Just an observation:
The above is only half right. I've spent considerable time and effort into making sure my radio shack is capable on all possible bands and will work no matter what the grid status is.
This dongle may be good for entertainment purposes but the average ham will not see it as anything but a weak link if it requires a laptop computer.
Clicked through as requested.
You are probably correct. The "average ham" is probably not the target of this post, nor is he a reader of my blog, probably. This dongle requires some technical finesse to get working correctly for different kinds of modulations, something your average "appliance operator" will not take the trouble to do. Our hobby loses much because of it.
There are more and more-capable experimenters in the "Maker" and "DIY" communities than in ham radio, and that is sad. I have always been an experimenter, and I have had my ham ticket 33 years now.
That being said, this dongle is capable of serious SIGINT and monitoring of public radio activity, which is needed these days because of the thugs we have in government these days, who think nothing of violating out Constitutional rights.
No, it is not a $4000 ham radio that does everything but make you toast. At $15, it cannot possibly be anything close to that. But for those who are willing to learn, these little Chinese SDR dongles have much to teach. Too bad most American ham radio operators won't take the time to learn.
Those of us who are into the digital modes like ol' engineer is will find alot of value in this little dongle. Combine it with the Ham It Up v1.2 - NooElec RF Upconverter also available on Amazon and you have a nice, cheap amateur radio band HF receiver also with the right software loaded on your laptop.
There are ALOT of hams that use desktops/laptops while on air. Some like me use programs like Ham Radio Deluxe to control my rigs either at home, or over the Internet (I do that from our cabin up north) and some of us also use third-party DSP filters and noise cancelling software with our older rigs to "clean up" the receive and pull out weak signals.
Computer use while on air is much more prevalent than you may think. I know some older hams (late 70's, early 80's) who use their computers on-air for many of the same things I do. These are the guys that were running packet radio on Commie 64's "back in the day" and they've kept up with computer technology.
One other tidbit: Many of the advancements in WiFi technology have their roots in ... amateur radio! There's a TON of wireless based network experimentation going on.