Melih Karakelle

DIY RTL-SDR Shielding

Hi there,

I was looking for a shielding solution for my modified RTL-SDR dongle. I came across some blog posts about RTL-SDR shielding, but most of them involved hard aluminium cases — and I don’t have the tools here to cut or drill metal enclosures. So, I found a softer alternative.

I ordered 25mm-wide pure copper tape from eBay. It’s inexpensive and surprisingly effective for RF applications. Plus, it’s solderable.

It’s sticky enough and very easy to bend and shape.

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I used my fingernails to press and shape the tape neatly around the edges.

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The entire job took less than five minutes. It now looks like a little piece of jewellery! I used four separate strips for the four sides, so I needed to electrically join them together.

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I used my old Metcal SP2V soldering iron — a high-powered unit, ideal for this kind of large copper surface. Here’s the final result:

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I tested it without any antenna attached. Wow — a clean blue screen! It’s working beautifully.

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Thanks for reading!

7 responses to “DIY RTL-SDR Shielding”

  1. Serhat SUT

    Merhabalar,

    Orkun Bey in web sitesine erisemedim, sanirim link bozuk ya da sitesi vefat etmis…
    Altinkaya dedigine gore Ankara da yasadigini tahmin ediyorum, Ankara Konya sokak ta bircok alternatif metal ya da plastik kutu bulunabiliyor. Fiyatlari da oldukca makul seviyede.

    SDR aliciyi ayrica USB uzatma kablosu ile bilgisayardan biraz uzaklastimanin da faydali olabilecegini dusunuyorum.

    Aluminyum kutunun bir baska avantaji dis plastik kaptan kurtulup alicinin kendisini daha genis ve metal bir kutuya koyabilmeniz ve bir de amator telsiz dunyasinda daha yaygin olarak kullanilan UHF ya da N konnektorleri monte edebilmemiz.

    Urettiginiz cozum harika ama 🙂

    Sevgiler,
    Serhat SUT
    TA2ANK

  2. Orkun Kılınç

    Melih Bey Merhaba,

    /r/RTLSDR/ da post’unuzu gördüm. Ben de Altınkaya’dan aldığım alüminyum bir kutuyla benzer bir çalışma yapmıştım. Bakmak isterseniz;

  3. Melih Karakelle

    @Tufan
    Rica ederim.

  4. Melih Karakelle

    @Skip,
    You can open the ventilation slots with a knife. I think it works, but you can also close the holes with a piece of tape.

  5. Tufan

    Merhaba,
    Süper çözüm. ebaydan spariş ettiğim RTL-SDR dongle elime geçsin bende aynısını uygulacağım. Fikir için teşekkürler.

  6. Skip Flem

    What happens to the NOISE LEVEL if you OPEN the Vent Slots?

  7. Simple RTL-SDR Shielding with Copper Tape – rtl-sdr.com

    […] Melih, another RTL-SDR experimenter has recently posted on his blog about his simpler shielding method that uses cheap copper tape. The copper tape was purchased from ebay, and is the type that is commonly used for creating a […]

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