I think SDR is really amazing technology. I got one of the RTL sticks I think about 2 years ago, for no money ($20 ? or less). Within about a day I was receiving FM radio using GNU Radio on my laptop, and wishing I had a better aerial. Now I have a small discone antenna ($100) and I'm still playing with receiving all sorts of radio broadcasts off and on. So yes you should definitely try it.
This was an intro I wrote back when I started: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/real-cheap-software-de...