I personally enjoy watching "fail" videos, particularly the Fail Army channel on youtube. It kind of helps me to learn what not to do, along with laughter.
From my pre-SDR electronics era, I get used to fails so much in electronics.
Things go up in smoke.
Diodes literaly burn.
Caps literaly explode.
My first attempt in electronics was a colpits LC oscillator FM transmitter. I welcomed capacitance to my life. RF Shielding was another beneficial part of learning electronics, which years later helped me to solve my RTL-SDR problems. I prepared a short list of my failures, hoping to help newcomers to suffer less.
- RTL-SDR, being a marvellous technology, it's not meant to do what we try to do.
- RTL-SDR is not RF shielded, so you must shield.
- Too much gain is bad. The minimum possible is the best.
- If you are not get used to working with coaxial/shielded cables, even few millimeters of exposed core will pick up noise.
- If you don't think it'll pick up noise, it'll pick up the worst noise you can imagine.
- Before blaming your SDR, or software of your choice,blame yourself, even if you're not.
- Antennas are weird things. Your body (capacitance) will change the performance of *any* antenna.
- This means, an antenna may perform better while you're around.(or vice versa)
- The RF noise inside the room with computer/tv/mobile/chargers etc. is immense.
- The RF noise inside the room with computer/tv/mobile/chargers etc. is immense.
- The RF noise inside the room with computer/tv/mobile/chargers etc. is immense.
- (Double previous three items)
- If you're like me, lacking the space to mount an antenna, move it as far/as high as possible from everything. (This applies to VHF and above frequencies. Don't blame me if your antenna sucks on receiving 40 meters...)
- The higher the noise or strong transmitters nearby, you'll have HEAPS lot of harmonics infesting your bandwith.
- 50 Hz/60Hz is nasty to deal with.
- Shielding is easy, grounding that shield is not.
- Don't try your SMD soldering skills on your SDR if you have never ever done smd but through the hole components. (Use computer junk to test your soldering tip/temp/skills)
- Maybe just coincidence or not but, ground plane antenna tuned to a frequency seemed to provide the best SNR for me.
- If you're in to Satellite telemetry/tracking etc. using a tripod will keep your antenna happy, particularly for mobile operations.
There might be more to come here as I started to develop my own antenna AZ/EL rotator. Feel free to comment more if you have more fails to contribute!