About Jon

http://www.sdrplay.com

Posts by Jon Hudson:

SDRuno Version 1.33 Released

We are pleased to announce the release of v1.33 of SDRuno. As well as adding many improvements and fixes, the purpose of this release is to add support for the new RSPdx.

A full list of changes can be found in the release notes, which are available here: https://sdrplay.com/docs/SDRplay_SDRuno_Release_Notes.pdf
To download this update, go to https://sdrplay.com/sdruno/  –  scroll down and click on “Download the latest version”

For anyone who experiences problems or difficulties, we recommend that you open up a support ticket at https://sdrplay.com/supportFor other comments and feedback, please simply email us at feedback@sdrplay.com. Please note that we do not usually respond to emails sent to feedback unless we have questions, but any observations are always noted.

SDRplay RSPdx put to the test for Longwave DXing

Many thanks to Mile Kokotov in Macedonia who posted this excellent demonstration video showing the power of the new RSPdx  for long wave DXing.  (You can visit Mile’s popular YouTube channel here)

Over on the Independent SDRplay Facebook group, he posted the following article:

“Amateur Radio is an interesting hobby with many different areas in which every radio tech lover can find himself and enjoy.

In addition to the already known amateur radio disciplines, many hams around the world are interested in the so-called “Broadcast DX-ing”.

They use radio receivers to “hunt” distant commercial radio stations on long waves (LW), medium waves (MW), short waves (HF) and very short waves (VHF).

In this video I will show you the “hunting” of long distance commercial radio stations on Long Waves (LW).

Every radio amateur knows that the reception of low frequencies (long wavelengths) is a particularly big challenge because there are a number of RF interference, atmospheric interference and industrial interference (man made RF-noise).

If anyone doesn’t believe it, he can try to catch some of these radio stations that I recorded on this video. Although their signals are relatively strong, try it out, and you’ll find that reception is not simplistic at all, even if you have a large external antenna and a modern radio receiver.

In this video I am using the newest model of SDR receiver from SDRplay (RSPdx model), and the antenna is home-made active mini-whip antenna with two transistors, mounted on a 6-meter high telescopic plastic mast.

The software is SDRuno from the same company, which together with the aforementioned SDR receiver make a real miracle for receiving in frequency range from 1 kHz up to 2000 MHz.

The large number of DSP plus HDR features and predefined filters, which can be manually adjusted to the specific reception conditions, allow high quality reception of distant radio signals that will impress even the most demanding DX-ers.

Watch the video and see for yourself. 73!”

SDRplay on the road – Philippines, London and Dortmund

This Saturday November 23rd, Marcelino Cabrera from SDR RF Radio Parts & Accessories, will be at the 87th Anniversary of the Philippines Amateur Radio Association, demonstrating SDRplay  – they are setting up to become an authorised SDRplay reseller in the Philippines.

We were unable to provide them with the new RSPdx in time for the event, but wish them every success for the future.

Last Sunday Andy, Carol and Jon took the RSPdx on the road for the first time here in the UK when we were at the combined Nevada and Waters and Stanton open day in Portsmouth:

I had the opportunity to chat with Peter Waters about the new RSPdx in this video they put out after the show:  https://youtu.be/9p6bNGfaHok

Next Saturday 30th November,  Andy and Jon will be at Martin Lynch and Sons, where once again Martin & his merry band put on the biggest Hog Roast Ham Radio event for customers at their Staines upon Thames HQ – Bacon butties for early arrivals, (the doors open at 8am) with the Hog Roast available around midday.  As well as checking out the newly announced RSPdx, this is a great opportunity to give feedback to SDRplay if you already have an RSP, and to learn about the new capabilities of SDRuno which have been added in the last year (e.g. Diversity tuning for dual tuner RSPduo, the fully integrated scanning function).  For those of you suffering from Broadband VDSL interference, come and see just how good the wideband noise blanker is at pulling signals from the noise!

November 27th update: We are pleased to confirm that Dennis from Bonito  will be demonstrating the new RSPdx at the Dortmund Amateur Radio Market also on Saturday 30th November – Westfalen Halle: https://www.facebook.com/events/2505008469722480/

SWLing Post reviews the new SDRplay RSPdx

Over on the SWLing Post Blog, Thomas Witherspoon has published a detailed review of the RSPdx in action up against several far more expensive SDRs.

Thomas summarises by saying  “The RSPdx is now in the league of some of the finest HF receivers in my arsenal.”

You can read his full review here

 

 

RSPdx – update on availability

New update, 26th November: https://sdrplay.com/update-on-rspdx-availability/

Meanwhile,  Clint from the Oxford Shortwave Log YouTube channel has posted four more videos showing the benefits of HDR mode on the RSPdx – In all cases, the first half of the recording is with the new HDR mode engaged, the second half with it off. You get tell the switch-over point from the appearance of the LO frequency with HDR off.

This fourth video  of a longwave signal – from Nador, Morocco on 171 kHz, is probably the best example thus far of how the reception of weak signals can be enhanced through the use of HDR mode. In this recording, the audio from Nador is quiet, but clear. Once HDR mode is toggled off, the audio basically disappears.  Clint encourages you to add comments to hid videos.

