NooElec Ham It Up v1.2 - NooElec RF Upconverter For Software Defined Radio. Works With Most SDRs Like Funcube, RTLSDR (RTL2832U with E4000, FC0013 or R820T Tuners); MF/HF Converter With SMA Jacks

Using connected to a RTL-SDR Realtek RTL2832U R820T mini USB dongle and GQRX software built on MacOSX Mavericks via MacPorts. If you previously dabbled with this software you just add minus 125MHz in the right box: ie put "-125.000000 MHz" into the "LNB LO" field in the "Configure I/O devices" sub panel and then frequencies displayed are automatically corrected (you can do more accurate calibration later).All together this set up performs well considering I don't have a significant SW antennae. Its good enough for a casual user exploring SW signals on a computer.Ordered the  NooElec Extruded Aluminum Enclosure Kit, Blue  from NooElec at the same time to save messing about, a good decision I think as it is the best way of preventing PCB damage and accidental shorts but also shields from any stray RF. Both items arrived in one package in just over a week without gathering additional charges; lucky me. Thank you.The crystal was already in place in the socket.Input RF and output are both female SMA connectors.Was also going to get the equivalent adapters direct from NooElec but these proved to be available a bit cheaper and quicker here: SMA-m to MCX-m  and  SMA-m to BNC-f You will need a USB cable for power, I use one from an old printer connected to a desk based power only hub. Seems to draw only about 20 mA in use so you could use a socket on your computer if pushed.Pleased with the performance and strongly recommend getting the blue metal box at the same time (add both to basket, then buy). NooElec Extruded Aluminum Enclosure Kit, BlueSMA-m to MCX-mSMA-m to BNC-f

Suffers a lot from electrical noise. Compared to my cheap chinese SW portable radio (SDR too) it is reasonably sensitive but some frequencies are unusable because of noise where the portable radio with its telescopic aerial, next to my PC can pickup more with less noise when this HamItUp is connected to a multi-band dipole on the roof - connected by Balun and low-loss coax is less sensitive but just picks up noise all the way from 130Khz to 30Mhz and all the way past 500Mhz on "Pass through"I powered this and a PC (at 5m away) from batteries to lower some of the noise caused by noise on the DC and coupling. This needs ferrite beads too. NooElec are generally good products but need to re-design for compatibility.

This is an excellent upconverter and great value at the current selling price of £38. I particularly like the way RF passthrough is implemented using electronic switches - this opens up the possibility to have the upconverter near the aerial and remotely switch the upconverter in- or out- of the signal chain.Including the broadband noise source adds great value. Beware though if you connect direct to the antenna input of a receiver - the schematic shows a pi- attenuator on the noise output, but this is *not* implemented on the actual hardware, so no protection against overloading, and also there's more likelihood of passband ripple due to any impedance match not being reduced by buffering.

I used to SWL in the 60's and built my own double conversion superhet - saw on YouTube videos of SDR radio using TV USB dongles so I bought one just for fun not expecting a lot.I was blown away by the performance and the ability of software like SDR# so I decided to buy the HamitUp converter for LF to HF frequencies - it works extremely well.

Works well, but I found that it wasn't necesarry for accessing freq's that I was interested in so probably a waste of a purchase. except that I'm pretty sure it will be useful for something one day so worth keeping around. It works, it wasn't super expensive and it's a handy little gadget to have lying around to experiment with. Thats all I really wanted it for so no complaints here.