Hi there,
I have optimised my QO-100 setup to a degree where I am happy with it for the time being. My signal with 2W into a 70cm dish is about 6dB below beacon level and fine fo QSOs in CW and SSB.
While I'm enjoying QSOs with that setup, I'm already thinking ahead for the next possible improvements: The S/N of my setup with a cheap Chinese RTL-SDR stick is obviously not as good as the various WEB SDRs, i.e. signals which are barely audible in my setup are better on the WEB SDRs. While my possibilities to increase the dish size are a bit limited, I wonder whether there are other possible improvements.
In order to get a feeling if it's worth investing in that part of the RX chain: Has anybody made a performance comparison between different SDR receivers? Is it worth investing in a more sophisticated SDR RX, to have a better reception than the Chinese RTL-SDR clone? Are there other SDR X with a significantly better performance? How does the RTL-SDR perform in comparison with a downconverter and a conventional HF or VHF RX?
73 Jens HB9EKO