Oxford Shortwave tests out the SDRplay RSPdx

As we get closer to being able to ship the first RSPdx production units, YouTuber Clint from “Oxford Shortwave”  tries out this latest addition to the SDRplay family of RSPs.

Clint spends much of the year travelling the world and uses the opportunity to hunt Medium wave DX signals. He also writes articles for magazines  including Radio User here in the UK.

Take a look at these recordings he made from here in the UK:

 

November RSPdx demos in the UK at Nevada, Waters and Stanton and ML&S

Here in the UK, this Sunday 18th November, Andy, Carol and Jon from SDRplay will be demonstrating the new RSPdx in Portsmouth where SDRplay resellers Nevada, in partnership with Waters & Stanton, are having their first ever, combined open day,  from 10am to 4pm.

Then 2 weeks later, on Saturday 30th November,  Andy and Jon will be at Martin Lynch and Sons, where once again Martin & his merry band put on the biggest Hog Roast Ham Radio event for customers at their Staines upon Thames HQ – Bacon butties for early arrivals, (the doors open at 8am) with the Hog Roast available around midday.

 

As well as checking out the newly announced RSPdx (available late November), these are great opportunities to give feedback to SDRplay if you already have an RSP, and to learn about the new capabilities of SDRuno which have been added in the last year (e.g. Diversity tuning for dual tuner RSPduo, the fully integrated scanning function).  For those of you suffering from Broadband VDSL interference, come and see just how amazing the wideband noise blanker is at pulling signals from the noise!

YouTuber 741 introduces the RSPdx and shows it in action

Over on Youtube, Rob aka “SevenFortyOne” has released a very nice video talking through some of the features of the RSPdx which will be on sale later in November 2019. He includes some demonstrations of it in action, picking up some longwave broadcast stations from across the Atlantic:

 

The new SDRplay RSPdx receiver – First Impression: Excellent!

Youtuber Mile, Z33T has one of the few advanced samples of the new RSP2pro replacement – the RSPdx which will begin shipping later in November 2019.

He writes “Today I have received the new SDR receiver from SDRplay: the RSPdx,  and was eager to turn it on and do some tests receiving on HF and VLF. Although at the moment my mini-whip antenna is not operational, I have connected some 20 meters wire as an antenna and start listening on VLF, LW, MW and HF… I have to say that SDRplay team did a good job with this SDR-receiver, putting better filters and redesigning front-end to improve dynamic range and enhance overall performance in relation to its predecessors RSP2 and RSP2pro. The new RSPdx is very good indeed. Especially on HF and below.”

NN4F compares RSPdx LF performance with other SDRs

Over on the SDRplay forum, Paul NN4F shares his results where he compares the LF (Longwave) performance of the RSPdx with a number of  popular SDRs.

He writes:

“Ok as some of you may know, I started the facebook group for SDRPlay as an unofficial group, then I started working for ELAD, but I continued to be a tester for SDRPlay, over the past few years, I’ve managed to gather a small collection of SDR’s , all the SDRPlay Range from the 1 to the latest RSPdx, and obviously all the ELAD Radios, well I do work for them… 🙂 and a few more, including the revered Perseus.

Last night the LW signals work amazing here, so I decided to do a comparison test, trying not to be biased towards Elad, but they are in a different price range, the next step up from SDRPlay SDR’s My Location is just outside of Charleston, SC in the USA, and the target station was Medi1 out of Morocco on 171kHz

All signals just above the noise floor,

Perseus Just about see the signal, audio is just about readable,

Airspy HF+ barely see the signal, can tell audio is there but can’t make it out.

LimeSDR hmmm joke waste of my money

Elad S2 just about hear and see the station, readable

RSP1 Nothing

RSP1a just about hear and see, just about readable almost as good as the Perseus

RSPDuo Similar to RSP1a

RSP2Pro worse than 1a to be expected I guess

RSPdx good signal and almost perfectly readable

Elad S3 just a wee tad better than the RSPdx, clear audio ($800 more)

Elad DuoR using SW2 about on par with RSPdx ($700 more)

Using 120ft longwire via a 9:1 grounded, couldn’t compare S3 in Uno as extio’s are not available yet (Radio isn’t publicly available yet)…all tested at about 500khz Bandwidth or as close to. I do have better antennas but this was the setup at the time

RSPdx was in HDR mode LW button, then improved signal by using LIF 1.536mhz at 16 decimation 200khz and it was that was closest to Elad-S3 and better than the RSPDuo

All with noise floor around s5, signal showing around s6-8

So in order of best to worst

Elad-S3, RSPdx, Elad DuoR, Elad-S2(add-on filters not used), Perseus, (RSP1a, RSPDuo Both about same) Elad-S1, Airspy HF+, RSP1, LimeSDR

This isn’t a LAB grade test, it was made using the MK1 Brain, Eyes and Ears, We could go into details, but whats 0.1 of a dB between friends…..and if you can’t hear the station, what’s the point of all the noise figures…

Pic is the RSPdx using latest 1.33 SDRUno using HDR mode on Antenna C”

 

 

 

 

Load More

Translate »