Re: Shortwave Radio (aka HF 2000-30,000kHz)
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 6:23 pm
>I can get lots of HAMs ...there should be hundreds..right ?
That's hard to say with any certainty. Bands can open and close by the minute, and not every ham is on the air all the time.
You'd really have to swap receivers and see on which you can hear particular signals better with the same antenna to get a good feel for the RSP sensitivity. I did that with my Radio Shack DX-390 with my decent antenna and found the RSP pulled out signals clearly that the shortwave receiver had trouble with. There was more signal and less noise with the RSP.
Not long ago I did some comparisons with a ham friend. We were chatting via Skype, he at his place and me at mine, tuning the same signals at the same time. With my RSP1 I was able to hear all the HF signals he was - and then some. He's got a fair bit more effort into his antennas above his house than I do (I just have a single long wire EF-SWL).
Some anecdotes: Right now I'm picking up WWV on 25 MHz at signal level S8 (with occasional dips to S6) with an SNR of around 16 dB. It's a nice clear signal given the 2 kW broadcast power from over 2500 miles away to my place in Florida. I think I only ever heard WWV on 25 MHz once or twice EVER from here with my portable shortwave receiver.
Depending on your antenna of course, you can expect to see/hear quite a lot with an SDRplay RSP. It is a serious, sensitive radio, and the audio quality (with SDRuno) is quite good (I was listening to FM stereo all day yesterday while working).
-Noel
That's hard to say with any certainty. Bands can open and close by the minute, and not every ham is on the air all the time.
You'd really have to swap receivers and see on which you can hear particular signals better with the same antenna to get a good feel for the RSP sensitivity. I did that with my Radio Shack DX-390 with my decent antenna and found the RSP pulled out signals clearly that the shortwave receiver had trouble with. There was more signal and less noise with the RSP.
Not long ago I did some comparisons with a ham friend. We were chatting via Skype, he at his place and me at mine, tuning the same signals at the same time. With my RSP1 I was able to hear all the HF signals he was - and then some. He's got a fair bit more effort into his antennas above his house than I do (I just have a single long wire EF-SWL).
Some anecdotes: Right now I'm picking up WWV on 25 MHz at signal level S8 (with occasional dips to S6) with an SNR of around 16 dB. It's a nice clear signal given the 2 kW broadcast power from over 2500 miles away to my place in Florida. I think I only ever heard WWV on 25 MHz once or twice EVER from here with my portable shortwave receiver.
Depending on your antenna of course, you can expect to see/hear quite a lot with an SDRplay RSP. It is a serious, sensitive radio, and the audio quality (with SDRuno) is quite good (I was listening to FM stereo all day yesterday while working).
-Noel