Poor RX Signals on the RSP2

[MartySDR]

Folks, hi i have just received my RSP2 - however i am having issues on HF RX no matter what port i use. Currently i am using a sloping antenna with a balun. I only get strong signals. MF is fine. Any ideas? Cheers Marty

[Hörer]

Do you use SMA Adapters (beware of RP-SMA adapters as they don't have a center pin)?
What gain reduction setting do you use?
Tried also the High-Z port?

Maybe show us a screenshot of your spectrum/settings?

73, Sascha

[MartySDR]

Do you use SMA Adapters (beware of RP-SMA adapters as they don't have a center pin)?
What gain reduction setting do you use?
Tried also the High-Z port?

Maybe show us a screenshot of your spectrum/settings?

73, Sascha

Sascha hi

I have tried all of the SMA ports and the HI Z port.

I have tried the gain reduction at all levels - i do notice on MF that i get terrible images heard from strong MF stations on 80m etc.

Cheers

Martin

[Hörer]

What antenna and settings are you using then? I use some 23m endfed wire and have to reduce gain / increase gain reduction quite a lot in the evening.
Does SDRuno display an ADC overload when you receive the MF stations on 80m?

Screenshots of SDRuno/the software you're using incl. spectrum+settings could really help debugging your issue better. It's hard to guess blind
Ofc there could be always something wrong with your hardware - I'd just try to rule out the common issues before an RMA..

73, Sascha

[MartySDR]

Basically i have tried all three ports - the RSP 2 is very poor on rx, the images from MF are awful.

I have changed the gain settings with limited success. I thought that the HI Z port would have a made a difference.

I even messed around with the phase settings and could witness the images being massively attenuated, this suggests to me that SDR play should sell their SDRs with a calibration certificate.

So disappointed - seriously considering sending it back to ML&S - i have messed around with it too much already.

CHeers

Marty

[MarkHirst]

I've been happy so far with HF reception on my RSP2 Pro, especially having to tackle QRM in the area.

I've used a Wellbrook loop through the Hi-Z port and A terminal, the Hi-Z working best, and making sure the RF Gain reduction is at an appropriate level.

Mark

[g1hbe]

That all sounds very srange, Marty. I have an RSP2 and I find it really quite clean. There are images, but none of them is bad enough to cause a major issue and most of them can be easily moved out of the way by retuning. Don't forget that on both SMA ports you can switch in a MW(BC) rejection filter.
SDRPlay recommends the use of the Hi-z port for HF, and especially for LF.
I don't think you have mentioned which software you are using. I wonder do you live very close to a MW broadcast site? I have two close to me - one of them has 3 MW TX's in the 100KW range and the other is just two miles away with 3 TXs around the 1KW region. No massive problems.

I use my RSP2 with a Wellbrook loop on the Hi-z port and it is very good on VLF to 30 MHz. Above this the SMA ports work extremely well with my homebrew whips and yagis for VHF to 2 GHz.

[lauchlin]

Folks, hi i have just received my RSP2 - however i am having issues on HF RX no matter what port i use. Currently i am using a sloping antenna with a balun. I only get strong signals. MF is fine. Any ideas? Cheers Marty

Have you tried with out the balun ya never know and what kind of balun is it ?

[hfaero]

Folks, hi i have just received my RSP2 - however i am having issues on HF RX no matter what port i use. Currently i am using a sloping antenna with a balun. I only get strong signals. MF is fine. Any ideas? Cheers Marty

Hi Marty,

I bought an RSP2 just before Christmas and had a wire dipole erected on two supporting masts which worked very well with a number of receivers in the past. I had also bought a discone to take advantage of the RSP2 V/UHF range so I needed to 'recycle' the masts, one for the discone and one to support an inverted V dipole. All appeared to go well until I flashed up the RSP2 on HF, very weak signals but the broadcast band seemed OK. Switching antennas to the discone brought in airband loud and clear but I just thought HF was pretty useless.

I've spent a frustrating few days tweaking settings in SDRUno, checking cables, buying new cables and connectors for the run down from the dipole un-un to the shack but got no improvement at all. Desperately I dismounted the discone and reconfigured the masts to support the original dipole across the back garden to a state that I knew had worked well previously. HF was still very poor so before I sent the receiver back to SDRPlay I did the last thing I could think of, I broke open the un-un and found the SO-239 socket wiring had become disconnected. As a matter of point, I maintain my antennas regularly and had only recently checked the un-un so I thought it was still good enough to not warrant inspection.

So the moral of my experience, no matter what, check ALL components of your system.

With the un-un fixed, HF is back to where it was a couple of months ago and on par with my ex-loved Elad FDM-S2, Happy Camper!