rtl-sdr¶
RTL2832U DVB-T dongle repurposed as a wideband receive-only SDR
Vendor: various (Realtek RTL2832U reference design)
Status: supported — the identifiers and setup recipe are believed correct.
Not maintainer-verified: nobody on this project has run this hardware yet. The two facts are recorded separately on purpose (D-027) — a correct recipe and a tested device are different claims.
What it is¶
A television tuner dongle whose chipset can be driven as a general-purpose receiver, roughly 24 MHz to 1.7 GHz depending on the tuner, receive only. The cheapest way into SDR by a wide margin, and the reason most people have one.
What you can do with it¶
Listen to broadcast and amateur bands, decode ADS-B, ISM-band sensors, POCSAG and AIS, and feed the whole utility-decoder cluster.
Setup¶
Install the packages and add yourself to plugdev; librtlsdr's udev rules grant that group the device. The kernel's dvb_usb_rtl28xxu television driver can claim the dongle first, and rtl_test then reports it busy (usb_claim_interface error -6). Whether the distribution ships a blacklist for that driver varies: Ubuntu 24.04's librtlsdr2 2.0.1-2build1 ships an empty /etc/modprobe.d and no blacklist file (read from the package archive, 2026-09-30); the other targets are unmeasured. docs/guides/sdr.md gives the one-line blacklist and how to undo it.
Known problems¶
The dvb_usb_rtl28xxu kernel driver claiming the device is the single most common failure and looks like broken hardware. Clones vary enormously in oscillator stability — the kalibrate-rtl tool, carried in this catalog, exists for exactly this, and rtl_test -p gives a rough figure. The librtlsdr rules file matches over forty rebadged devices, so a dongle sold under another name usually still works.
How it identifies itself¶
| USB id | What | Confirmed | Node |
|---|---|---|---|
0bda:2832 |
original RTL2832U vid/pid (hama nano, for example) — RTL2832U DVB-T, Realtek Semiconductor Corp. | yes | libusb |
0bda:2838 |
RTL2832U OEM vid/pid, e.g. ezcap EzTV668 (E4000), Newsky TV28T (E4000/R820T) etc. — RTL2838 DVB-T, Realtek Semiconductor Corp. | yes | libusb |
0413:6680 |
DigitalNow Quad DVB-T PCI-E card (4x FC0012?) device — Leadtek Research, Inc. | yes | libusb |
0413:6f0f |
Leadtek WinFast DTV Dongle mini D (FC0012) device — Leadtek Research, Inc. | yes | libusb |
0458:707f |
Genius TVGo DVB-T03 USB dongle (Ver. B) — TVGo DVB-T03 [RTL2832], KYE Systems Corp. (Mouse Systems) | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00a9 |
Terratec Cinergy T Stick Black (rev 1) (FC0012) — RTL2838 DVB-T COFDM Demodulator [TerraTec Cinergy T Stick Black], TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00b3 |
Terratec NOXON rev 1 (FC0013) — NOXON DAB/DAB+ Stick, TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00b4 |
Terratec Deutschlandradio DAB Stick (FC0013) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00b5 |
Terratec NOXON DAB Stick - Radio Energy (FC0013) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00b7 |
Terratec Media Broadcast DAB Stick (FC0013) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00b8 |
Terratec BR DAB Stick (FC0013) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00b9 |
Terratec WDR DAB Stick (FC0013) — WDR DAB/DAB+ Stick, TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00c0 |
Terratec MuellerVerlag DAB Stick (FC0013) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00c6 |
Terratec Fraunhofer DAB Stick (FC0013) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00d3 |
Terratec Cinergy T Stick RC (Rev.3) (E4000) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00d7 |
Terratec T Stick PLUS (E4000) device — TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
0ccd:00e0 |
Terratec NOXON rev 2 (E4000) — NOXON DAB/DAB+ Stick V2, TerraTec Electronic GmbH | yes | libusb |
1554:5020 |
PixelView PV-DT235U(RN) (FC0012) device — Prolink Microsystems Corp. | yes | libusb |
15f4:0131 |
Astrometa DVB-T/DVB-T2 (R828D) — Astrometa DVB-T/T2/C FM & DAB receiver [RTL2832P], HanfTek | yes | libusb |
15f4:0133 |
HanfTek DAB+FM+DVB-T device — HanfTek | yes | libusb |
185b:0620 |
Compro Videomate U620F (E4000) device — Compro | yes | libusb |
185b:0650 |
Compro Videomate U650F (E4000) device — Compro | yes | libusb |
185b:0680 |
Compro Videomate U680F (E4000) device — Compro | yes | libusb |
1b80:d393 |
GIGABYTE GT-U7300 (FC0012) — DVB-T receiver [RTL2832U], Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d394 |
DIKOM USB-DVBT HD device — Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d395 |
Peak 102569AGPK (FC0012) device — Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d397 |
KWorld KW-UB450-T USB DVB-T Pico TV (TUA9001) — DVB-T receiver [RTL2832U], Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d398 |
Zaapa ZT-MINDVBZP (FC0012) — DVB-T receiver [RTL2832U], Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d39d |
SVEON STV20 DVB-T USB & FM (FC0012) device — Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d3a4 |
Twintech UT-40 (FC0013) device — Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d3a8 |
ASUS U3100MINI_PLUS_V2 (FC0013) device — Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d3af |
SVEON STV27 DVB-T USB & FM (FC0013) device — Afatech | yes | libusb |
1b80:d3b0 |
SVEON STV21 DVB-T USB & FM device — Afatech | yes | libusb |
1d19:1101 |
Dexatek DK DVB-T Dongle (Logilink VG0002A) (FC2580) — DK DVB-T Dongle, Dexatek Technology Ltd. | yes | libusb |
1d19:1102 |
Dexatek DK DVB-T Dongle (MSI DigiVox mini II V3.0) — DK mini DVB-T Dongle, Dexatek Technology Ltd. | yes | libusb |
1d19:1103 |
Dexatek DK 5217 DVB-T Dongle (FC2580) — DK 5217 DVB-T Dongle, Dexatek Technology Ltd. | yes | libusb |
1d19:1104 |
MSI DigiVox Micro HD (FC2580) — MSI DigiVox Micro HD, Dexatek Technology Ltd. | yes | libusb |
1f4d:a803 |
Sweex DVB-T USB (FC0012) device — G-Tek Electronics Group | yes | libusb |
1f4d:b803 |
GTek T803 (FC0012) — Lifeview LV5TDLX DVB-T [RTL2832U], G-Tek Electronics Group | yes | libusb |
1f4d:c803 |
Lifeview LV5TDeluxe (FC0012) — NotOnlyTV (Lifeview) LV5TDLX DVB-T [RTL2832U], G-Tek Electronics Group | yes | libusb |
1f4d:d286 |
MyGica TD312 (FC0012) device — G-Tek Electronics Group | yes | libusb |
1f4d:d803 |
PROlectrix DV107669 (FC0012) device — G-Tek Electronics Group | yes | libusb |
Access and permissions¶
Group membership required: plugdev — added at install, applies at next login.
Software that makes it useful¶
dump978-fa, gqrx-sdr, multimon-ng, nrsc5, rtl-433, rtl-sdr, soapysdr-module-rtlsdr