RTL-SDR and the AM Band

With the Release V1.1.0 AM-Band support has been added for selected RTL-SDR devices. Please not that this does not automatically mean that it will work on every RTL-SDR device.

Most hardware – specifically RTL-SDR sticks that are only meant to work as DVB-T or T-DAB sticks – were never intended to be used in the AM Band. So actually there is a method how you may be able to modify such devices to open their functionality to the AM-Band but we explicitly do not guarantee that it will work; and if it works we neither guarantee satisfactory performance from this method.

A detailed description how to modify a generic RTL-SDR based DVB-T stick for the AM-Band can be found here: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-direct-sampling-mode/. The part about the software you don’t need to worry about as it has now already been implemented in the STARWAVES DRM Softradio App. But, as stated before and also mentioned on the RTL-SDR website, “the performance can not be expected to be as good as an upconverter without the addition of extra filtering circuits.

However, we hope you can really get some satisfying results. Please let us know your experiences, successes or frustrations. Every comment will help us improving our product and pointing you and others to the most useful solution for the desired application 🙂