I just published two posts in SWLing Post blog.
First one is about using a SDR as a pan-adapter for a commercial communications receiver.
http://swling.com/blog/2015/12/how-to-use-the-sdrplay-rsp-as-a-panadapter/
Pan-adapter is simply a spectrum display which lets you see what’s around the frequency you’ve tuned to.
The second post is about repairing an Icom IC-R72 receiver. The logic behind this repair would be useful for beginners to troubleshoot similar problems. In this case, probably someone had transmitted with high power, near to this receiver: