Shiny New SDRPlay from HRO

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kc2rgw
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 5:18 pm

Shiny New SDRPlay from HRO

Post by kc2rgw » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:51 pm

Just got my SDRPlay from HRO a few days ago.

I came from LP-PAN + soundcard, graduated to the QS1R a few years back which I used with a Dow-Key relay for TX/RX with an HF rig as transmitter.

I wanted to play on the upper frequencies and play with a broader array of software options so I started exploring what was going on in the RTL'sh world. I found the AirSpy and the SDRPlay RSP and I liked the idea of the built in filter banks in the RSP so I pulled the trigger.

The performance is a lot better than anticipated as I'm now restricted to an apartment with indoor antennas only. I've been using a telescoping Maldol whip directly attached, which is far from optimal but it is working unexpectedly well for stronger signal monitoring.

Lessons learned:

Windows 10 is doing funny things with regard to 'unsigned driver' issues. One system is totally fine, another I've had to disable the checks with bcedit to resolve the problems. I don't actually think it's an issue with the driver as it was working fine and suddenly post-Win10 updates, it broke on one of the systems only.

A quality USB cable is really key. I picked up a short and a long cable, both shielded/heavy with ferrites on each end and it drastically cleaned up the signals and improved reception. Using a 20' cable and placing the RSP as far from my pile of noise makers on my desk helped quite a lot.

It's a lot trickier trying to calibrate when one doesn't have long wires and a strong WWV signal as a frequency reference or a signal generator. I may need to source a reference as this terribly screws up UHF 6.25kHz scanning accuracy.

Feature Request:
Please please please change PPM to PPB for much finer grained adjustment, PPM is too coarse accepting whole numbers only.

Bang for the buck on this unit is outstanding.
Last edited by kc2rgw on Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am, edited 0 times in total.
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CaptainNemo
Posts: 146
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:22 pm
Location: Genoa - Italy

Re: Shiny New SDRPlay from HRO

Post by CaptainNemo » Thu Oct 01, 2015 4:47 pm

You can input up to 2 decimal in the "frequency trim".
I learned this in an other part of this forum.
Bye
Last edited by CaptainNemo on Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am, edited 0 times in total.
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