Many thanks to all the visitors to our stand at the UK Hamfest in Newark at the weekend. It was a great opportunity to preview our new nRSP-ST networked radio which is due to launch before Christmas.
More information will be added here as we get closer to the launch date.
Our thanks to Matt at Tech Minds for this introductory video based on the limited inofrmation available right now:
SDRplay is demonstrating a new product at the UK Hamfest today in newark, UK. It’s an all-in-one, plug-and-play networked receiver which will launch later in the year.
SDRplay Limited is announcing the imminent launch of the “nRSP-ST”, an All-in-one, Plug-and-play Networked SDR Receiver. The “nRSP-ST” is being demonstrated publicly for the first time at the UK National Hamfest in Newark today.
This exciting new product addresses the needs of radio enthusiasts who want a ‘plug-and-play’ solution for remote reception. As well as achieving this, we have addressed typical internet bandwidth limitations with the creation of a novel “IQ Lite” mode, which efficiently delivers channels of IQ data. We have also introduced the ability to control and store IQ recordings at the remote location. We think the nRSP-ST will be ideal for anyone wanting a wideband remote receiver without needing computer skills and hours of set-up time and ongoing maintenance at the remote location. We are very much looking forward to making the product available as soon as possible. We are aiming to launch the nRSP-ST in time for the holiday shopping season and aiming at a price of just under $500 USD before tax.
The nRSP-ST key features:
The press announcement can be found here
More information will be provided in the coming weeks: https://www.sdrplay.com/nrspst/
SDRconnect Preview 4 has been released featuring RDS decoding, Profiles and Timed Recordings. There’s also a new Raspberry Pi Server service option.
This video describes the new features and how to use them:
Here is the additional supporting video guide for the RDS decoder…..
and the new Raspberry Pi server service:
To see the full list of current SDRconnect features and to download Preview Version 4, go to: https://www.sdrplay.com/sdrconnect/
The priority for the next update is Rig Control and Module Support.
This month, SDRplay will be at Superfest in Milwaukee, USA (Sept 21,22) and at the UK National Hamfest in Newark, UK (Sept 27,28).
At Superfest, Steve, KI5ENW will be demonstrating SDRconnect and answering questions.
At Newark, the technical team will be there to run demonstrations and to answer questions. We very much enjoy meeting customers, old and new. If you are based in the UK, we hope to see you there.
This year, we’re first right and on the right, as you enter through the main entrance
More on the UK National Hamfest on: http://www.nationalhamfest.org.uk/
The September 2024 edition of the Radio Society of Great Britain’s monthly magazine RadCom features a review of the new RSPdx-R2 by Steve Nichols.
Steve gives the RSPdx-R2 a thorough testing across the spectrum and recommends it as an upgrade path for those with older models who want the best they can get.
RSGB members can enjoy their own copy of RadCom. We are pleased to make this review available here
To find out more about joining the RSGB (you don’t have to be a UK resident!) go to https://www.rsgbshop.org/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Join_the_RSGB_22.html
In this article aimed at newcomers to SDRs for shortwave radio listening, the RSP1B is reviewed – the author says “the RSP1B is so reasonably priced and so easy to use” – the article can be foun on page 16 (18) in the link below:
Steve, KI5ENW from SDRplay will be running demos and anwering questions at Huntsville Hamfest, Alabama this weekend – August 17th/18th.
SDRplay will be on the Ham Radio Outlet stand.
Summer greetings (to all in the northern hemisphere) – apologies for the slow news flow the last few weeks – due to a slow down on the marketing front with yours truly distracted by some family issues and vacation time but be assured work is continuing on the software front and we hope to have the next release of SDRconnect out very soon.
I was recently in France and had great fun accessing my home-based Raspberry Pi4 and RSPdx-R2 – I found I could use it for a much better receive signal than I could achieve with a relatively poor temporary antenna in the Dordogne. I actually had a couple of QSOs around Europe where my transmit signal was getting out on 20m yet my local ICOM 718 was unable to pull them from the noise. But the RSPdx-R2 in the UK was giving superb reception – obviously this is a mixture or propagation quirks as well as having remote access to a much better set-up. But it does add a new dimension to operating away from the home QTH.
