The direct sampling mod allows you to listen to the HF frequencies between 0 – 14 MHz on an RTL-SDR by simply connecting an antenna directly to the ADC pins on the RTL2832U chip. Until recently the impedance of these pins was unknown, but most people assumed that it was about 300 Ohms.
Now Martin (G8JNJ) has recently updated his webpage with some interesting results that he and another experimenter (Robert Symanek) obtained regarding the input imedpance. Robert found that using a Minicircuits T16-6T-KK81 transformer with 50 Ohms on the primary and 800 Ohms on the secondary gave a 16dB to 19dB higher signal than a simpler 200 Ohm transformer.
This inspired Martin to do a proper measurement of the input impedance. Martin’s measurements found that the differential input impedance of the RTL2832U is approximately 3,330 Ohms when the input is enabled, and this would require a 66:1 transformer. However, Martin writes that a wideband transformer like this probably does not exist, but that the T16-6T-KK81 with terminating resistors added is probably a good choice.
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