In article , rickman wrote:

A specific question about the USB RTL-SDR. Would it and the software
allow me to get much detail in the LF band, specifically around 60 kHz?
That's an area I would like to do some work in.

Not directly. The tuner chips in these devices are designed to
operate at VHF and UHF.

The standard approach, when using these devices on HF, is to use an
upconverter to shift the signal up to somewhere around 120 MHz. You
could do the same with an LF signal, I imagine. Nooelec sells the
"Ham It Up" upconverter for this purpose; I don't know if its input
frequency response extends down to 60 kHz or not.

Some of the display-and-control software (e.g. GQRX on Linux) lets you
plug in a converter LO frequency number; it will then adjust the
frequency numbers on the display accordingly.