SDRplay Community Forum

These comments, from a new user, appeared on the Facebook Groups site today...

When the SDRPlay came out originally I purchased one. At that time I was unhappy with its performance on VHF and above, and wound up sending it back for a refund, which Jon was only too kind to process. Well I decided I needed a good "portable" SDR so I came back to try again. I just received mine today and I must say I'm pretty pleased when using it with the latest SDR-Console. It is already providing me with a better experience than the first time around after only a few hours.......The SDRPlay will be my on-the-go SDR for use with my laptop. Seems to be working well out of the chute, I just need to adjust to the proper settings for different bands. Thanks!

very happy to be rid of upconverter nonsense!

also happy to have a real frontend with filters. gone are all the wacky aliases and interference all over the spectrum.

sensitivity seems a bit better than rtl-sdr. not a huge amount, but noticeably. i can pick out very weak stations better now, where they would be totally lost in the noise on rtl.

bandwidth up to 8mhz. lol. no idea when i'd ever use that, glad it's available though.

Just received my SDRplay two days ago. Haven't tried it on LF/HF with my Wellbrook loop yet, but with my QFH antenna receiving polar WX satellites on the 137 MHz band, all I can say is WOW! From the couple of satellite passes I've tried with the SDRplay, it blows AirSpy out of the water (and AirSpy is pretty darn good). The NOAA and Meteor M2 passes I've recorded were clearer and had a greater range of capture (north to south) than with any of the other SDRs I've tried (RTL-SDR, bladeRF, AirSpy).

Looking forward to trying it with my discone and loop antennas.

Great work guys!

73,

Chris N2CR

Received my SDRPlay today and it is up and running fine under W7 64bit and SDR Console Build 2.3 2194.

Understanding that SDR Console talks to the SDRPlay API and not SDRPlay EXTIO was and interesting paradigm. The LNA Gain Thresholds, Gain Reduction and Visual Gain API call settings from SDR Console helped performance immensely.

NOTE:The setting that had the most impact (Receive Sensitivity and CPU Load) was setting the sample rate to the lowest "250kHz" sample rate in the "Select Radio" window for the SDRPlay device. Correct me if I am wrong, but I contribute this to a small bandwidth definition/AGC interaction. Using the 250K S/R allowed me to receive stations on 40 and 80 meters that I could not detect when using the higher sample rate selections.

I loaded up HDSDR and SDR# and the lowest ADC S/R I could select was 2M using the SDRPlay EXTIO. I was not able to pull in the stations at all by adjusting SDRPlay EXTIO S/R settings.

I have a couple of questions for the SDRPlay developers.

Question 1:
Is the lowest "250kHz" sample rate selection in the "Select Radio" window for the SDRPlay device done by the mir_sdr_Uninit and mir_sdr_Init API calls of for that matter any of the API calls?

Question 2:
If the answer to Question 1 is an API call, do the API S/R calls perform the same function as the ADC S/R in SDRPlay EXTIO?

Question 3:
If the API call is the same function as the ADC S/R in SDRPlay EXTIO, would HDSDR and SDR# benefit if the SDRPlay EXTIO ADC S/R selection extended down to 250K?

Whatever Simon Brown (G4ELI) is doing by allowing us to have a 250K S/R is SDR Console, tell him to always keep that option in his code. It made that much difference.

Nice product and the 250K SDR Console setting made a huge diff. Now SDRPlay works better then any of the Nooelc RTL dongle(s)/HamitUp/LNA4HF LNA4ALL combinations I have been experimenting with.

I know you are working on resolving the freq. gap and having to reset when changing freq. boundaries. I am looking forward to less devices, and some future SDR fun with my new SDRPlay. Thanks

UPDATE: In SDR Console Build 2.3 2194 the "Select Radio" window has a field called Sample Rate: which has a low value entry of 250kHz that I used and thought might be the same as the EXTIO ADC S/R. I reviewed the User Guide In SDR Console Build 2.3 2194 and it has this field labeled as "Freq. Span". This makes more sense and I now think it is NOT the same as the Sample Rate ADC setting in the SDRPaly EXTIO tool. Needless to say, it does make a huge difference in reception when set to 250kHz.

Hello:
Received my SDRplay this afternoon and it was up and running inside 15 minutes. I am playing with settings in HDSDR.
I am a graduate from RTL receivers (not dongles) and I must say the RSP offers advanced receiver capabilities beyond the R820t.

I have a lot to learn and a lot to play with. But so far I am happy I stepped up from the world of RTL...
Looks like OmniRig continues to handle the "parallel tracking" functions as expected. The TS590 interfaces perfectly and
the SDRplay follows the 590 dial. The HDSDR point and click changes my 590 as I track stations on my Windows 10 desktop.

What a great day!!

73,
W3GAS

Has anyone successfully connected SDRPLAY with a Yaesu Ft950? Most internet information shows that one can simply remove bottom cover and plug a connector into the "SCOPE OUT" jack. After checking output on that jack, I realized there was no signal. I called Yaesu tech Support and was told that the 14 pin connector needs to be connected to a board such as the Yaesu DMU or the RF Space IF2000. Apparently there is digital code that the 14pin connector receives that enable the output of the Scope Out Jack. Hard to believe but that is what Ive been told. Seems a shame.
Im trying to find a place to get the First IF signal to try it out. For now, just using receive only but future for both receive and transmit.

Anyone successfully made a connection without spending more $?

Thanks much
Cliff Nazelli
W8SKQ

Jon
I just found your neat youtube video showing how to flash the microSD card to allow use of the Raspberry Pi3B Plus computer with The SDRPlay RSP1A. When I try to download the link you showed https://sdrplay.com/software/SDRplay_RPi3_V0.4.img.xz all I get is a lot of what look like computer hieroglyphics, obviously computer code, but nothing that I can use to make a flashed SD card. I am using an HP computer with Windows 10, less than a year old. My PC works great. I wondered what I am doing wrong as it appears to have worked well for you. Thanks for your help. ---Marty, Suffolk, VA, USA

Hello KC4FMZ1984 - the .xz file will look like gobbledegook. It's in a lossless compression program which then needs unpacking. If you go to 3 minutes 33 seconds into the video it shows how you need to use another utility like "Etcher" to manage the process of flashing everything onto your SD Card - make sure you an SD card which you are happy to over-write for this purpose. If you still have trouble, just raise a ticket by going here and our support team will help you: http://www.sdrplay.com/support/

Jon,
Thanks for the help. Still having problems here on this end. I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer here and I am having trouble getting the Etcher program to take the downloaded link. Anyway, I am going to keep fiddling with it and if no luck, will raise the white flag for help. Thanks again, Jon, and all the best, Season's Greetings---Marty, Suffolk, VA

I just found your neat youtube video showing how to flash the microSD card to allow use of the Raspberry Pi3B Plus computer with The SDRPlay RSP1A. When I try to download the link you showed https://sdrplay.com/software/SDRplay_RPi3_V0.4.img.xz all I get is a lot of what look like computer hieroglyphics, obviously computer code, but nothing that I can use to make a flashed SD card. I am using an HP computer with Windows 10, less than a year old. My PC works great. I wondered what I am doing wrong as it appears to have worked well for you. Thanks for your help. ---Marty, Suffolk, VA, USA]

Your browser most likely does not know how to process the extension as a file to download when you click it. Try downloading it again using Chrome or Firefox. I just checked the original link and it works here using Chrome.