connector Type | Mini USB |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,855 Reviews |
| Includes Remote | No |
| Item Weight | 66 Grams |
| Manufacturer | Nooelec Inc. |
| Tuner Type | ads-b,satellite |
| UPC | 616469145598 616469145710 |

## Product Details

- **Brand:** NooElec
- **Color:** Black
- **Compatible Devices:** Laptop, Desktop, Tablet, Smartphone
- **Connectivity Technology:** USB
- **Connector Type:** Mini USB

## Images

![Nooelec NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input. Low-Cost Software Defined Radio Compatible with Many SDR Software Packages. R820T Tuner & ESD-Safe Antenna Input - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71XcMmebiiL.jpg)

## Questions & Answers

**Q: I have one and I love it.  But how does the remote control fit in?  How is it used? TNX**
A: It started life as a tv receiver. Using it as a 'real' software defined radio means (1) the software it started out with is no longer used, and (2) the little remote it came with does not know much about whatever software is in place for your planned use. There are very clever folks about - even now, someone may be looking at the little remote, thinking 'hey, if l decode the signals this remote sends, bet I could lace them into this new code, here, to do....somthing... cool...'  Shorter answer, not intended to be snarky, is: without appropriate code, it fits in a waste can... sorry. Good luck.

**Q: Is there any software to use this as a scanner for digital radio communications?**
A: SDR# (http://www.sdrsharp.com) is a very functional interface that supports a number of different plugins.  Although I didn't find one that would simply scan an open frequency range and stop on any signal above the noise floor, it does allow you to store frequencies and scan through them much as a commercial scanner would do.  As far as digital communications go, none that I'm aware of yet but the GnuRadio (http://www.gnuradio.org) project has more functions and capabilities than one can fathom.  I've decoded a number of digital transmissions (mostly just AFSK, ham packet radio and POCSAG pager messages) but not voice.  Have a look at this sites:http://www.rtl-sdr.com/sdrsharp-plugins/http://www.rtl-sdr.com/http://www.rtl-sdr.com/signal-identification-guide/Good luck.-Charles

**Q: What bands does this unit cover? I'm looking for an HF receiver with 1 MHz~28 MHz bands, anything else is a bonus. Also, I'll be using this on Linux.**
A: The specs are 25 mHz - 1.7 gHz. I only used it for 1 gHz ADS-B.

**Q: I am trying to decide between this and the NooElec NESDR Nano. Has anyone done a comparison?**
A: The NooElec NESDR is basically the same unit with the same chipset in a smaller case. I have several of these smaller versions (nano) and they all work the same as the larger ones with the R820T not the E4000. There is a tuning coverage difference between the versions with the R820T and the version with the E4000. Both work well as SDR's. Don't forget to buy a MCX adapter for an external antenna connection. You may also require an SMA to BNC or PL259.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Awesome SDR tool for $20
*by O***N on March 3, 2014*

I've never been all that interested in radio, or spending any money on it, but when I saw a video describing these $20 RealTek chipset based dongles and how they could be used for SDR and radio spectrograph type applications, I was like "For $20? Count me in!" Like most people I'm using SDR# and not any of the vendor's drivers. The thing that took me a little while to figure out was that the USB drivers for this thing have to be installed manually. (There's absolutely no "plug and play" support for this thing at all, because the driver used by SDR# is a very generic low-level USB driver that is only designed to allow applications to essentially talk directly to just about any USB device supporting some serial protocol.) The easiest way to get this working is to download sdr-install.zip from the SDR# web site, extract it, and run the install script that will download everything you need including zadig (the generic USB driver installer), the RTL chipset plugin for SDR#, and SDR# itself. Before running SDR# you need to run zadig.exe and use it to install the driver. This requires that you select "show all devices" from the Options menu, select your RTL dongle from the pop-up menu, and tell it to install/reinstall the WinUSB driver for that device. Be careful to select your RTL dongle before hitting install or you may accidentally install this over your mouse driver or some other device. (Like I say, this is a generic driver that installs a really basic software interface for any USB device that supports certain attributes, so there's nothing to stop you from overwriting one of the other drivers on your system if you select the wrong device.) Once the WinUSB driver is installed you can just run SDR#, select the RTL device as the input, and hit play. Tip: I'd recommend turning on the auto gain check box for the tuner ("Tuner AGC") in the configuration panel though, unless you want to mess with the manual RF Gain control. (I was able to do pretty well just using the auto gain, but before I enabled the auto gain every signal I was getting was very weak. So you really need some sort of gain adjustment be it manual or auto.) Without much effort and using only the little included antenna I was able to pick up NOAA weather radio (narrowband FM), a number of commercial FM radio stations (wideband FM), the wideband FM transmission from a Sennheiser RS110 926MHz analog wireless headphone transmitter, and see a bunch of other signals on the spectrograph that I didn't recognize. I was also able to pick up 2 or 3 ADS-B transmissions from commercial airplanes, even though I was sitting in my basement and using only the included antenna, though all of these airplanes were within the line of sight angle provided by the window in the room I was in. So this tuner seems to be good for ADS-B, but obviously you're going to need an unobstructed outdoor antenna of some sort to receive signals from all directions. The remote control that comes with the dongle seems to be totally useless since it appears to be an IR device and I don't see how a computer can even receive a signal from it without a separate IR receiver device. (The NooElec dongle doesn't appear to have an IR receiver on it, but I could be wrong.) In any case it would require either the vendor's DTV software or some other software to make any use of it, and I don't know of anyone who's written anything useful that it can be used with. At some point I'll probably buy a MCX to some sort of coax adapter and wire up a proper antenna for it outside, but for now I'm just messing with the cheapo little included antenna. It seems to work better than I expected. Anyway, this is the most interesting $20 gadget that I've bought in a long time. I suspect that one day it will come in handy for helping to locate and rectify sources of radio interference.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not for beginners or people that aren't into hobby. Not as easy as a police scanner
*by A***. on September 11, 2025*

Cool device. Was easy to install and use. The antenna included works if your in a big area with no buildings or obstructions, if you are you'll see the signal is clear. It's compatible with adding different antennas depending on where you are and what you're trying to listen to. Would I buy it again? Yes I'm buying another one to listen to trunked stuff. Is this for a beginner that can't follow directions or doesn't use computers? No it's not plug and play. If you're looking for a police scanner look elsewhere. If your looking to learn this is a good buy at this price

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A very good product otherwise, but flimsy antenna connector.
*by E***S on February 10, 2014*

This is one of many inexpensive DVB-T dongles originally intended for off-the-air television reception in Europe. They don't work for that purpose in North America, but it turns out that with free software they can be used as software defined radios (SDRs) from about 45 MHz to 1.7 GHz. I used it with gqrx software running on Linux, and was able to receive a great variety of signals using TV rabbit ears as an antenna. Even the tiny antenna included was usable, especially with clip leads added. With either one I could pick up FM broadcast stations, weather radio, ham radio on 2 meters, and much more. I was also successful picking up position and altitude telemetry from aircraft using dump1090 software on Linux. If you don't have Linux, gqrx is also available for Mac, as is other free SDR software for Windows. This product worked very well, but I have reduced my rating by one star because the MCX antenna connector broke. The connector body on the circuit board looks very substantial, but the part which snaps onto the antenna cable was pressed in and eventually popped out when the cable was pulled sideways. The connector is on the side of the dongle, not the end, and that makes it even more vulnerable. I replaced this unit with a NooElec NESDR Nano, which appears to be a sturdier design with equal performance. However, this unit could last a long time if you are careful to avoid sideways forces on the antenna connector. If you do not use the antenna provided, you will probably need an MCX to F adapter or cable. I recommend a cable with a right-angle MCX connector to reduce the chance of damage. The remote control included in the package has no known use unless you are receiving DVB-T signals.

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*Product available on Desertcart New Zealand*
*Store origin: NZ*
*Last updated: 2026-03-02*