New video added (August 19th):
For more on using SDRconnect remotely with a choice of server hardware, see the videos on: https://www.sdrplay.com/sdrconnectvideoguides/
Ham Radio 2024 at Friedrichshafen proved a great opportunity to gather customer feedback by chatting with a constant stream of visitors. SDRplay was there with demos of the lastest SDRconnect client and server software running on a number of platforms including Windows, Linux/Raspberry Pi and MacOS. Of special interest was our abilty to show the excellent LF performance of the new RSPdx-R2 by connecting remotely to one in the UK, and demonstrating how clearly NDB signals could be received.
At the show, we were guests of CJ Elektronik – Funk24 but I was also able to spend time with two of the other SDRplay resellers, Bonito and Funtechnik Dathe, on their stands.
Above: Windows , Raspberry Pi 4 and MacOS demos
Lots of people came up to me saying they already had at least one or two, some even more RSPs! Many people wanted to share their positive experiences of using SDRconnect and the new RSP1B which was very satisfying. Interestingly more than half of those who already had units had not yet tried SDRconnect, so this was a great opportunity to show it to them. There were also many people still enjoying SDRuno who came with their questions.
Here is a selection of the comments made to me: “What’s the difference between the RSPdx and the RSPdx-R2?”, “What’s the difference between the RSP1B and the original RSP/RSP1A? “, “I like the simplicity of SDRconnect compared to SDRuno”, “I want to use the RSP as a panadapter but I don’t have RX out on my transceiver – what do you recommend for a T/R switch”, “Oh yes, I use my RSP for Q100” (wanting our s/w to handle frequency offsets to represent signals above 2GHz), “Oh your software runs on Raspberry Pi?, great”, “When is rig control coming”, “I want brighter colours”, “The SDRconnect S-meter (green bar) is dim compared to SDRuno”, “I want RDS” or “I need RDS for FM DXing, especially the PI code”, “Will there be a DAB module soon?”, “I really want plugins/modules for 433MHz so I can decode weather station info/ car wheel tyre-gauge info/Tetra”, “I wish I could set and keep filter settings”, “Where is the server software?” (not realising it’s with the download ) and “When will there be plugins/modules for SDRconnect?” These are mostly things we have heard before and we hope to address the majority of them in the coming months with website improvements, updated video guides and/or software updates.
Above: l to r: Christian, Jon, Matthaus and Rike from Funk24
I also enjoyed meeting, (for the first time) Dino, from Hamradioshop.it, our Italian reseller and Salvador, from Astroradio, our Spanish reseller. I also met Manuel, from our Swedish reseller, Limmared, whom I’d met before. We really appreciate the hard work and dedication of our European reseller network. Other meetings which were very interesting included our friend Frank Werner Krippendorf who has done so much work on linux software for RSP users. He now works for https://aaronia.com/ whose customers sometimes need access to low cost hardware. I also met with Marcus Mueller, GNU radio architect who was very enthusiastic about RSPs as a serious hardware option for GNU radio users – we will work together to update the links and wording on the GNU radio tutorial site.
In summary, many thanks to everyone who came to say hello and for all the feedback and comments.
Above: Jon and Dennis from Bonito in front of their SDRconnect demo
Above: Jon and Daniel from Funtechnik-Dathe
Above: Jon with Dino from Hamradioshop.it
We’re getting ready for Ham Radio Friedrichshafen June 28-30 to support our resellers – you can find us on the Funk24.net Stand No. A1-240. Funk24 are kindly hosting us. We’ll be showing the latest SDRconnect software running on multiple platforms – both local and remote. Come and ask your questions about the latest RSP products and see what else is on offer from all our participating resellers which include our friends at Bonito and Funktechnik-Dathe. Bonito are on stand A1-630 and Funtechnik Dathe are on stand A1-840
I’m looking forward to meeting old friends and new customers 🙂
